Making It Hot for Winter

As even Padua gets its dose of snow and the Christmas season rolls in, I have decided to combat the cold and make some super HOT pepper spread.

From this summer's batch of plants that thrived on my very hot southern-exposure terrace, I harvested the little red peppers and made crema di peperoncino.

Plucked plants - peppers - kitchen supplies to get started

It will keep me warm as the winter progresses. Just a dab of this stuff and your mouth is aflame! Red pepper,  garlic and salt smeared on bread. Simple. Effective. Great.

Peperoncini which also provide the perfect colors of Christmas

The finished and jarred spread of... edible fire!

Just how much piccante can you stand?

As for me - a lot.

Bring it on!

Just Before the Snow

This was dawn before our second snow of the season. 

The orange cast made interesting lines in the landscape before everything turned gray and white again.

Smile! Cheese!

CHEESE!

What even Italians can muster this exclamation when shooting a photograph of friends. They learned that somewhere along the line in their English lessons and/or movie listening.

But here we want to salivate in front of this marvelous cheese window in the Salone market area in Palazzo della Ragione in the center of Padua. Just look at those great big hunks of formaggio. I can assure you that they taste even better than they look. When I buy from this shop, cheese becomes an experience. What you find in the supermarket just isn't the same.

Presidential Cheer even in Italy

Upon the news that Barack Obama won a second term as President of the United States, Italy started overflowing with joy and relief. I was stopped by several colleagues yesterday, asking about my opinion and sharing their own about the outcome. Text messages arrived on my cell phone. The TV was ablaze with news. The Italians really follow our election campaigns, especially in the last few months.

In the few days leading up to the big US vote, I had to do my usual explanation about the electoral college vote. Honestly, I never understood the system myself until I started living abroad and had to explain it to others. Funny how that goes.

There are several voting differences between USA and Italy:

1) In Italy, they can vote for a party, but cannot directly vote for the specific candidate representing that party.

2) They only recently introduced the "primaries" and it is currently being performed by just one party: Partito Democratico. And anybody can vote for in that primary election - including people who would be "registered" as voters of a different party, if that were required in voting registration (which it is not).

3) There is no absentee ballot if you live in Italy. If you are registered in Calabria but working in Milan, too bad. You need to get your butt down to Calabria if you want to vote.

4) Referendums are performed as separate votes on different days from general elections. It can cause a hassle to get to your home town to vote, since you do not have an absentee option. It is also a considerable expense to organize the voting centers so every time they are opened, for elections or referendums, it comes at extra cost to the nation.

5) You vote here on Sunday and Monday

6) The vote is a popular vote.

Gondola Ride Kit: Instructions for a Heightened Experience

I'd like to introduce you to my little-but-powerful artist's book called Gondola Ride Kit: Instructions for a Heightened Experience. It's an ironic guide for living one of Venice's quintessential experiences: the gondola ride. There's a map, instructions and a trouble shooting guide at the end as I take you through the lagoon city in a whole new way. To start, I recommend the experience during the winter months of November to February, not your typical touristic season in the lagoon city.

Some the sections are dedicated to the five senses. You must concentrate on each one as you ride along in the gondola.

Canal Grande, original illustration by artist

Route taken by artist and recommended departure site to find your gondolier. 

For those who have read Dante Alighieri's Inferno, there is Experience B with references to Virgil and Minos, among others.

It's a guide. It's a book. It's art.
Enjoy this fabulous and unique read! Get your own copy. Buy one for a friend for Christmas! It will make for  an amazing gift for anyone leaving for Venice this winter. It can also be considered a special memento or just lets you dream about Venice with a new point-of-view. Not to mention that this little book is part of major public collections like Tate Gallery. You'll have a piece of art that is the "stuff" of museums.

This is the first time I have directly written about a piece of my art on this blog. I feel it is the right time and very relevant to your interests in Italy and my neighboring city of Venice, where I used to live. This artist's book is on sale for a great small price via Internet now. For more information, please go to my ETSY shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/irenewoodburyworks

Thank you for supporting me as an artist and spreading the word about Gondola Ride Kit.

Let me know what you think once you've gone for your own ride with manual in-hand.

Handmade Scaffolding Cover

The people in Agordo, a town near Belluno, decided to approach the current idea of imagery on their scaffolding cover in the most artigianale of ways. Instead of using a sponsor's image to print over the entire surface of the facade area being restored, as is often done in big cities like Venice these days, or printing a photographic replica of what the facade normally looks like to place on the covering, someone got some paint and brushes and did their painterly and naif version of the original facade. I find this completely adorable. You can find this scaffolding painting across from the church in the center of town.

For some images of what the photo slick versions usually look like:

The recently restored Bridge of Sighs, Venice, with the sponsor Bulgari on display

Photo credit: flickr name: travellerlisa

For a picture reference of a Paduan version of a scaffolding cover, go to my post. 

At least Padua in 2009 advertised the City of Hope, part of the Padua Hospital system. It a hospital program for kids with physical problems.

Ingenious Suburban Italian Gardening

Such a terrific solution to this gardener's dilemma: how to grow squash in a relatively small space. Just use your fence to let the vine grow vertically. And when the squash gets big and heavy, seat it on its own custom-made wooden shelf attached to the fence and hovering over the sidewalk. In no time, you'll have some great chow for some autumn risotto di zucca.

I am very proud of my neighbor's ingenuity.

For a recipe for Pumpkin risotto, click here.