Window shopping in Italy. Путешествие по витринам Италии.

Друзья! Здравствуйте! Сегодняшняя статья будет очень необычной по нескольким причинам. Во-первых, я всегда пишу все на свежие мысли, отдохнувший организм и бодрое состояние духа! Сегодня же я начинаю писать эту статью в 2 ночи, обессиленная, чуть живая. Кроме того, утром у меня поезд, а потом еще самолет…но не ищу я легких путей! Я тут вспомнила, что обещала подруге-дизайнеру, что поделюсь с ней фотографиями европейских витрин в канун Рождества и Нового 2017 года (я в то время была в Италии).

И тут я вдруг поняла, что вряд ли у меня будет возможность сделать это позже, поэтому решила не откладывать на завтра то, что нужно, просто необходимо сделать сегодня. НО так как я все-таки хочу поспать хотя бы часок-другой, текста будет минимум и в этот раз английский и русский я напечатаю вместе. Приношу извинения за предоставленные неудобства!

Dear Friends! Hello! This post will be very unusual for several reasons. First of all, I always try to write my articles when I am in mood, rested and have a spirited state of mind! Today (or rather tonight) I begin to write this article at 2am: I am exhausted, hardly alive. In addition to that I have a train in the morning , and then a plane to fly with… but of course I’m not looking for easy ways! I remembered that I had promised my friend (who is a wonderful designer) that I would share with her pictures of European shop windows on the eve of Christmas and New Year 2017 (at that time I was in Italy). And I realized that it is unlikely that I will have the opportunity to do this later, so I decided not to postpone this important thing. BUT, since I still want to sleep for at least an hour or two, the text will be at a minimum and this time I will write in English and Russian together. I apologize for the inconvenience!

Верона. Если мне не изменяет память, это был ресторан. Verona. If I am not mistaken it was a restaurant.

Все в той же прекрасной Вероне. Мне понравилось столь живописное решение витрины. It’s still beautiful Verona. I like such a picturesque display version.

Необычный арт-объект в виде большого количества очков. Here you can see an unusual art object in the form of a large number of glasses.

Немного атмосферы праздника! A bit of celebration atmosphere 🙂 

Для меня бутик мороженого “Магнум” во Флоренции стал культурным шоком. На витрине ювелирное мороженое, внутри все как в ресторане, и сам герой-десерт стоит 4,5 евро, если я не ошибаюсь (около 300 руб за штучку).

Magnum store in Florence has become a cultural shock for a Siberian girl (I mean myself). There was a jewelry ice cream in the window. The store itself looked like a restaurant and if I’m not mistaken the ice cream cost 4.5 euros.

Сальваторе Феррагамо. Salvatore Ferragamo. 

Надпись на одном из зданий Флоренции. Вокруг нее было много туристов с фотокамерами. В том числе и я. В переводе на русский: “Луи Вуиттон не спасет твою душу. Сантини”.

It was written on one of the buildings in Florence. There were tourists taking pictures of it and so did I. 

Отметила этот логотип, так как на нем изображена геральдическая лилия (=королевская лилия, = флёр де лис) – символ итальянской Флоренции. Цветок трансформируется в корабль. Компания занимается транспортными перевозками.

I found this logo being very interesting and creative as it has fleur-de-lis in it (which is called giglio and mainly known as the crest of the city of Florence). The flower is transforming into a ship. 

Открытки во Флоренции. Some cards for selling in Florence. 

Хотелось бы примерить такую юбочку. I would love to try this skirt! 

А это мне напомнило о моей невестке (жене брата). Кто немного знает мою семью, поймет о чем я. And this reminded me of my sister-in-law. If you know a bit about my family you’ll probably understand what I mean by saying this. 

Это, конечно, не витрина магазина. Но просто меня порадовало название моей любимой хурмы на итальянском: Каки))) и за что они так столь вкусный фрукт! I suppose only Russian speaker will understand why I shared this photo here. Otherwise it makes no sence. 

Это мой фаворит в плане креативности. Сеть магазинов с едой высокого качества и таких же цен называется “Eataly” что читается также как “Italy”, где слово “eat” означает “есть, кушать, съедать”.

I just loved this creative name of the food-shop chain! Eataly – well done! 

Сказка от Тиффани. Here is a fairy tale from Tiffany & Co. 

Модный дом Валентино просто поражает своим сиянием в канун Рождественских праздников (РИМ). Valentino’s fashion house simply amazes with its shining walls on the eve of Christmas holidays (ROME).

А это фото из интернета. This photo was taken from the internet.

В Риме очередь за Пандорой побольше, чем очередь за джелато или свежеиспеченным хлебом))). The queue for Pandora is bigger in Rome than the one for gelato in the capital)). 

Dolce & Gabanna (Rome)

А это оригинальная надпись на толстовке, пародирующая фразу “I wish you were HERE” (Я бы хотел (а), чтобы ты была (был) здесь”. На кофте написано “Я бы хотел (а), чтобы ты был (а) пивом”. По-моему, это было в городе Варезе, куда я ездила на денек.

Love this creative idea! I think it was a shop in Varese. 

Не повезло Томе. I wonder what is Toma since we have such a name in Russia. 

Запрещенка))) Forbidden!)) 

Милан. Туфли из шоколада. Milan. These shoes are chocolate ones!

Бергамо. Bergamo.

Бутик с очень необычными ободками. Бергамо. It was a shop with extraordinary hair band in Bergamo. 

Муранское стекло в Венеции. Venice, Murano glass. 

Пожалуй, на этом все, мои милые. Я устала. Я ухожу…спать))) уже скоро 4 утра. Я очень рада, что все-таки нашла в себе силы выложить эти фотографии. Всем сладких снов или плодотворного дня (в зависимости от того, в какой точке планеты вы сейчас находитесь). Обнимаю!

Perhaps that’s all, my dear. I’m exhausted right now. I’m leaving … for sleeping))) it’s about 4 am here. I’m very glad that I have found the strength to share these photos. I wish you all sweet dreams or a fruitful working day (depending on where in the world you are at). A big hug!

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year celebrated with an Italian family in Rome!

Finally it happened! 2017 year has come! We should mark it as it happens only once in a year (talking about the feast). That is actually why I am writing now my dear friends …

(My Rooster which I drew in 2014. The symbol of this year!)

I celebrated it with some close friends, and I must say they were not close friends of mine but others. As you probably all know I am continuing to broadcast from Rome and so I welcomed 2017 in this fantastic city.  I was a little bit mistaken with the situation here, in the family. The thing is that my Italian family seemed to have an absolutely ordinary day, I couldn’t notice anything special in the morning and afternoon, not even they cooked smth extraordinary for the party which surprised me a lot (we do it in a very different way in Russia!). When I participated the process of cooking potatoes with prosciutto and onions, I decided that it was for lunch, and it turned out to be for dinner. Thus I summed up: cooking equaled to almost zero, it was some kind of complete apathy and a feeling of Groundhog day. I even (just in case) asked whether they were going to change, as I was planning to wear a dress. Around 8pm I walked out of my “den”. I was a proper Cinderella in a dress, with my makeup on, even brushed my hair for such an occasion (well I actually spent around 30 minutes to do something great, but I failed and I just brushed them, it was better than nothing))). And the whole family was beautifully-dressed, even the table gave me a festive mood, although there was not a large range of food presented by the time (mostly snacks, olives, bread and fruits. And of course there were plastic utensils). This time it was even more surprising (compare to Christmas day): the glasses were named. I mean there was a name of the guest written on each glass. Later I realized that it was a brilliant idea as I knew only half of the guests. Accordingly, when speaking with a person I could just read his/her name on the cup. Elementary, my dear Watson!

And also I had fun seeing my name on the cup. In England I was Natasha, my name was written as Natacha in France (also Chanel is spelled with a Ch because it’s French language). And now I am getting used to “Natascia” here, in Italy. I think it is the most unusual spelling for me so far.

So I am returning to the story. As I said before I expected the lack of celebration (observing the morning), and what a surprise it was when the guests started to arrive bringing some food-masterpieces with them! From the moment I could not think about anything but Italian food – alluring and addictive.

Meeting and introducing was happening pretty much the same way as in the past times with the words “this is Natasha. She’s from Siberia!” It looks like sometimes it was the main thing to say that I was from Siberia (and then everyone could know my name after they knew where I was from, haha). I think this experience illustrated to me that I could have been a good exhibit in the zoo (just kidding). But being serious it was nice how people reacted even though I was asked about the cold for the 1000000th time, about how can we survive at such weather, what clothes we have and that they (the Italians) won’t be able to survive in -30C. One lady asked me how many hours it took me to fly from Omsk to Rome and then I started rebooting. First of all because she asked me in Italian and therefore I had to answer in the language of Dante too (here Shakespeare would be quite sad as I was currently using his language much less at the party). In addition to that I was trying to remember the last time I was in Omsk and all of my flights between Omsk and Rome…well, I could not answer the question and just changed the subject)))

Also I had a lovely conversation with an Italian man called Carlo. It turned out that his daughter had recently studied at Royal Holloway University of London and I was also a student of this great university, though a few years ago. In any case it was something to discuss, something to talk about and he (the man) was very interested about my lifestyle, constant travel, movement. During our conversation a lady came and asked me different questions (such as how I have embarked on a journey around the world, if I ever miss my family and so on).

(Could not resist of using this chance and posting again the photo of my previous uni. I just loved it! Though I must say that Westminster University is much closer to me and my soul as I spent more time there)

Also there was a woman in our team (again an Italian one), that used to learn Russian language many years ago and so she remembered some words and phrases. She asked me to teach her the phrase “Happy New Year” in my mother-tongue and then she was going from guest to guest and saying, “Schastlivava Novava Goda!” I believe nobody understood her but she did it in such a lovely way, sincerely that it was a great joy to watch, and it was certainly such happiness for me observing how a big Italian group of people hear greetings in Russian language. Can’t describe how much delighted I was about that! And the lady herself was awesome!

Also there was an Englishman (45-50 years) among us and he was immediately distinguished from the crowd by his outfit, behavior, and most importantly, his wonderful pronunciation of English language. Of course we had some lovely conversation with him such as about my volunteering and the Olympics, trainings, London, studying there and much more…

I want to tell a little bit about the food and some Italian traditions connecting to the New year celebration. At first we were offered (as I said earlier) olives of different varieties, very tasty bread (also with dried olives inside), salami, insanely tasty cheese (I was told it was mascarpone but in my opinion it was another one). In any case, it’s just a heavenly delight. Although there was some kind of disadvantage in the cheese – it disappeared quickly. And there was also some special pate (delicious too. As one of the guests described it “try it, it’s like Nutella but made out of meat. It will be difficult to stop eating then”). Also on the table was a type of cracker.

And we drunk water (in the case of children) and Aperol Spritz for adults. It’s undoubtedly the most widespread and commonly drink aperitif in Italy which consists of Prosecco wine, Aperol and Soda Water. (Look at the photo).

Then we were offered… (how do you think what?) – of course it was PASTA! It’s like water here, in Italy! I think there is not a day without Pasta! Although, as one of the guests told me she ate this Italian dish every single day but when she went on holidays abroad she never consumed Italian food and lived quietly without any pasta at all. As she explained to me she did it for two reasons: in order to better understand the people, the place where she travels to (while trying the local cuisine). And secondly, there is no place where people can cook pasta the way Italians do. Oh, I hope I will learn this highly professional skill by the end of my experience. The NY-pasta was served with potatoes and prosciutto that I cooked in the morning.

The following dish was Polenta that I have never even heard of! And it was made by a man (if I am not mistaken Carlo was his name). Polenta looked very similar to lasagna, so after tasting it I was very disappointed (because it wasn’t lasagna, haha). The ingredients are: corn grits (it is the largest part of the dish), topped with tomato paste and grated cheese). In any case, I was happy to discover a new dish.

Afterwards we had an amazing turkey stuffed with chestnuts and baked potatoes, all sprinkled with a wonderful sauce. Thus, I can say that they found the way into my heart, which laid through the stomach obviously.

(It may not look so delicious as I took this photo before the turkey was served properly and brought to the table but believe me it was just so great!)

At the same time a large glass container with a salad was brought. I took it happily (especially when I saw pieces of green apple, walnut and something else there), but you should have seen my face when I realized that I was chewing celery! I just don’t like…to finish the salad now – that was a challenge!

Forgot to say that I was stirring something in a frying pan (31^st morning) and could not understand what it was! As I knew later it was cleaned “baby” onions, white and pretty, packed in hermitical packaging and I would never have guessed it was onion. So while stirring it I kept thinking : “so maybe it’s garlic – no way! Mushrooms? Nooo. And  maybe it’s some kind of cheese? But then what is the point to fry it?” So I laughed at myself when the sweet fried onion was brought on a plate to our festive table.

(The onions I was just talking about and also here you can see a big saucepan with the water boiling for pasta, just so you know how much they cooked! Well, there were a good number of people also).

During this fantastic dinner I was also forced to drink some wine with the words: “Natasha if you want to know Italian people you have to try it and especially this wine!”. Eh, it was hard to be me)))

Around midnight our lovely hostess of the event brought Panettone (with chocolate and orange inside which was already familiar to me); also she brought a bar of chocolate with nuts.

Meanwhile there was a concert on the big TV screen, but we used it just as a background, without any sound and there was a countdown till the New Year.

When mister 2017 got very closed, all gathered in the room counting out loud: “Dieci, Nove, Otto, Sette, Sei…” (it was very cool to count in Italian in such a great team. Obviously I felt being outside home and Russia, everything was extraordinary and it was like a different world for me and these feelings always make me truly happy). When “the chimes struck” midnight one of the Italians opened the champagne, we filled our disposable red cups and everyone went around the room for a cheek kiss and said “Buon Anno! Tanti Auguri!” I loved it a lot as I had never done any New year this way before. And of course I was very pleased that I was treated not as an outsider but a member of the family. What else one can wish for happiness!

This is how I started 2017 year and I was over the moon! The only thing that disappointed me was that I was so busy with all this uniqueness, Italian traditions and joy that had completely forgotten to make a wish, but I suppose I can do it in a different day and time.

Afterwards they brought an interesting dish: lentils with cotechino (pork sausage) .

I found the information which says that it is necessary to eat it until midnight but I think we ate it already on the 1^st of January. Anyway there is a tradition to cook and eat this dish just once a year, at New Year’s Eve and it supposed to bring good luck and money. I’ll remember it very well because I was eating it with a spoon and then I noticed that our Englishman used his hands for that. He said that the real tradition of eating lies in the hands (if I can say like that), lentils associated with coins (money) therefore the man takes the coins with his hands. One of the Italians was surprised; he said that this was nonsense. Then the three of us (myself, an Englishman and an Italian) went to search the truth, walked around and asked everyone what he/she thought about it. The votes were divided: some supported the point and said it was absolute truth, while others heard about it for the first time in their lives. In any case, I decided to join and ate a small portion of the dish with my hands.

And I want to tell you another thing that I was very pleased or rather happy with. During the celebration we had a very energetic dance music and most of the guests did not hesitate, danced, splashed out emotions and at the same time we all lost the calories we had eaten. It was great music, great team, great dancing – what a wonderful moment of happiness!

To sum up I welcomed 2017 in a really magical way or maybe it was an ordinary day and night but I chose to feel the magic in the air. I’ll be always thankful for my Romanian family for that!

Christmas celebrated with an Italian family in Rome!

Hello my dear friends!

As I wrote earlier I am in Italy again (more precisely in Rome) and I would very much like to tell you about my 2-days stay in Verona and 2-days stay in Florence. It’s worth it and besides, I have some photos of different architectures, views of cities, shops decoration and so on. But I should postpone everything and in the meantime I would like to tell you about my first Christmas celebrated in Europe, in an Italian family.

My family (where I am currently living) has started Christmas preparation the day before the event (gifts they bought much earlier, of course), but began to prepare the food one day before. I am talking about lasagna of two types (meat one and a vegetarian option) as well as something like a vegetable pizza-pie. And on the 24^th of December we took all the gifts and left the house. The trip was very long, 3 meters long as we actually went into the next-door apartment where the sister of my hostmother lived. While being here, in this family, I clearly realized how convenient it is when relatives live in the neighborhood. Although, perhaps there are also disadvantages in such a situation.

I really liked the apartment: it was big, spacious, decorated in Christmas European style. The one thing I didn’t really enjoy. I am talking about the floor which was marble or tile (I am not sure as I am not good at this kind of thing), but it was very cold and therefore everyone was wearing street shoes inside the flat. Specially for this evening I changed my tradition and mentality and also wore my boots because health is really important for me.

I was very worried how I would feel in a large Italian family where I knew less than a half of guests and where I was the only person outside the family and, most importantly, the only foreigner there. But the evening was magical! First of all, everyone was really friendly, open and welcoming. All the guests were trying to talk to me, to help me with my Italian, to make me feel a part of the family. It was very nice of them. And very often I heard “Che carina questa ragazza russa”, which meant “How nice this Russian girl is” which was also very kind of them. Of course, majority of people asked me a question about Siberia, about my city (Omsk) and, most importantly about the weather, thinking that Russia is the coldest place on Earth.

(c) the picture was taken from the internet, luxfon site.

The dinner started with some snacks as one of the family members brought different types of canapés with mozzarella, smoked sausage, soft cheese with spices, jam, bread, olives, sausage…As I was told Italians eat only fish on Christmas according to their tradition, there is no meat on the table. Thus these canapés was kind of a deviation from the tradition, for those who wanted meat. And I must say that almost everyone chose to participate this little meat-festival until they (the canapés) ended. That’s what I also did. We were also offered different sandwiches with salmon and something else (but I only ate the salmon one). And we drank a bit of alcohol though I am not sure about the name of it.

Then all exchanged their Christmas gifts which were under the tree. They actively tore beautiful packages with bows and ribbons. And subsequently followed to the table being in this happy mood of received presents.

At first we were offered lasagna (meat and vegetarian), pasta Bolognese and a pie. Surprisingly the main drink was water there. It seemed for me that the food was enough, but it was just a start. Then we were served with meatloaf, salmon, vegetable salad, stewed zucchini, something baked with the cheese and even a plate of Russian salad! Yes, it is actually called insalata russa! I decided that it was prepared specifically for me, but as it turned out, the salad was pretty popular in the country (maybe they eat it every Christmas, I am not sure). In any case, it was very nice, although it’s still a bit different from our traditional one and therefore tasted a bit strange for me.

There were few generations and the table was divided into few parts (some people talked in pairs, some were shouting, sitting in different corners of the table, while others talked sitting in threes), therefore sometimes it was hard to understand whom to listen, whom to answer, what to focus on.

At the end of this special Christmas dinner they brought a dessert. Traditional Christmas dessert is Panettone (a light Italian sweet bread loaf with candied fruit baked for Christmas).

(Didn’t find a chance to take a photo while being there so took it from the internet in order to show you how it looks like).

Pandoro was also there (it was much harder to find information about this cake, as I misspelled it and the internet immediately showed results for the jewelry products of Pandora). In fact I really liked both desserts, but as I was told Pandoro was a typical cake of Verona (and with a large amount of butter used in it), and Panettone was a Milanese cake.

We also tasted marzipan fruits (or as they called “Frutta martorana”). As I was the only foreigner there the big family decided to explain me what it was, where it came from and I was even given the first piece to try it. Later I told them that I spent all my summer in Sicily, I tried those famous Sicilian sweets and besides, I heard the story (legend) about the fruits no less than 10 times from our guide in the hotel. They took their origin at the Monastero della Martorana (which is in Palermo) when nuns decorated empty fruit trees with marzipan fruit to impress an archbishop visiting at Easter.

(this photo was also taken from the internet)

It seemed to me very surprising that the dessert was served without tea or coffee, just water. Although I love water and was glad about it, but remembering our Russian traditions I felt there was missing something and that the host just forgot to offer a cup of tea.

And despite the beautiful table in red colour-theme with the pictures of traditional Christmas flowers (poinsettia), we ate and drank from the plastic plates and glasses that was also quite unexpected, though it was very logical considering the number of guests and the age of the hosts (it was a lovely Italian couple of 70 years old both that hosted us).

Around 11pm everyone stopped eating and after 5-10 minutes of cleaning and tiding up the table they started to prepare for some cart-games. As about cleaning the table: it was my first time when I saw a small vacuum cleaner to clean tablecloths, it collected the crumbs from the table very conveniently. I was impressed! Everyday it happens to me – I am discovering a new technique. It’s funny that I have traveled a lot but sometimes it feels like I just came from a village.

We went home after 11pm. As I already said the way was too long: more than 3 meters if being exact! What’s more we needed to open the door with the key! It was such an incredible effort we all made))). My Italian family told me that playing cards was also a kind of Christmas celebration and they played literally once a year, on this day (or rather a night). So I would really wanted to see it happening but, alas, I was exhausted by the time and thus I left the company of gamblers and chose sleep.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, my dear friends! See you soon 🙂