Gastronomic fair - Via Paolo Sarpi, Milan*

October 8, 2007 · Filed Under Milan · 7 Comments

If you happen to be in Milan on Sunday the 14th October 2007 (date corrected,Thanks to Cath), and you happen to like fresh porcini mushrooms, truffles, Italian wine, grappa and cheese, then you may find the via Paolo Sarpi street fair fascinating. You can see where Via Paolo Sarpi is on my Platial map: just click here. Via Paolo Sarpi is about 10 minutes from the centre of Milan by bus and only 20 or so minutes on foot. To find out in more detail how to get there from anywhere in Milan, try using the ATM Milan’s system: here. If you happen to find yourself in Parco Sempione that day, then make a slight detour to Paolo Sarpi, which is only 10 minutes from the park on foot.

Enough directions. This street fair has been held for quite a number of years and becomes packed with people who are getting in a little bit of early Christmas shopping and stocking up on good cheese, wine and grappa. The street will be closed to traffic, as you would expect, and should be lined by market stalls selling all manner of Italian traditional foods, wines and other interesting items. Apparently, on the 25th October there will also be more stands and an all day wine tasting will take place, although I want to find out more about this.

Apart from the sights and the smells, you can often taste-test the wine, or the grappa, if that is your thing. And if you are into salami, you should find an extensive selection to both try and buy. The wild boar (cinghiale) salami is not half bad. There are also other varieties of yummy salami with red wine and porcini mushrooms. They are very good - especially when eaten with some of the good wholesome country bread which you can also pick up from the stalls that line the streets.

Then there are all the cheeses and other rather unusual items such as the ‘bagna cauda’ - which is a sauce thing,

It’s probably worth checking out this street fair, before lunchtime though, if you would prefer not to wade through crowds. You could even, weather permitting, grab some goodies and have a picnic in nearby Parco Sempione.

You may like to note that this area has changed a lot recently, so I’m not all that sure this wonderful fair will be as interesting as it has been in past years. I do hope so.

What ever happens, I shall be there hunting for wine and grappa, amongst other things.

*This is basically last year’s post about the same event - edited and updated a little. The comments are from last year, too, but others might find them helpful, so I’ve left them.

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Tags: grappa, Italian, Italian Food, Italian food and wine, Italy, Milan, mushrooms, nice event, october 2007, Paolo Sarpi, street fair, Wine

Traffic fines

October 8, 2007 · Filed Under Speeding fines · 2 Comments

Back in September 2006 I wrote a post about how to settle those pesky speeding/traffic fines you may end up with either during or after a stay in Italy. I did not imagine that my little post would end up being viewed more than 2500 times and commented on around 100 times, but it has, and this seems to indicate that there is something of a problem.

Well, guess what. Someone from the European Parliament has been having a look at my post. Now, I did know that one of the commenters was planning to write to an MEP, but I had not heard anything more. So now, possibly, something may start happening and that something may even be done to clarify the situation - at least in so far as convincing those who receive the fines that they are indeed genuine and not, I hope, part of some elaborate scam.

If anything develops, I’ll let you know.

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Tags: answers, cars, comments, Costs, driving in italy, fines, Information, Italy, offences, offenses, payment, police, problems, questions, restricted traffic zones, situation, traffic

Italy’s politicians are sensitive

October 8, 2007 · Filed Under Italian politics · 5 Comments

Poor chaps, these Italian politicians, they are oh so sensitive. They get all worked up and emotional as soon as someone dares to criticise them. They use words such as ‘threats’, and ‘lynching’. Then they start throwing writs around in an attempt to silence those who have had the temerity to insinuate that they are possibly not acting in the best interests of the Italian people. Yet another ’sensitive politician’ incident has recently flared up in Italy.

One Clemente Mastella is the acting Justice Minister in Italy, and Mr Mastella, who recently attracted criticism after a former Red Brigades terrorist, who was allowed out of prison to work, ended up being caught after having held up a bank. At some point, this ex-Red Brigades gentleman, who appears to have worked the system to his advantage, also managed to amass no less than four guns to help him with his evil deeds. Well, after the crime committing prisoner issue, Mr Mastella is again well and truly under fire.

What happened is that Anno Zero - Year Zero - an investigative political chat show on RAI 2, one of Italy’s state TV channels, hooked up with a couple of magistrates who stated that Mr Mastella had been intimidating them, and accusing them of ’serious ethical violations’. And it just so happens, that one of these magistrates was investigating allegations that European funds had been misused by businessmen and, guess who else, yes, politicians. Alas, I missed the programme, but criticism of Mastella must have been flowing thick and fast, for no sooner had the programme finished than the flack started flying. Mr Mastella considered it all a personal attack, and accused the journalists of being unprofessional. Law suits then started winging their ways towards those involved in the heinous crime of telling things the way they are. A real hubbub blew up and the thing is still simmering away as I write.

Incidentally, talking of writing, well, journalism, Mr Berlusconi cleverly avoided embarrassing programmes such as Anno Zero by simply not allowing them to be aired. Needless to say, Italy’s reputation for freedom of the press fell to new lows during Mr B’s time in power. Indeed, during Mr B’s reign, journalists even went on strike in protest of the threat to journalistic freedom, and the then editor of one famous Italian newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, was forced out because he would not tow the line.

Enter Mr Prodi, who in a kind of, ‘look I’m not Mr B’ sort of way, reinstated programmes such as Anno Zero. Perhaps Mr P is now regretting his decision a wee bit.

Moving back to the marvellous Mastella mess, a recent article on Beppe Grillo’s site, in English, entitled Travaglio Minister of Justice, intimates that Mr Mastella may possibly have a few connections with that Italian ‘NGO’, that also begins with the same letter as Mr Mastella’s surname.

The plot, as ever here in Italy, thickens. Then it will set and the whole affair will die the death, as is the way here. Which is why people like Grillo are attempting to bring about some change and bring the politicos to heel.

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