Pizzeria Photo Gallery
It was pizza night tonight, although it was not the standard Italian type pizza, but the ‘pizza al trancio’, which is the ‘deep pan’ version of the traditionally thin pizza. There are two pizzerias near us that do this type of pizza. One is Da Giuliano which is located at the Corso Sempione end of Via Paolo Sarpi in Milan, and which has been there long enough to have become something of an institution in these parts.
Oddly enough, I’m not a great fan of the Da Giuliano deep pan pizzas. I find that they are just too heavy and I don’t like the texture of the pizza base. Luckily, there is another of these places, Da Mimmo, which is at 2 Via Alfredo Albertini. This street is a small side road that connects Paolo Sarpi with Via Canonica. Anyway, I prefer the deep pan pizza that is place does, even if, I have to say, I don’t really like the Italian deep pan pizza that much.
My other half does though, so we often find ourselves either eating there or bringing some of this substantial pizza home, as we did this evening.
The Da Mimmo pizzeria is a strange place. The thing that strikes you is that everything is very Spartan and functional. It is also a little dated and looks as though the place was last done up back in the sixties or seventies. As you walk in you see about three or four rows of long brown melamine tables, which are set up banquet style, and if you eat there, you may well find yourself sitting next to people you don’t know.
Actually, in general Italian restaurants are not intimate, and the tables are often set very close to one another. And if you are the only people in the restaurant and another group comes in, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will sit themselves down at a neighbouring table. OK, enough of the set up of Italian eateries.
What is interesting about the Da Mimmo pizzeria, and makes it worth a visit, if only for some pizza to take away, is the selection of stunning photos of desert landscapes, African people, and four by fours ascending and descending dunes which adorn the walls. This evening, as often happens, my curiosity got the better of me I asked about all the images.
It turns out that the owner of the pizzeria loves going on tours to Africa, and has been doing so for many years, hence all the photos. At the moment this gentleman is somewhere in the midst of Lybia on a ten day tour of the country apparently. The he take photos are not digital, but of the traditional film variety.
This pizzeria cum photo gallery, which is closed Sundays, is actually quite a fascinating place, and it is cheap, and popular with the locals. If you do try it out, do not forget to spend a few minutes looking at all the images. They really are very good.
Turning Round La Brutta Figura
Italy is a very image conscious country - just wander down any Italian street and you will see beautiful shops and elegantly dressed passers by. The places and people are examples of ‘la bella figura’ - which means ‘creating the right impression’. The opposite of the ‘bella’ version is ‘la brutta figura’, which is similar in concept to the French ‘faux pas’, only in Italian culture ‘la brutta figura’ is somewhat worse than its French equivalent. In the eyes of the world Italy is one making big brutta figura at the moment, thanks in no small part to recent articles in internationally read newspapers.
While some dismiss these articles as foreign interference, many of the people I know, would not disagree that things are not going all too well in the land of pizza and Ferrari. These people are aware of Italy’s brutta figura, and it is embarrassing. However, there is the possibility that the embarrassment that these mischievous articles have generated may actually help reverse the downward slide which is occurring in the Living Museum. Two changes would make a noticeable difference. First, the electoral laws need to be properly reformed, and second all that is needed is quite simply a few new faces in Italian politics, and, possibly, the forthcoming collapse of the Prodi government may just provoke someone who can bring about such change into Italian politics.
That someone is the present head of Ferrari and the Italian employers’ federation chairman Luca di Montezemolo, and there are rumours that once his presidency at the federation ends he will enter politics. Heck, I really hope so. He would be something of a breath of fresh air in Italy, and he certainly has the management skills necessary to put together the right team and thus get down to sorting things out. Whether he will be able to navigate the veritable ocean of vested interests is another question, but seems to have done OK at Ferrari and Fiat, both of which are quintessentially Italian companies, warts, vested interests, and all. So it sounds as though he may stand a sporting chance.
The slight fly in the ointment, or so it would seem, is that Prodi’s band of brothers has collapsed a short time before Montezemolo managed to enter the scene . However, all may not be lost, because you see, the next elections will result in the same old unloved but familiar faces gaining power, and this will further lower the Italian populace’s esteem in those who purport to lead them. Enter stage right Montezemolo and, with a little luck some electoral reform will be carried out, he will sweep the field, and his mere presence may well give the majority of Italians the impression that there is still a ray of hope shining through what has been becoming an ever more overcast sky.
And, never fear, if Montezemolo really does manage to get the Italian ball rolling once more, there are more than enough talented Italians to keep it rolling in the right direction. This I know, I am lucky enough to teach plenty of them. And the frustration that has built up in such people is, at the same time, serving to stoke the fires of ambition, and, in the not too distant future the flames emitted by these people will reduce the old and ineffective to mere ashes.
La brutta figura will lead to la bella figura, or, as we say in English ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. Just you wait and see.
Roccaraso, Abruzzo, Italy - Skiing off the beaten piste.
I have several friends from the south of Italy, but I was rather surprised to learn that one of them, Ciro, is an avid skier. I imagined that he must have made annual pilgrimages to northern Italy to learn to do his thing. He must be one heck of a dedicated skier, I thought, because he comes all the way from Naples. Wow, impressive, I thought.
Then I discovered that he had learnt to ski down in Naples. Down in Naples??!! Even more interesting, and this conjured up images in my mind’s eye of him shooting down Vesuvius, hotly, in every sense, pursued by a flow of lava. Talk about extreme sports!
Anyway, as it turns out, he did not learn to ski in Naples, but he did learn to ski quite to the famous city. Well, not that near, seeing as it takes around two hours or so to get to one of the ski resorts that is not too far from Naples. But then again, when I came to think about it, it used to take my ski chums and I around 2 hours to get to the runs that are close to Milan, and sometimes it took much longer, especially when we headed for Val d’Aosta. All this means that there really is no reason why people from sunny southern Naples cannot pass the weekend skiing. Indeed, I found out from my friend that quite a few Neapolitans have ski chalets, and this also appeared to be rather odd to someone who usually associated skiing with high mountainous areas, not areas famous for sun and sea. My curiosity had been well and truly piqued, so I wanted to know more.
Well, after chatting a little, I discovered that my friend Ciro learnt to scoot down the pistes in the area around Roccaraso, which is to the north east of Naples in the Abruzzo region. From the photos I’ve seen, it looks to be a lovely area, although I already knew that Abruzzo was a beautiful region which is famed for its with its beautiful parks and wildlife, including quite a number of bears.
If you would like to find out a little more, about the skiing, not necessarily about the bears, then you could have a look at this site: Roccaraso.net, which will tell you which areas are open, give the names of a few hotels,and this link will take you to a .pdf map of the pistes: Map The only slight problem is that everything appears to be in Italian. Hence the title of this post - it does appear that this area is not all that well known outside of Italy. Here are some photos of the snow, so you can see that I am not just making this all up!
I suppose most people think of the Alps and the Dolomites when they consider coming to hurl themselves down the slopes in Italy. But, if you’d like to try somewhere a little different, and possibly, not quite as crowded, then Roccaraso might well be worth checking out. After all, there can be no real doubt that the people who gave the world the pizza certainly know when they are on to a good thing.
A surprising bunch these Neapolitans.
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