A Blustery Day

Today is one of my favourite kind of days in terms of weather.  It's a very blustery day.  The wind is really something awesome, the sun is shining brightly, the clouds are speeding through the sky, you could go outside in a t-shirt but it's much cozier to wear a sweater, little droplets of water hit your face probably from leaves left wet from a recent rain.  On a day like today you want to cozy up inside, make comfort food and look out the window while sipping something warm.  On days like today it's also fun to go on adventures if you have the right boots and jacket and a tight fitting hat but on this today we prefer to stay inside with all the before mentioned and do our work, taking little breaks to eat simple tasty meals and watch an episode of one of our favourite tv shows and read to each other.

 I think I owe enjoying blustery days a little to winnie the pooh.  He's been a favourite read of mine since I was little and still is today...if you haven't re read winnie the pooh in recent years I highly highly recommend it.  One of the stories (actually written by Disney and not A.A. Milne the original writer) was Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.

It all started yesterday with a very windy day, but not quite blustery yet.  I'm not sure where the line is between windy and blustery,  that's a whole discussion to itself which I'm not going to bother with.  But on that windy day you could tell the weather was changing a bit and I just kept saying to myself "it is so windy!" but not thinking too much of it.  The wind did die down and the night was clear so you could see all the stars.

The day before the blustery day was one month exactly since our wedding.  We were surprised how quickly it went by and it made us appreciate the time we have together.  It's been a perfect month.  There are two floors to our house and we mainly stay upstairs where the kitchen is, but downstairs are two other rooms and another sofa and a big table.  Chaim surprised me that night by pulling the couch out of the downstairs room outside under the patio umbrella, piled it with all the warm blankets and pillows we had, hung the flashlight lantern my Aba gave us and lit some candles.  And called me downstairs.   I don't know how he managed all of this without me noticing but it was a wonderful surprise.

We drank wine outside under the stars and watched one of my favourite movies Only You (which Chaim also surprised me with) in which Marisa Tomei searches all the most beautiful places of Italy for her soul mate who's name a fortune teller gave her when she was 10.  There's a scene where the two main characters pretend to be Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday at the mouth of truth.  Really it's more complicated and a lot more cute than it sounds..it is a lovely movie with a super happy ending, and the nice thing about watching it here is that the whole movie takes place in Italy and it had us laughing and smiling the whole time.

Only You

Roman Holiday

 For snacks we roasted potatoes which left our house smelling delicious but we didn't have enough and were not satisfied.  Being the special day that it was and wanting to have only the most special treats we (or I) decided that since we were so good at rationing the delicious challahs that Sarah Nechama baked for our trip we should eat one, and so we did.  After the movie we cleaned up and went back inside and watched a music clip sent to us by uncle Chaim of Eric Clapton singing Layla with Wynton Marsalis.  You can click HERE to see it.  We enjoyed it a lot and sang along in jazzy voices.  Thanks Uncle Chaim :)

Now we are still the night before the blustery day.  So the weather was definitely changing because we were awoken by loud claps of thunder and lightning in the middle of the night and a heavy rain which lasted for a while.  I didn't mind though...I happen to like stormy nights as long as I'm somewhere safe and cozy.  We woke up early to the most awesome sky full of clouds but completely pink, we had never seen anything like it and there were still distant sounds of thunder...I kept thinking to myself that this is what "awe inspiring" really means.  It was still very early in the day, and soon the strong winds pushed the clouds aside to let bits of sunshine stream through.  It was quite a site watching the shade of the clouds and breaks of sunlight role over the hills and villages in the distance.  Each time the light came out it so illuminated whatever it touched that the fields of straw looked like gold and the villages and their white houses shined in the purest shades of white.  I tried to capture this on photo but the clouds would move so quickly and the places were so far that I couldn't get the shot. That is how the blustery day began.

 That morning Michelangelo showed up, he had come to pick the remaining cherry tomatoes growing outside the house.  It made sense to do it this day because the wind kept it from being too hot and the rain was never long if it came.  I was wondering when he would come.  We made him an espresso and offered him some food, he thanked us and tried to teach us how to make better espresso in broken english, apparently ours was too weak.

I tried two tomatoes among the many other tomatoes I've had so far in Italy and I'm just going to say it...
Israel is much better at tomatoes!  I don't know if it's the season or the region although I had tomatoes in Rome but none have compared so far to the tomatoes I've had in Israel even when the crops were a little spoiled from the heat.

Pretty they may be, but it doesn't mean much if they don't have the taste 

Another thing I have to say is that cats are much nicer in Israel..maybe it's because they are less appreciated.  There are street cats all over Italy, not nearly as many as in Israel, but for some reason they have cats here on postcards and calendars all over the place "posing" on all the famous sites and statues so I'm making the assumption that they've got a thing for their cats...which Israel doesn't.
Anyway there are several cats in the area who frequent the grounds around our house and every time I try to make friends they either ignore me or run for it...so I'm put off by Italian cats.

That afternoon we spent doing work and I kept my eye our for sunny spots of time that I would use as an excuse to stop working and go outside.  There were many things to do outside of course.  I checked the fig tree to see if any were ready to be picked...no luck.  I chased cats and tried coaxing them towards me with gentle mewing sounds...no luck.  I looked around for flowers to pick and watched birds...satisfying enough.  I sat quietly and listened to the blustery winds...successful.

And the day had come to an end...so here we are finishing up with it and I have an online class from 10pm-1am and a wonderful day ahead of us tomorrow.

Happy Belated Birthday's to my Aunt Laury on the 16th, my Aba on the 18th and...
Happy Birthday Rikki Yunger Today!!

Ciao with love,

Tamar & Chaim

We have Bikes!

As I write this we are sitting on the train traveling from Campobasso to Rome.  It is a three hour train ride.  Chaim being the amazing student that he is always has his notes in front of him; except in this moment they are dangling from the tips of his fingers as he’s falling asleep J

We were supposed to catch a train at 2:20pm but missed it because our taxi did not come on time.  The only big surprise I’ve had here in Italy is how few people speak English, and if they do, how little they know of it.  I called the taxi company hours before we had to leave.  The man who answered the phone did not understand one word of English, not one word!  I kept calling him back trying to communicate that I wanted a taxi at 1pm using google translate to figure out any words in Italian that would help and :orry wasn’t one of them.  Finally after the third call he put someone on the phone who knew a little English.  Well, I thought the conversation had gone well and that he understood what we were asking but at 1:15pm when there was still no taxi I realized I might have made a mistake.

At this point I called Angiola to try and get her to help.  I didn’t want to call earlier because I felt like she has helped so much already, I email her every day with questions so I wanted to give it a break but that didn’t work out.  Luckily just when I called she happened to be at the train in Campobasso and was able to send us a taxi.  She told us it would arrive in 20 minutes so we were hopeful that we would still catch the train at 2:20pm.  20 minutes went by, no taxi, 40 minutes still no taxi so I started to get a little worried and frustrated and at that point realized we would not make it to the train on time. 

An hour later while I was still trying to figure out how to get us to the train station we heard a honk from a car down the road.  I ran outside to find an unmarked car driven by a man who had to be well into his 80’s.  I asked him “taxi?”, he responded with a slight smile and a slow nod.  Then I asked him to give us a minute, naturally using the hand gesture for “rega” in Hebrew, only then remembering that it’s rude I ran off back to the house to call Chaim and get our things.  I’ve only noticed here in Italy how many Israeli hand gestures I took on without knowing it, it makes me wonder how long we would have to be here for the Italian gestures to become a part of my daily conversation.

 It was 3:00pm at this point and the next train was not until 5pm but I didn’t want to test our luck again trying to communicate with this friendly old man that we wanted him to come back in an hour, so off we went to the train two hours earlier than necessary.  The reason this was so complicated is because there are no buses in Montagano on Sunday.  On a regular day we could just walk into the village, get on a bus and be in Compobasso 20 minutes later no problem.   

The good thing about not catching the earlier train is that I had time to pack us a bunch of snacks for the ride.  Four sandwiches, a bunch of fruit (plums of different sizes), crackers, and left over lasagna from Shabbat, which Chaim suggested we eat before we leave so it never made it onto the train).

We spend a lot of time making delicious food and eating it.  For the first few days we were here it seemed that we had developed a cooking pattern.  One day I would make breakfast and the next day Chaim would, then we would switch for lunch. Dinner we usually cook together and it has been a different kind of pasta each night.  We didn’t have any room to pack kosher meat to bring with us but hopefully over this trip in Rome we will be able to pick some up.  I love pasta but I’m also craving some protein now.  But I must say we are eating very well.

Delicious smoked salmon, basil, mushroom omelette 

Potato pancake topped with spinach, eggs and grilled tomatoes and grilled peppers.

Pasta by candle light 

On Thursday afternoon the bicycles we asked Angiola to arrange for us arrived with a very nice man named Marcelo.  When we booked the house we asked Angiola for them..she did warn us that the bike ride to Montagano is quiet steep and therefore difficult but she was optimistic that we would be able to do it because the view is so nice which it is!  Marcelo like most of the Italian’s we have met was very kind.  As a side job he and a group of his friends rent out mountain bikes and help tourists arrange extreme sport trips.  He also told us about a graffiti festival in Campobasso today (Sunday) and invited us to come.  We were definitely interested but with the whole balagan of the taxi’s we didn’t make it. 

That evening before dinner Chaim suggested we go for a bike ride…truthfully I was not really in the mood for it but he seemed excited and that got me excited and so we went.  Angiola was not lying about the steep road.  I think I survived going uphill for less than three minutes; at that point I happily walked my bike up the hill and picked flowers on the side of the road as I went.  Chaim was more successful than me, but not by that much ;).  We actually got pretty far up (and I did manage to get back on the bike) but not all the way to Montagano because it was getting dark and I wanted to go back. 

We have bikes!

As difficult as the ride up was it was worth it because the ride down was so much fun and the view was indeed beautiful!  Chaim happened to pick some flowers for me too and at the end of the ride gave me this little bouquet.  

I wanted to write about this on Friday before Shabbat because Saturday was my grandmother's birthday..I didn't make it on time but I wanted to say Happy Birthday Baba, these flowers are for you :)

More updates to come very soon!  I hope you guys are enjoying reading and if it’s too long I apologize but I know our grandparents love hearing all the details and I love sharing it with them J

Ciao,

Tamar

Where we live

Shavua tov everyone,

I wish I had more time to write last week, I thought about it so much and I had so much to say but never got to actually putting it in words for you.  Tomorrow I travel to Rome for a meeting and I'll have plenty of time on the train to write so look forward to an update soon.  We had a beautiful first Shabbat here.  Big thanks to Sarah Nechama for baking us the most amazing challot to take with us and to Mark and Shainie for the beautiful Shabbat candle holders, your gifts made this house really feel like home this Shabbat.

And now here are some images of our home here in Italy...

Enjoy :)

Snack Time

The view

My Desk

Living Room

The path to the house

Home in Italy

It is the evening of our second day in Italy.  I am sitting outside of our new home for the next month on the stone patio overlooking rolling hills and watching the sun go down.  Chaim is sitting on the steps to the house in front of me trying to get a perfect shot of the sunset with our new camera.  It is magnificently beautiful here.  I’ve been thinking that if Israel had rain all year round it would look a lot like this.  We discovered two fig trees, an olive tree and rows of cherry tomatoes growing on the property.  The field in front of the house has just been plowed in preparation to plant wheat but they’ve been delayed we were told because the price of wheat seeds has gone up.  We thought it was going to rain tonight since there was an overcast all day and faint sounds of thunder but just as we were going to collect chopped wood for our fire place the clouds cleared and we were gifted with our first sunset at home. The clouds are all shades of white, blue and purples and the rays of the sun are changing from yellows, orange and golds, to pinks, reds and purples.  Everything here is just as I pictured it, many winding roads, stone homes, rolling hills covered in green and brown fields plowed for the last crops of the season.  The air is so clean, you can taste its sweetness and Michelangelo (the brother of our host) tells us the water here in Mantagano is the cleanest in Italy.  I almost never drink tap water but I dared to taste it today and it is among the best tasting water I have ever had, sweet like the air.

We arrived in Rome yesterday and took a train just 20 minutes from the airport to Termini station in the centre of Rome.  At Termini station we bought a sim card so we would have a phone while here.  We then called Angiola, the woman we are renting our house from. We had planned to stay in Rome the first night but Angiola suggested we head straight to the house that night because there would be a general strike the next day and the trains would not be running.  Originally Angiola was going to take the train with us to Campobasso (the closest city to our house) but because of the strike the next day she was unable to.  She was very friendly over the phone even though it was hard to understand her English or hear her over all the noise on the street.  She told us her sister Maria Pia, “who does not speak english but is very kind”, would meet us in Campobasso at the train station and drive us to our house in Montagano.  So we bought some water and our train tickets and got on the train to Campobasso.  During the three-hour ride Chaim worked on a paper while I watched the scenery pointing out things he should look up from his laptop to see, it was great teamwork.  Once it was dark I read the instruction manual of our camera for 5 minutes before falling asleep.

We arrived in Campobasso just after 10pm and waited next to a sleeping dog inside the train station for just 5 minutes until Angiola’s sister and brother arrived.  As promised their English was minimal but they had huge smiles and embraced us both with a kiss on each cheek Italian style.  They helped us pack up the car and drove us up winding hills, with a stop at Pizzeria De Luigi along the way, to our beautiful cozy stone house.  There was a lot of laughing and conversation in broken English and even more broken Italian from Chaim and myself.  Maria and Michelangelo handed us our keys after showing us around the house and where everything was and promised to come meet us in the morning to take us grocery shopping.  We were happy to be here instead of spending the night in Rome.  Since it was already very late we just dropped our bags and went straight to sleep on a very comfortable bed that we were both very grateful to have.

We woke up as we had hoped with the sun at 6am and decided to get dressed and go greet the sun as it rose over the hills around us.  Chaim draped a quilt around his shoulders in case either of us would get cold and we set out to explore our new surroundings.  The silence here is incredible, we were noticing the most delicate sounds that we rarely hear.  Birds were chirping and a gentle breeze was rustling the leaves of trees around us.  We were happy to notice now in the daylight that we are not completely secluded.  Along the paved road by our house are a few other houses here and there, most look like summer homes and one building looks like a small community centre but seems to be some kind of museum, it was closed so we were not sure.  I asked Michelangelo about it, he laughed, “ohh the garage, yes yes it is a museo but looksa like a garage.”  Later on we learned that Michelangelo is an artist himself and we both excitedly told him that our mothers are too.  The garage/museum has a mirpeset (balcony/patio) with a nice view of where the sun comes up, we stood there for a while watching it rise and noticed two nuns get dropped off by a house in the distance.  They were working in the fields behind the house but we were not sure exactly what they were working on.  It was comforting to see life around us, people, houses, cars driving down the road (but very few).  It’s nice to be somewhere so quiet and remote but it feels safer to know people are around us.  Everyone here is very warm and friendly just like we were told.  Even the homeless people we saw in Rome interacted with each other with hugs and double cheek kisses and affectionate tones and hand gestures. 

After our early morning walk we went back to the house and made some tea.  Chaim started working on one of his papers and I went back to sleep until 9am and then started unpacking a little bit.  At 10am Maria and Michelangelo arrived with fresh baked croissants and packets of tea and Italian coffee.  Maria went in the house and started to make coffee in a little silver coffee maker I’ve never seen before, I watched and learned.  She then set up a table outside with a little tablecloth and laid out the breakfast they had brought us while Chaim and Michelangelo investigated the fig tree that had a lot of buzzing in it.  We all sat down together for the best coffee I’ve ever had and started to learn a little Italian.  From what we could understand Michelangel told us that just in this region of Italy there are over 130 different dialects and that the people in Montagano have a dialect that sounds like they are singing all the time.  We asked him the meaning of some Italian hand gestures too.  In particular we saw one that looks just like the gesture that is identical to rega (wait a minute) in Israel.  He told us it is an ugly gesture that only uneducated people use and we must have seen it in Rome.  After cleaning up the breakfast table we headed to the supermarket that we think is something like the equivalent of a Wal-Mart in Canada.  This supermarket is in Campobasso.  In Montagano the village we are just outside of, there is a small market but apparently it is more expensive than the supermarket.  Since the supermarket is much further away we decided to take the opportunity of the car ride and stock up on a lot of food that we could store for the month that we are here.  When we run out of fresh food we can walk 20 minutes to the markets in Montagano. 

On our way back Maria Pia drove a different route to show us a small “romantic” wooded area near our house that we could walk in that comes right out onto our property.  Once we arrived we organized the kitchen and unpacked the food.  I’ve been extra tired because I did not sleep at all on the plane and have a bit of jet lag so I took a nap at 1pm which felt much more like 6pm in my head.  When I woke up Chaim had unpacked all our things and made our house homier by organizing everything so nicely.  He even put my clothes out into the dresser just how I would have, it was very impressive and felt really nice to wake up to.  There is a fireplace with a nice stone mantle where I’ve placed the beautiful little Shabbat candleholders that Mark and Shainie gave us and our Ma roller on the other side.

At this point the sun has gone down, there is a cricket symphony outside, Chaim is back to working on school papers and I’m boiling water to get started on dinner.  Tonight we make our first dinner in Italy together…Pasta.

I’ll try to write as much as I can and so will Chaim, and we will do our best to share photos.  Feel free to share our mail with extended family.

B’ahava & Ciao,

Chaim & Tamar