The Italians import many words from other languages, especially English, but for a holiday that has nothing to do with their country nor is officially celebrated here they have created an Italian word for it.
This year as with many years now...we are greatly thankful for eachother, our families, our friends and our amazing lives. Though Thanksgiving (Ringraziamente) is not a holiday here and Tom had to work...we endeavored to have a traditional US type dinner here in Rome. Though whole fresh or frozen turkeys are not readily available here - you can get 'fresh poultry' of many types at your local butcher, with an advance order. Since I did not order a turkey in advance, I found my local poultry butcher (in Campo di Fiori) to have fresh duck instead. When I was at the butcher and trying to buy the duck, my mind went blank (senior moment) on the Italian word for duck (anatra)...so I am standing in front of this nice Italian man with a dumb look on my face...until I decided to 'quack'. Once I 'quacked' he immediately knew what I wanted and even said..."ahhh de ooniversal word for anatra" (in the best English he could muster). I said 'Si', we laughed, he went back to the frig and came out with a duck held by the neck. Seeing it still had its head, I asked him to remove that for me - so he did. He wrapped it up, I finished shopping in the market and then headed home to start creating our Thanksgiving dinner.
On the menu for our dinner is:
- Roast Duck
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Sauteed Carrots
- Homemade Caponata
- Homemade Italian Bread Stuffing with Sausage
- Duck Dripping Gravy
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| The finished product all ready to be enjoyed... |
The journey to get to this meal was not easy but well worth it.
The one thing I did not realize was that 'fresh ducks' in Italy are just that 'fresh'. Ultimately, I needed to gut, clean and pluck much more than I expected. Here is an image of my my fight with the duck - I won!
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| Feet, heart, neck, feathers & inerds... |
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| All ready for roasting...finally! |
The dinner was great...now ready for Black Friday!
Well, Black Friday is also not a big thing over here either...so I stayed home and read my book! The holidays can wait a day or so...
Now it's time for another fabulous weekend adventure day!
Someone at work mentioned to Tom about a great little town about an hour north of Rome - Bracciano!
Bracciano is best known for its lake - Lago di Bracciano and a huge 15th century castle Castello Orsini-Odescalchi (or Castello Odescalchi di Bracciano). The castle is well known by the cinema community - many films both Italian and American have been filmed there. More recently it gained fame for hosting the wedding reception for Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes in November of 2006 (now divorcing). We had a wonderful lunch right outside the castle then went on an amazing tour inside (no photos allowed... heehee).
Take a look...
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| View of Lago di bracciano (Lake Bracciano) from where we parked... |
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| From outside the castle... |
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| ...having lunch! |
Now some photos from inside...shhhh...
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| Beautiful paintings & furnishings... |
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| ...& frescos in every room! |
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| Halls of weapons... |
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| ...and Costumes from Othello! |
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| A beautiful courtyard... |
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| ...and the living quarters! |
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| View of the lake from atop the castle at dusk, the blues and purples were amazing... |
After we finished our tour the sun was setting and the town lite-up...it was magical!
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| The skies colored the town... |
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| ...and the castle was lit! |
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| A proudly lit War memorial... |
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| ...and by 4:30 it was dark! |
Well, that was our weekend in another cute new town in Italy.
Everything else here is going great. Tom is on his was to Milan for a few days of business then we will start talking about the holidays! It amazes us that Christmas is less than a month away...
As promised from the last posting - I wanted to show you my progress on my first ever oil painting... It's a process I have documented with photos so here we go...let's visit Venice!
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| The Original... |
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| Stage 1: Pencil Sketching... |
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| Stage 2: Start painting... |
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| Stage 3: more painting... |
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| Stage 4: more painting... |
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| Stage 5: Fine tuning... |
By next week I will be finished with my version of Venice. It coming along nicely and I think I will definitely do another oil painting in the future...maybe one of my photos vs. someone elses...but first back to a little ceramics for a little while...
Well enough babbling -
It is time to end this post - I have to get ready to head out to my Italian lesson (even though it is a cold, rainy, miserable day).
As always, we hope all our friends and family are happy and safe!
Abbracci a tutti!
Ciao for now!
Ron & Tom
