just before the cottage

Tags

Canada., cuisine, Ferragosto, French River, market, PEI, Pesaro, Rome, Rossini

It has been a hot week again and lots of sunshine, I was at the farmer’s market past Saturday and it was extremely busy, I have not seen it this busy since 2019. Parking was chaotic, lots of tourists from other provinces who park here and there like they have never seen a parking lot. Being Mid-August now there is lots of vegetables and flowers on offer. It is very nice to see all the variety and the lower prices given the abundance. Lots of nice garden tomatoes that actually taste sweet and full of flavour. One farmer had fresh sage, it looked like velvet, she uses bunches of it in her kitchen as a fragrance and for cooking of course. I really love going to the market, it is staffed by real farmers who have working farms, they are known and have a reputation to uphold. Same for the butchers, like Larkin or the coffee bar who buys and roasts all his coffee. Bakers also offer a range of European breads, pastries, cakes and then the mustard lady Sabine who is German, she makes an incredible number of mustards at her home in Murray Harbour. There is also a group of caterers who prepare home made dishes for foodies and they are very popular, all of them have a chef who is well known like Gallant’s seafood or Makena with her Kenyan dishes. All are very small operations and you may have to wait about 10 min for your food but it is a pleasant chatty atmosphere.

What is also nice about the Farmer’s Market is bumping into all kinds of people you know. People are relaxed and there is a good vibe about the place. Of course it is always better to go very early around 8am it gets super busy by noon time and then closes at 2pm.

I have been to other markets, Montreal has a very well known one, Jean Talon Market, it has a solid reputation with Chefs from great restaurants for the freshness of what is on offer. Toronto also has a great market. Ottawa used to have a good market unfortunately some 20 years ago it all went south and now you have maybe 4 farmers and the rest are people who buy from grocers and sell on the street. It is a problem and the atmosphere is very tourist trap like.

However the best markets with the freshest produce was in Rome in our neighbourhood. Opened early and closed by 2pm. Incredible quality in all products.

Must start thinking about what to take to the cottage in 8 days. It will be very relaxed, we are at the beach after all. Nice neighbours in French River waiting for us. We are also booked for next year. We like the place.

I also followed the Trump search of his home and how very sad this is for the USA. To think that a former head of State would take with him sensitive secret documents, some of them with nuclear secrets, to do what exactly? To sell them off to the Chinese or the Russians? Trump must not be allowed to escape justice, he is not above the law, being an ex-president does not give you special rights. I am also dismayed by the GOP for being partisan and forgetting about the good of the country and siding with Trump on this matter.

As a Canadian looking at this from afar, I worry for what might happen, listening to PBS NewsHour on Friday and the comments by Capehart and Brooks, this is really scary. Will politicians wake-up and realize the danger or continue to play games thinking that it is not that serious. There is also the fringe fanatics or lunatics who support Trump and there has to be a crackdown on such people. Sometimes extreme measures are required to protect the greater good of the Nation, half measures and wishful thinking simply will not do.

Not that we do not have our own problems in Canada with partisan politics and protests from the extreme-right, we do. We are at risk, in a divisive way. Reading on the French Civil War of 1789, many politicians at the time thought that you could turn on the violence and turn it off when suitable. Is this what we are seeing now in the USA and elsewhere? Once the flood of violence is turned on it is nearly impossible to stop it and turn it off. In France the revolution ate its children, same in Russia, same in China, it is always the same. The fear now seems to be that if Trump is arrested riots may erupt, this is where leaders must crack down hard on rioters. Napoleon said has much and he put an end to the riots of the revolution by using cannons on the crowds in Paris. He mused that if Louis XVI had done the same he would still be king.

Today is the 15 August, Ferragosto which was created by Emperor Augustus, the month is named after him. He designated 1 August as a holiday to celebrate the end of the harvest, so everyone could rejoice and enjoy a holiday, feast and games. Then it was called the The Catholic Church changed the date to 15 August for the feast of the Assumption of Mary to Heaven. It remains the date of the start of vacation all over Italy and in other catholic countries in Europe. Life comes to a standstill as everyone goes to the mountains or the beach for several weeks. I loved that time in Rome and we too went on vacation to Pesaro on the Adriatic to the Rossini Festival, it is his home town.

Central square on the Adriatic in Pesaro, lovely place at any time of day.

Ferragosto

Tags

Ferragosto, Italy, Le Marche, Old Home Week, PEI, Pesaro

Ferragosto 2019 is upon us, in Charlottetown it’s Old Home Week with harness racing and parades, my neighbour already reminded us to not forget to come over for a stiff drink usually a Bloody Cesar, Canada’s Official Cocktail and food at 10am an old island tradition, no one misses the parade. It will be our fourth, yes 4 years already on the Island, time flies. This is also the peak or height of tourist season and signals also the end of the Season, after 16 August suddenly tourists vanish.

In Italy Ferragosto is the beginning of the Summer vacation for everyone, I mean everyone. It is pretty much the same in other European countries. Time to pack up and leave the cities for the beach, the mountains, the countryside. Leave the towns to the tourists. Everything shuts down and if you decide to stay in town better plan ahead because shopping is restricted and difficult to manage. ATMs machines run out of cash and gas stations are only open for a few hours if at all.

For us it was the best of time of the year, we would travel to Le Marche region on the Adriatic for spectacular towns, food, wine and festivals. A relax quiet time by the seaside and evenings at the opera.

We would stay in Pesaro, visit Rimini and Urbino a few minutes away.

Since Seafood is important on PEI, it is equally important in Pesaro and our favorite restaurant was Ristorante Bristolino “Lorenzo e Bibo” which use to be on the sea front at the Bristol hotel. However in 2015 it closed and just re-opened to the delight of its many fans on Via Mazzolari 54 in the centre of the city. Incredible quality of seafood and dishes so well prepared and presented with flair. So happy to see them back in action. Will wrote about this restaurant and so did I in my blog.

We came of course to Pesaro for the yearly Opera Festival to its most famous son, Gioachino  Rossini. We would drive from Rome on excellent Italian roads through scenic and dramatic at times, mountain views.

City centre park, Piazzale della Liberta, the Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro has left his golden sphere monuments all over the world. One of them has become the symbol of Pesaro in Le Marche. Tell any person from Pesaro that you’ll meet them at ‘la palla di Pomodoro’, and they instantly know where to go.

Wishing everyone a Felice Ferragosto!

 

Ferragosto 15 Agosto

Tags

Beach, Canada., Charlottetown, Ferragosto, Italy, opera, Pesaro, Rossini, Sea

We did spend quite a few Ferragosto in Pesaro in the Marche region of Italy on the Adriatic attending the Rossini Opera Festival between 2007-2011. Lovely town and much fun, sun, music, seafood and beach, not to mention the good wines.

This year it’s Charlottetown and though there is no Rossini Opera Festival, we do have the beach, sun, wines and seafood on the Atlantic.

It was some of the best summer vacations ever, driving from Rome across Italy on those wonderful highways to Ancona and then North to Fano and Pesaro.

Sculpture in the sea side park in the centre of the City.

Ferragosto is the height of the vacation season in Italy when everything in cities like Rome is closed. Here in Charlottetown it is almost the end of the summer season and already the end of summer is announced. It was Emperor Augustus who instituted this holiday to celebrate his own birthday in 18 AD. So let’s enjoy those last days, Buon Ferragosto!

A chi è al mare e a chi è in montagna, a chi va al lago o preferisce la campagna. A chi è al lavoro e a chi è in riposo, e a chi si gode questo caldo afoso. A tutti quanti, amici e parenti, auguro un buon Ferragosto, che renda tutti più felici e contenti!

Remember Pesaro, Capri, Sicily

Tags

beef, Canada., Capri, Charlottetown, Cheese, cuisine, PEI, Pesaro, Seafood, Sicily, wines

A few weeks ago I wrote that our new home and now it is revealed it will be Charlottetown the Capital of the Province of Prince Edward Island. It has in common with these 3 places in Italy the following, with Pesaro on the Adriatic, music and culture, with Capri, it is an Island of great beauty and with Sicily, it has fine cuisine, seafood, beef, cheese and wines.

An aerial view of our neighbourhood, I can see our house on this photo (circled in red), in the Summer cruise ships come into the Harbour area on the Hillsborough river. You can see the entrance of the harbour giving unto the Northumberland Strait. From our living room window we can see down Prince street to the Harbour the ships as they dock.

So only 11 weeks left before we leave for PEI.

Pesaro, Capri or Sicilia?

Tags

art., Capri, culture, Etna, Food, Future, opera, PEI, Pesaro, Rossini, Sicily, Wine

Well we have been to those three places, Pesaro is a small town South of Rimini on the Adriatic Coast of Italy and the birth place of the celebrated Opera and Music composer Gioachino Rossini, Barber of Seville Fame. It is also a resort beach town with a long history, excellent restaurant, art galleries, culture, Italian Fashion Creations and a famous Opera Festival in August each year devoted to the music of its famous son, who did not live many years in Pesaro and preferred Paris. We love the place and had many wonderful times there.

 

Inside the Palazzo Moschi-Tosca in Pesaro, books as art installation.

Intermission during an opera performance, patrons on the square in front of the theatre. If you look closely you will see us in the crowd.

Capri, the Island in the bay of Naples, facing the Volcano Vesuvius. Capri is of course famous as a resort for Emperors like Tiberius and the millionaire jet-set, spectacular views, no beaches really because the Island is one big cliff and the few places where you could swim is made of narrow stretches below the cliffs of black flat stones, this is why the wealthy have pools instead. The restaurants are great, so are the hotels, most are small but luxurious, no motel 6 here, it is a lovely place to relax, the hordes of tourists are kept on paths, usually with a guide near to shops so they don’t disturb the peace of the Just. We visited once and I liked it but could not picture myself enjoying the languid lifestyle.

Sicily, we took our car from Rome on the ferry overnight and sailed for Palermo. We arrived at 7:30am and disembarked, we then spent 2 weeks travelling around this wonderful Island once part of greater Greece in Antiquity and then part of the Duchy of Normandy, then France, until the incident of the Sicilian Vespers, see opera of the same name, finally Spain until 1860. From Palermo we travelled to Trapani, Marsala, Mazara del Vallo, Agrigento, Gela, Ragusa, Noto, Siracusa and Catania.

A beautiful island full of surprises, spectacular views, great sea food, wonderful wines, a complex history separate from Italy and a rich ancient culture. Worth many return trips.

 The best quality Marsala wine you can buy, it is not for cooking, not at those prices and it is very good to drink!

Different variety of top quality Marsala wines served by Salvatore the owner of the Wine Bar La Sirena Ubriaca in Marsala.

Wonderful seafood we had in Marsala

Spanish architecture in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. Much of it built during the period of the Kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicily when Spain was ruling that part of the Peninsula.

Siracusa a wonderful city founded by the Greeks 2800 years ago. In the far distance the snow cap volcano Mount Etna.

The famous Greek Classical Theatre Festival of Siracusa, plays are in Greek. Telling all those famous story from Antiquity. Plays are performed in an ancient theatre built originally for that purpose in antiquity.

The small town of Noto and its beautiful architecture.

The symbol of Catania the little Elephant named Liotru, an old story involving a magician and his elephant made this the symbol of the city

Catania’s famous pastry known as the Tits of St-Agatha, delicious.

As seen from the centre of the City of Catania, Mount Etna acting up again. It is known as a gusher volcano not an explosive one, otherwise there would be no Catania today.

So why am I talking about these three places, yes we visited them and yes we enjoyed them immensely. But what is the connection with the future? Ah! there is the riddle, all three, Pesaro, Capri and Sicilia have a connection and point to events yet to come. So stay tuned, all will be revealed!

Ferragosto Weekend

Tags

corn, Ferragosto, Green Giant, Italy, Marche, Monteregie, Pesaro, Salaberry de valleyfield, St-Clet, St-Laurent

The word Ferragosto in Italian means Holiday in August. This holiday is the 15 August, Immaculate Conception, a religious holiday which extended for several weeks, usually starting around the 2 August and extending until 8 September. The Month of September was when the ”Season” started, this in Rome meant when the Pope returned to the City after spending the Summer at Castle Gandolfo about 30 minutes down the road outside the City. After 1870 the King of Italy and the Noble families of Rome and the Pope and the Noble Families at the Papal Court would have dinner parties etc. in their palaces.

Rome in August, can you hear the silence.

When we arrived in Rome on 1 August 2007 we found a ghost town, yes you had the tourists around the Forum but once you left that area the city fell into a strange silence. No traffic, closed shops and banks, no one anywhere, as if the city had been deserted. So in 2008 we did like everyone and decamped to Pesaro on the Adriatic, the birthplace of composer Rossini and found a delightful place devoted to an Opera Festival of his works, excellent seafood, wines and a beautiful city and region the Marche.

Pesaro, the piazza by the sea front

Food at the restaurant of Lorenzo Grazioli

This year, we were invited by my cousin Stephanie to her wedding to Kevin in Salaberry de Valleyfield which is located on Grande Ile, an island facing the Western tip of the Island of Montreal, on one side you have rapids and on the other the Seaway which since the 1950’s connects the St-Lawrence river to the great lakes and Toronto, allowing the large sea going ships to travel further into the heartland.

Salaberry de Valleyfield is an important National Historic site. During the war of 1812 the American Army was defeated by Colonel Charles-Michel d’Irumberry de Salaberry, a French Nobleman from Navarre who was at the service of the British Crown. The small city is quite lovely, with beautiful parks and a large marina. It has a very European feel. Many good restaurants, lovely things to see. Many famous Canadians come from this small town, Cardinal Paul-Emile Léger and his brother Jules Léger, Governor General of Canada. In 1860 the Pope Pius IX raised an army of Zouave, mostly zealous Catholic youths to fight in Italy against Garibaldi and his Italian troops to thwart their bid for independence from the Papal States and unify Italy as one country. There is a monument to that in the centre of town.

The monument as an homage to the Papacy of Pope Pius IX

the strange City Hall in a clearly Italian Fascist architectural style c.1930

View of the bay in front of our hotel

The rapids of the St-Charles river used by Kayak enthusiast to practice.

The wedding was held in an old historic Manor Grant surrounded by many ancient trees, the weather was perfect for the 15th August, sunny and hot. The wedding had been beautifully arranged and the ceremony took place in the garden of the Manor. It was a chance to see people I had not seen in many years. It was so nice to take this trip down.

On our return we decided to follow Road 201 North to Rigaud, going through small villages of less than 1000 people, like St-Clet (3rd Bishop of Rome), all villages with their big brick and stone Churches and numerous farms, all growing corn but also smaller crops of tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco and other vegetables. I remember as a child we would go to this area of the St-Lawrence river where Green Giant had a processing plant for corn niblets. This is the area on the Western tip of the Island of Montreal where the Outaouais River meets two large lakes, St-Louis and Deux Montagnes and the St-Lawrence, there are many islands in this area, rapids and farms. There was so much corn at the processing plant being delivered everyday that they sold a dozen ears of corn for .25 cents. It was always the best, sweet and rich buttery tasting.

Salaberry de Valleyfield is a quiet town of mix French-English culture, though many people only speak French. Many work in Montreal which is only 20 Km away and the suburban train serves the area on weekdays bringing people to Central Station in downtown Montreal.