Bella Toscana is finally operating. A warm welcome to all those interested in participating in the group.
Gala Placidia's activity
Questions Asked
Testing the group. Can you help by posting something to see whether it is working?
Mon, 10/24/2011 - 10:45
I just heard that the Italian MotoGP pilot Marco Simoncelli has died in a horrific accident at Sepang (Malaysia) during the Grand Prix.
Sun, 10/23/2011 - 08:32
This is "funghi porcini" time and you will find them sold fresh everywhere. A great time to enjoy them. There are many ways to prepare them: sauces, garnishes, omelettes, pasta....
Sat, 10/22/2011 - 14:31
Further to previous posts and threads, I did not get an answer from Admin regarding the current status for "Northern Tuscany" group... Consequently, I decided to do something different and I requested the creation of a new group...
Wed, 10/19/2011 - 11:08
Could anyone explain why it is not possible to access the Northern Tuscany Group? I am supposed to be its Administrator and I have not received any information regarding this.
Tue, 10/18/2011 - 04:54
We are just back from a n enjoyable week in Rome and I must mention the great coffee we had at Piazza Sant'Eustachio, a sort of "sanctuary" for all coffee lovers.
Tue, 05/24/2011 - 03:52
We were driving around Lucca when I saw at a newsagent a headline from regional newspaper "Il Tirreno" stating that the Royal couple were coming to Lucca during their honeymoon.
Fri, 04/29/2011 - 12:25
I travel to San Francisco, California, quite frequently as my two daughters live there. I love the city and I have always noticed its strong Italian influence.
Mon, 03/28/2011 - 06:25
Comments posted
I agree, Sprostoni. But then... whose interest are they serving? On the other hand, I will not put the blame on Wall Street alone, SirTK. We nicely got ourselves into this mess we are in. We could say that it all started with the American "toxic" mortgages, but then, the European banks copied the system, gave away big mortgages to people who would not normally qualify and over properties which were worth only a fraction of the money they were lending and also bought those toxic American "investment packages"... Ambitious young brokers were allowed to play "roulette" with little or no supervision (at least this is what the banks say). It's absolute madness!!!! Well, according to an old Mayan prophecy, the world is coming to an end on the 21st of December 2012, so perhaps we do not have to worry that much. It will sort itself out then...
I do not think that changing governments, and this applies not only to Italy, will bring any benefits to anyone. At the same time, this is a crisis that stems from a profoundly wrong economic system and we cannot blame specific people in government for this collapse. It is incredible to see how the stock exchange, throughout the world, reacts to any speculation, which convinces me that all what they are doing is gambling as if they were in a big, global casino. The problem is that the number of players is very small, but we, the ordinary people, pay for the damage they cause. We all need substantial reforms as the current system is not working.
Berlusconi is in deep trouble now. We shall see what happens on Tuesday: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/05/us-italy-berlusconi-idUSTRE7A41PI20111105
Extreme weather conditions all over the world and a few earthquakes... Not very reassuring.
Some time ago, I saw on French TV a program on "wwoofers" coming to help farmers who cannot afford to hire outside help. I tried to find a link, but for those who can speak French there is this article from "La Dépêche Marseillaise" http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2009/03/16/574001-milhas-des-benevoles-accueillis-pour-travailler-dans-une-ferme-bio.html which covers what was said in the program. I think that it is a great idea.
I totally agree with Raggio and this brings us back to the discussion we had in another thread: http://www.italymag.co.uk/community/post/italian-cookware Copper was particularly dangerous as it can leak. Same thing with aluminium, which is nowadays linked to Alzheimer's disease. The acidic content in tomatoes could cause unwanted reactions. Even nowadays, some people do not tolerate very well their acidic content and it is sometimes recommended to remove skins and seeds and evento add some baking soda. There are some experiments being made to create tomatoes with a lesser acidic content and some people with digestive problems do not tolerate them very well. Basically, cooking and food science is chemistry in action. For this reason, cast iron and ceramic cookware are excellent, but copper is nowadays treated to avoid the problems that existed in the past.
Enter the keywords "olive yield" in the search engine and you will get lots of information.
It is true that chutney improves over time and it also looses the vinegar flavour. It also keeps very well for several months.... if you can resist from eating it.... I would say that this chutney will be great to accompany a frittata (perhaps a zucchini one).
I think that this link gives very useful information about health cover entitlements throughout the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=559
I agree with Alma, those villages have been there for years, centuries, you cannot forecast something like what happened. Unfortunately, it looks as if the weather is not improving and they say that as from tomorrow there could be more problems: http://www.tmnews.it/web/sezioni/top10/20111031_174015.shtml