If we’re moving into a debate on Italian v. British food then can I please join the mêlée?! I am an Italian who has lived almost all her life in places other than Italy, although I now have a holiday, soon-to be-retirement home, in Umbria, and I am married to a Brit. I love my food, full stop, as can be seen by my girth which is not a size “0”, and have decided that good food is what I like and not what others say is good. For example, my Roman mother cannot understand why I do not like tripe: “But it is delicious, especially if you cook it the Roman way, which is, of course, the best”. Yuk, however well it is cooked and wherever it comes from! Kidneys: “Oh, but steak and kidney pie is out of this world” says an English friend. Re-yuk! “Rognons à la moutarde done the French way” says a French friend “the ONLY way to eat kidneys!” Double re-yuk!! But you should see their faces when I say my Sicilian father’s favourite way of eating pasta is simply adding butter and...wait for it...MARMITE! So, now my parents, both Italian and in their 90s and back in Italy since the ‘70s, have a standing order with me for Marmite. Other items on their list? Dettol, biscuits, especially shortbread, jelly, tea, powdered gelatine, ’decent’ icing sugar without the addition of anti-caking agents, ‘proper’ dried fruit for their Christmas cake which is not panettone or pandoro but a good old-fashioned English fruit-cake, or their Easter cake which is a Simnel cake and not a colomba, treacle, golden syrup, and I could go on. However, if you ask either of them if Italian food is not good you get a cold stare and a brief “What a stupid question! It’s the best in the world!” My biggest gripe is Umbrian bread - I find it tasteless and boring, so I have resorted to buying all kinds of interesting flours here in Belgium and bringing it with me when I go to Italy and I make my own. My conclusion, especially when I look at what I bring back from the UK when I go over, is that some things have become part of my culinary heritage and “good” doesn’t come into it. I make a killer lasagne but I also make an awesome Shepherd’s Pie and fantastic Waterzooi. The latter being a Belgian dish of chicken or seafood stewed in a creamy leek, carrot and onion base and served with mash. So, if you can get a good client base of people who miss the strangest of things, I say, go for it, I wouldn't buy baked beans but I would buy Refreshers!
First of all, I would like to say that I have NO idea what laws govern importing foodstuffs into Italy . I would just like to tell you about an English store here in Belgium. This has now been running since 1982. It all began when the founder, who worked for an oil company, would bring sweets back from his regular trips to the UK for his children who would take them to the British School, to their schoolmates’ great envy! As a result, he was asked by them to set up an English sweet stall at his children’s Fancy Fair at the school. The sweets barely made it onto the stall! Over time, he would bring back more and more stuff in his car until he realised that he could make more money by just setting up shop, which he did. We now have an enormous British shop just outside Brussels (http://www.stonemanor.uk.com/) with a very good selection of British and some American food products and which has expanded into books, magazines, cards, household goods, furniture (!)… It has been a great success, albeit with problems along the way, not least planning permission from the local Flemish commune who don’t really like to see “foreign” competition. My only connection with the shop is that, from time to time, I potter along to buy Refreshers which I love, magazines and “cardboard bread” (Mother’s Pride) which my son loves!
I don’t like to sound too negative but…“Andate con i piedi di piombo!” An Italian saying for “God, be careful!” I had a look at the Tricali website and cannot believe that these days €25 000 can buy you anything in re-constructed property terms even in village locations in Southern Italy, much less furnished, even if cheaply. How do they do it? You’ve probably thought about all this anyway, but I think you must really make sure you don’t get so carried away by the beauty of the area (Basilicata is fantastic – we used to spend part of our summer holidays there as children) that you allow yourselves to forget your natural caution. I have a friend involved the construction field in l’Aquila and she says make sure you have the services of a good notaio if you plan on going further with the purchase once you’ve seen what’s on offer. Make sure it is not a notaio connected in ANY way with the company. She doesn’t know the company so can’t give me any information about them. She also says that prices in Abruzzo have risen since the earthquake because people who were re-located from l’Aquila and the surrounding areas have decided to settle where they moved to and prices have gone up as a result – the usual demand/supply equation. She doesn’t know about the Basilicata region but suspects that caution and extreme care need to be exercised before any financial decision is taken. Don’t part with your money until and unless you have spoken to others who have bought in the area with the company and proof of your purchase clutched in your hands first. Good hunting, anyway!
No trim needed = non serve il taglio Just a wash and blow-dry = solo lavati e asciugati Dry hair conditioner = balsamo per capelli secchi Please put plenty of curl and bounce in it = li faccia belli e ricci e spumosi Use plenty of hairspray = ci metta molta lacca
My husband decided to make limoncello last summer, so we got up at the crack of dawn to get to our Ipercoop in Terni, which has a regular delivery of Amalfi lemons but which disappear within 10 minutes of being put out! Being unable to find a proper recipe, he just went with instinct and used the 95° alcohol and then tried to remember a recipe a Calabrian friend had mentioned passing 2 years ago. The result is a fantastic lemon-flavoured super-alcoholic drink, enough to blow your socks off and NOT really to be drunk at all unless you want to end up in an alcohol-induced coma. We have a Dutch friend who says he can drink anything as long as it is alcoholic and he scoffed at us when we said our limoncello was perhaps a little too potent…he’s still spluttering and coughing two weeks later! I think we might try Valentina’s suggestion – I have a feeling that my husband used very much less water than the amount given in the recipe. If it works, I’ll keep you posted. Hic! Hic!
Just a quick addition: my parents live close to Ostia Antica so we visited quite a lot with the kids until about 5 years ago. Sitting to eat your lunch was not a problem. We just sat on the steps of the theatre/arena, where everyone else sat. The children then had fun finding the right spot down on the "stage" which had the perfect acoustics - they would whisper and we would tell them, from the top, if we could hear them. It would keep them happy for ages!
I am an Italian citizen living abroad and, when I bought our one and only house in Italy, I wrote a letter to my notary saying that, as a registered AIRE citizen (Anagrafe degli italiani residenti all’estero), I was invoking my right to buying the house with the lower tax rate. Actually, it ended up being a little more complicated because I SHOULD have handed it over to the notary at the atto but wasn’t aware of this and then sent it on later. Serious mistake...because in the meantime, the tax people in Perugia decided that, since I hadn’t taken up residence within the stipulated 2-year period, they were going to charge me the extra tax PLUS a fine for all the years up to and including the one when they sent me the fine – it all came to about €4000 which I did not have handy. However, I am not Italian for nothing! I found a commercialista who, for the princely sum of €250, was more than ready to take on the Perugia tax office and he fought them for 3 months – when he decided to take them to court, they backed down fast and I now have a letter from them which accepts my status as originally declared and the fine was cancelled. A little note: as an AIRE member, this means I don’t pay the annual ICI tax but my English husband does…However, my commercialista says this may change when the house is finally declared abitabile and is re-valued from farmhouse to villa. We’ll see.
The man we bought our house from has another one closer to the paese and, while we were waiting for the notary to call us in, we started chatting about his houses and why he was selling the lovely old farm house we were buying and he was hanging on to the 70s horror up the road. The answer was obvious to him – the farmhouse had no olive trees (this is Umbria, you understand!). Then he paused and added thoughtfully, “Actually, if I calculate the upkeep of the trees, the labour costs and the frantoio costs, each litre of oil I produce costs me €100! Perhaps you’ve got a bargain!”. He is a retired urologist and doesn’t actually produce his oil commercially but he says that his friends and relatives get an excellent but VERY expensive oil as gifts every year.
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If we’re moving into a debate on Italian v. British food then can I please join the mêlée?! I am an Italian who has lived almost all her life in places other than Italy, although I now have a holiday, soon-to be-retirement home, in Umbria, and I am married to a Brit. I love my food, full stop, as can be seen by my girth which is not a size “0”, and have decided that good food is what I like and not what others say is good. For example, my Roman mother cannot understand why I do not like tripe: “But it is delicious, especially if you cook it the Roman way, which is, of course, the best”. Yuk, however well it is cooked and wherever it comes from! Kidneys: “Oh, but steak and kidney pie is out of this world” says an English friend. Re-yuk! “Rognons à la moutarde done the French way” says a French friend “the ONLY way to eat kidneys!” Double re-yuk!! But you should see their faces when I say my Sicilian father’s favourite way of eating pasta is simply adding butter and...wait for it...MARMITE! So, now my parents, both Italian and in their 90s and back in Italy since the ‘70s, have a standing order with me for Marmite. Other items on their list? Dettol, biscuits, especially shortbread, jelly, tea, powdered gelatine, ’decent’ icing sugar without the addition of anti-caking agents, ‘proper’ dried fruit for their Christmas cake which is not panettone or pandoro but a good old-fashioned English fruit-cake, or their Easter cake which is a Simnel cake and not a colomba, treacle, golden syrup, and I could go on. However, if you ask either of them if Italian food is not good you get a cold stare and a brief “What a stupid question! It’s the best in the world!” My biggest gripe is Umbrian bread - I find it tasteless and boring, so I have resorted to buying all kinds of interesting flours here in Belgium and bringing it with me when I go to Italy and I make my own. My conclusion, especially when I look at what I bring back from the UK when I go over, is that some things have become part of my culinary heritage and “good” doesn’t come into it. I make a killer lasagne but I also make an awesome Shepherd’s Pie and fantastic Waterzooi. The latter being a Belgian dish of chicken or seafood stewed in a creamy leek, carrot and onion base and served with mash. So, if you can get a good client base of people who miss the strangest of things, I say, go for it, I wouldn't buy baked beans but I would buy Refreshers!
First of all, I would like to say that I have NO idea what laws govern importing foodstuffs into Italy . I would just like to tell you about an English store here in Belgium. This has now been running since 1982. It all began when the founder, who worked for an oil company, would bring sweets back from his regular trips to the UK for his children who would take them to the British School, to their schoolmates’ great envy! As a result, he was asked by them to set up an English sweet stall at his children’s Fancy Fair at the school. The sweets barely made it onto the stall! Over time, he would bring back more and more stuff in his car until he realised that he could make more money by just setting up shop, which he did. We now have an enormous British shop just outside Brussels (http://www.stonemanor.uk.com/) with a very good selection of British and some American food products and which has expanded into books, magazines, cards, household goods, furniture (!)… It has been a great success, albeit with problems along the way, not least planning permission from the local Flemish commune who don’t really like to see “foreign” competition. My only connection with the shop is that, from time to time, I potter along to buy Refreshers which I love, magazines and “cardboard bread” (Mother’s Pride) which my son loves!
I don’t like to sound too negative but…“Andate con i piedi di piombo!” An Italian saying for “God, be careful!” I had a look at the Tricali website and cannot believe that these days €25 000 can buy you anything in re-constructed property terms even in village locations in Southern Italy, much less furnished, even if cheaply. How do they do it? You’ve probably thought about all this anyway, but I think you must really make sure you don’t get so carried away by the beauty of the area (Basilicata is fantastic – we used to spend part of our summer holidays there as children) that you allow yourselves to forget your natural caution. I have a friend involved the construction field in l’Aquila and she says make sure you have the services of a good notaio if you plan on going further with the purchase once you’ve seen what’s on offer. Make sure it is not a notaio connected in ANY way with the company. She doesn’t know the company so can’t give me any information about them. She also says that prices in Abruzzo have risen since the earthquake because people who were re-located from l’Aquila and the surrounding areas have decided to settle where they moved to and prices have gone up as a result – the usual demand/supply equation. She doesn’t know about the Basilicata region but suspects that caution and extreme care need to be exercised before any financial decision is taken. Don’t part with your money until and unless you have spoken to others who have bought in the area with the company and proof of your purchase clutched in your hands first. Good hunting, anyway!
No trim needed = non serve il taglio Just a wash and blow-dry = solo lavati e asciugati Dry hair conditioner = balsamo per capelli secchi Please put plenty of curl and bounce in it = li faccia belli e ricci e spumosi Use plenty of hairspray = ci metta molta lacca
My husband decided to make limoncello last summer, so we got up at the crack of dawn to get to our Ipercoop in Terni, which has a regular delivery of Amalfi lemons but which disappear within 10 minutes of being put out! Being unable to find a proper recipe, he just went with instinct and used the 95° alcohol and then tried to remember a recipe a Calabrian friend had mentioned passing 2 years ago. The result is a fantastic lemon-flavoured super-alcoholic drink, enough to blow your socks off and NOT really to be drunk at all unless you want to end up in an alcohol-induced coma. We have a Dutch friend who says he can drink anything as long as it is alcoholic and he scoffed at us when we said our limoncello was perhaps a little too potent…he’s still spluttering and coughing two weeks later! I think we might try Valentina’s suggestion – I have a feeling that my husband used very much less water than the amount given in the recipe. If it works, I’ll keep you posted. Hic! Hic!
Oh, I love it!!!
...my daughter's favourite when she was 8 and I still laugh Why is 6 scared of 7? ... ... ... because 7 8 9 (7 ate 9)
Just a quick addition: my parents live close to Ostia Antica so we visited quite a lot with the kids until about 5 years ago. Sitting to eat your lunch was not a problem. We just sat on the steps of the theatre/arena, where everyone else sat. The children then had fun finding the right spot down on the "stage" which had the perfect acoustics - they would whisper and we would tell them, from the top, if we could hear them. It would keep them happy for ages!
I am an Italian citizen living abroad and, when I bought our one and only house in Italy, I wrote a letter to my notary saying that, as a registered AIRE citizen (Anagrafe degli italiani residenti all’estero), I was invoking my right to buying the house with the lower tax rate. Actually, it ended up being a little more complicated because I SHOULD have handed it over to the notary at the atto but wasn’t aware of this and then sent it on later. Serious mistake...because in the meantime, the tax people in Perugia decided that, since I hadn’t taken up residence within the stipulated 2-year period, they were going to charge me the extra tax PLUS a fine for all the years up to and including the one when they sent me the fine – it all came to about €4000 which I did not have handy. However, I am not Italian for nothing! I found a commercialista who, for the princely sum of €250, was more than ready to take on the Perugia tax office and he fought them for 3 months – when he decided to take them to court, they backed down fast and I now have a letter from them which accepts my status as originally declared and the fine was cancelled. A little note: as an AIRE member, this means I don’t pay the annual ICI tax but my English husband does…However, my commercialista says this may change when the house is finally declared abitabile and is re-valued from farmhouse to villa. We’ll see.
The man we bought our house from has another one closer to the paese and, while we were waiting for the notary to call us in, we started chatting about his houses and why he was selling the lovely old farm house we were buying and he was hanging on to the 70s horror up the road. The answer was obvious to him – the farmhouse had no olive trees (this is Umbria, you understand!). Then he paused and added thoughtfully, “Actually, if I calculate the upkeep of the trees, the labour costs and the frantoio costs, each litre of oil I produce costs me €100! Perhaps you’ve got a bargain!”. He is a retired urologist and doesn’t actually produce his oil commercially but he says that his friends and relatives get an excellent but VERY expensive oil as gifts every year.