Tagged as 20th century Australia , Abruzzo heritage , family reunion , Italian migrant families , Italian migrant stories , Italian migration , Italian-Australian , migrant families , migrant stories. Life in Abruzzo is currently doing a series called, My Nonni from Abruzzo that looks at how such migrant heritage may reach well beyond its original Italian borders to other areas of the world through the influence of grandparents.
Such a pleasure to be asked to contribute and be among these family stories. Tagged as Abruzzesi heritage , Abruzzo heritage , Fossa Abruzzo , influence of grandparents , Italian family stories , Italian heritage , Italian migrant stories , migrant heritage influence , migrant stories , my Nonni from Abruzzo.
The original Fossa church, built early s, Santa Maria ad Cryptas , damaged and braced when I saw it soon after the earthquake as aftershocks occurred. Fingers crossed it continues and gains momentum. This hillside speckled with wildflowers could perhaps be out of Little House on the Prairie but is in Abruzzo where, incidentally, many spaghetti westerns were filmed in the s and 70s.
At the time, I was too overwhelmed by the earthquake to take it in much but later found out this castle was built in the 12th century with walls around a metre thick, up to seven metres high and also a moat, enabling it to retain its defenses for nearly years. Have just completed work on the next book fingers crossed! Tagged as Abruzzo , Fossa Abruzzo , Italian family stories , Italian migrant stories , Italy , second generation migrants. Tagged as Abruzzo , family history , family house Italy , Fossa Abruzzo , Fossa Abruzzo saints , Italian migrant stories , migrant families , migrant stories , via dei Beati Fossa.
These bronze, wild boar cinghiale sculptures are replicas of the original by Pietro Tacca commissioned by Cosimo II de Medici in that is now in the Museo Bardini. Tagged as cinghiale , il porcellino , il porcellino Florence , il porcellino Sydney , Italian sculpture , Pietro Tacca , the little pig. Exactly 30 years later, I took the other photo from almost the same spot.
He was about 52 in that photo, perhaps when the time comes I should try getting the similar shot at the same age!
Much of the village remains empty. And now, thieves have broken into the house. They mainly upturned drawers adding to the mess of earthquake damage, since belongings inside are mostly of sentimental value, but of course it is another blow. My mother on the left was just twenty-two at the time when she and my Dad were the first to travel back to the house after the family migrated to Australia decades earlier.
Pierina on the right is the relative who lived in the house and kept it maintained all those years before the family could return. This was taken in Fossa just before Christmas in Tagged as Abruzzo earthquake , after the earthquake Italy , family history Abruzzo , family history Italy , family house Italy , Fossa , Fossa Abruzzo , old family photographs. So lovely to have my hometown honour its history of Italian migrants in this gesture.
Auguri per Festa della Repubblica to all those with an Italian migrant connection!!
It still has an impact when I think back to when I saw it twelve years ago. The crowds, the food, the anticipation, the snakes… Most of all, I came away with a feeling of euphoria. I mentioned in Mezza Italiana that I reached out and touched one of the snakes it was one of those held in the third last picture. The last picture is a painting Estella Canziani did of the festival for San Domenico back in Compared to when I was there 92 years later, it seemed little had changed…. Tagged as Abruzzo festivals , Cocullo , Cocullo Abruzzo , Cocullo snake festival , Italian festivals , Italy snake festival , serpent festival , snake festival.
These are just a few of the lanes that wind under, over and around the village and to me they are magical. Some tunnels have small frescoes and lanterns in them. Most are just wide enough for a tiny car, others only able to be walked. I took these photographs with black and white film and an old Pentax camera more than a decade ago while staying in the village writing Mezza Italiana.
Tagged as Abruzzo , black and white photographs , Fossa , Fossa Abruzzo , Italian lanes , Italian laneways , Italian village , Mezza Italiana , village dog , village lanes. Making pasta alla chitarra just as my Abruzzese great-grandmother, Maddalena used to make. A sheet of pasta is laid over the strings and pressed through with a rolling pin, slicing it into strips.
I like how in a way cooking can bring together different generations, even after some are long gone, as only handed-down recipes can do. Tagged as Abruzzo pasta , bringing together generations , cooking family recipes , handed-down recipes , Italian family recipes , Italian food , pasta , pasta alla chitarra , pasta chitarra , pasta gravy.
I took this from the tiny balcony of the house in Fossa.
As Roger walked along the laneway below on his way to the Boccabella shop and passed someone on their phone, he had no idea I was taking a photograph from above. It is some years ago now, at a time when we were staying in the family house at the village in Abruzzo for a month and I was starting to write Mezza Italiana. It feels so strange to know that the damaged house now stands empty and the village a ghost town since the earthquake. But I also feel so fortunate and grateful for the times I got to the experience the village at its happy and lively best, the connection it gave me to family and for the stories it has given, and hopefully will continue to give.
A much younger me at the window of the medieval Castle Ocre above Fossa in Abruzzo…. I never expected the impact this journey would have, how it would come to be something I would write about or that the castle would be badly damaged by earthquake and partially collapse thirteen years later. Change is constant — both the good and the difficult.
I hope this fresh year brings you a lovely, new experience no matter how small or large that may come to make you look back and feel such surprise and gladness. Tante belle cose, Zoe xx. And both northern and southern Italy represented! There was once a time when it was unusual to see even a panettone in the supermarket of an Australian capital city let alone a smaller town. So lovely how food can quietly keep on bringing different cultures together! Tagged as fig tronchetto , food bring cultures together , Italian Christmas sweets , Italian food , Italian-Australian , panettone , panforte.
It was lovely to walk along the lanes below and listen to the bell tolling the time of day or to hear it from afar when you were on your way back to the village. Originally built in the s, the church was expanded during the s and then partly rebuilt following the earthquake of I took this photograph with my old Pentax camera on black and white film.
This hand-embroidered pillow sham from s Calabria travelled in the hull of a ship across the world to a new life in Australia and remained tucked away for many decades… a keepsake of another place and life that might have been. Filed under italy , vintage linens. Tagged as Calabria , Calabria needlework , embroidery , glory box , hand-embroidered , Italian embroidery , Italian linen. Stretti abbracciati to all in Accumoli, Amatrice, Arquata del Tronto, Pescara del Tronto and the surrounding towns to have faced the most recent earthquake in central Italy.
I have not experienced such a terremoto though being in Abruzzo weeks after the earthquake I saw up close the devastation on towns and the despair and pain wrought on people and animals. I keep thinking of those who are currently living through this tragedy and those survivors of who felt the quake being fifty kilometres south. Both quakes occurred just after 3. While the people of the Apennine Mountains in central Italy are strong and know living amid such exquisite beauty has its underside, this is a great blow to bear when recovery is still ongoing from the earthquake.
There were those who experienced it and moved north to be safer and have now had the trauma of another. Again, abbracci to all…. It is such a thrill, especially to think back to when I first started writing Mezza in a notebook on the kitchen table in the Abruzzo house of my family. What might the generations who sat there before me have thought?! I am very grateful! Costa Viola …the Violet Coast of west Calabria when I took this the violet colour of melding sea and sky seemed even more vibrant in reality.
The house is now gone but I took this from the street where it stood. Those hills across the sea in the distance are in Sicily. Though hard to spot, the tall-masted boats on the sea are sword-fishing boats. Tagged as Abruzzo earthquake , Abruzzo after earthquake , Abruzzo earthquake anniversary , church in Paganica , L'Aquila after earthquake. This window in the small house in Italy, that has sheltered different generations of my family for centuries, is my favourite. It is the tiniest and gives a view out over the village of Fossa like peering from a cubby house.
I also love that it shows how thick the stone walls are. Currently, the house still stands uninhabited and damaged as it was from the day of the earthquake back in but the good news is, after a long wait, it seems several villagers are now in the process of their houses starting to be repaired. A new year stretches ahead and there is something thrilling and also sobering in not knowing where our paths may meander as the months unfold.
Hope this year is a wonderful one for you that brings much happiness! At the time, it was years since the Uffizi Gallery officially opened to the public in and I love the thought that perhaps standing in this spot a couple of centuries ago with everyone wearing the clothing of the time, we could still look up and see almost the same view…. Recently, I cooked the first in my new lasagne dish from Umbria. In Roman times, they cooked sheets of pasta in a dish similar to lasagne and therefore it is possibly one of the original pasta dishes.
Filed under australia , italy , kitchen stories. Tagged as Italian , italian cooking , Italian food , Italian migrants Australia , lasagne , lasagne dish , traditional lasagne. This sign might be familiar to those who have bought a bus or lottery ticket, tobacco or, until recent years, salt in Italy. However, we took this photo in Australia, not Italy, after spotting the sign hidden along a Melbourne laneway.
Another little bit of Italy in the hearts of those in Australia. Looking forward to heading back to Melbourne again in March! Giuseppe Joe Castellana was taught by his Nonno in Sicily how to play the zufolo an Italian flute dating back to the 14th century. These crispy ribbons of pastry dusted with sugar are a sweet popular for centuries throughout Italy and across Europe and Asia.
In Italy, they are traditionally eaten at the time of Carnevale, when cities, towns and villages celebrate their historical connections. They are best if light and flaky but still crunchy with some substance. Serves a good gathering chatting over coffee or sweet fortified wine.
Tagged as carnival sweets , chiacchiere , cooking , crostole , crostoli , crostoli recipe , culinary , eating , Food and Related Products , Italian food , Italian sweets , Italian sweets recipes , Italy , sfogliatelle. Tagged as Abruzzo , cheese , culinary , eating , food , Fossa , Italian food , Italian village life , Italy , L'Aquila , olives , pecorino , wine.
Aware of festivals and holy days in each town, the Madonnari would travel to different provinces throughout Italy to eke out a living from observers who would throw coins if they approved of the work.
Pepe explained he makes a living based solely on donations and never sells his paintings. Once they are completed, he gives them away to charitable organisations that then raise money by auctioning his paintings. Tagged as charitable art , Circular Quay , Italian street painting , Madonnari , Madonnaro , pavement art , Pepe gaka , street painting , Sydney. For the first time, we recently saw a piano accordion orchestra concert.
It was great, some of the music taking me back to attending those big Italian weddings when I was a child and also our family gatherings when my uncle sometimes played the piano accordion. Of course, there were a couple of classics played, including Volare and Funiculi Funicula. Tagged as Funiculi Funicula , piano accordion , piano accordion concert , piano accordion music , piano accordion orchestra , Volare.
Came across the display as part of an Italian migrant exhibition at the Commissariat Store Museum in Brisbane. Along with some bomboniere… below familiar to Italian weddings, christenings and communions. We Italians are the best trash producers in the world and one evening finally there boast.
His sets are not obvious and trivial as an episode of Men and Women and always keeps a watchful eye on the pasta It ranges so the 60 Italians beat up to the latest electro passing the 70 80 and This page may have been translated using the Google automatic translate engine; please excuse any mistakes this translation might have. ZOE , cocktail bar Address: Zoe Via dei Renai, 13r, Florence Date: Saturday 19 December Other events on Saturday 19 December: Location on the map. Jazz Club Firenze Open from Mercato Centrale Firenze The comfortable streetfood from Winter Suite Winter Suite, new local south Florence, for an adult audience.
Since , a meeting place and breeding ground of ancient tastes and traditions. A night of a thousand emotions, to be consumed in one breath, wearing your best dress New Year's Eve Party Tour - 3 disco-club tour: Florentine New Year at the Rubaconte Restaurant In the heart of Florence, there is the Restaurant il Rubaconte, a quiet island where you can spend an excellent evening in the name of privacy, good humor and excellent cuisine. Medieval New Year at the Antico Spedale del Bigallo in Florence Take part in an evocative banquet at the Antico Spedale del Bigallo , a medieval and grandiose building along the ancient and steep stretch of Via Aretina, founded in at the gates of authentic medieval Florence.
New Year's Eve at the Osteria Dei Baroncelli in Florence In the historic city center you can taste the best dishes of Tuscan and Italian cuisine prepared with care and passion by our talented chef Costantino. All products are fresh, not precooked and rigorously prepared in our kitchens Tuscan New Year at the Trattoria Da Benvenuto The longest night of the year deserves a special atmosphere, and a full-flavored dinner!