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Published: December 27th 2004
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Vicenza-on our way to Christmas Eve lunch
About an hour west of Venice, Vicenza has a beautiful center with lots of medieval architecture and is a lively at Christmas with lights, markets and sweets. Christmas in Vicenza
For one who loves and appreciates not only food but talking, laughing and eating it too, Christmas with Ebe and family (the cousin of my father) in Vicenza, Italy is a gift to the palate and heart. I have just returned to Firenze after 2 full days of eating. Literally. Christmas, though very different than the Christmas my heart was fully missing with family in Connecticut, was still filled with the warmth of family. I was lucky enough to join in on the festivities-being lunch AND dinner, around which we cook, eat, chat, smoke (well, 75% of us), laugh, drink, chat and eat a bit more. My Vicentino family is wonderful and big and open. On Thursday when I arrived, my first meal was a steaming dish of pastina and instantly my nervousness melted (how would, could Christmas be here? When I’m not there?). The rest of the weekend followed, as I met all sorts of relatives (one even, the wife of another of my father’s cousins, the son of Lydia, my grandmother’s sister, while we were in Vicenza center admiring the holiday lights and market with hot chocolate and a machiaone (for Ebe, a LARGE macchiato!),
however distant, and tried various new traditional dishes in various company.
On Friday, Christmas Eve, we joined Ebe’s nephew named Umberto and his family for lunch. (Remember that when I speak of lunch or dinner, the event lasts minimally 3 hours) Umberto (his wife Maria Chiara and son, Filippo) is the son of Ebe’s late husband Mario’s brother Giacomo. Along with the sister of Umberto’s wife and her husband, I enjoyed a traditional meal, accompanied by several rounds of a vary enjoyable and energetic “brindisi” in which we all sing and toast each other with a glass full of Proseco. There the menu consisted of:
-acciughe (sardines) in vari modi (alcuni con pepperoni, caperi, pepperoncini, etc)
-Bigoli con la sardea (again, sardine in a thick, spaghetti-like pasta. Delicious and salty)
-Bacala alla Vicentina , con Polenta (bacala is a white dried/dehydrated fish that is then “revived” and cooked with olive oil, onions, etc)
-Mostarda e mascarpone (mostarda is a candied fruit mixture eaten with mascarpone cheese)
-Pannetone e fichi canditi ricoperti di ciocolate fondente (chocolate covered figs)
After lunch, Ebe and I made it to Santa Corona in centro di Vicenza, where we attended a 5:30pm Christmas eve
mass. There were hundreds there, and many found a place to sit or stand on the sides. While the service went on, and I sat in a side chapel facing the congregation, I watched young children and their interaction with their parents…and could only think how much I missed and loved my own traditions, however simple they may be. How much I missed my family and every tiny thing that meant Christmas to me, to us. The choir was beautiful, and included several classical songs that I’d sun in the past (Silent Night, traditional, but also O Magnum) as well as a delight and a surprise, a german song that my mother sang to me as a lullaby when I was young. My gift for the evening, a reminder of home.
Much later that evening I enjoyed a meal in a small trattoria in the hills of Vicenza with Marianella, Michele and friends. Always a lively crew and I enjoy (or perhaps they more that I play the role) of the ambassador of all things American. J
Saturday, Christmas Day.
Get ready. There are at least 5 pots on the stove, and there are a few more ready
and waiting, chilled, on the terrace. Ebe has everything planned and in place. Guests come for Christmas lunch at 1pm. And yet, we have time even more a round of cards here and there. She beats me, and giggles while doing so.
The menu today?
-Antipasti (olives, salame, crackers/bread, stuffed pepperoncini)
-Lasagne con funghi porcini (lasagne here are like fettucini)
-Bolito misto (mixed boiled meats…and man, do these Vicentini like meat!!)
-lingua (yes, cow tongue), cotechino (a roll of ground meat), manzo, cappone (type of chicken)
-kraute (saur kraute) e patate pure (mashed potato), sfmormato cavofiore (a casserole with cauliflower and cheese)
-Gallina faraona in agrodolce (an amazing dish with a type of fowl with raisens, pignoli, orange peel)
-cippoline (small onions)
-mandorlato (honey cooked with almonds and then cooled, white and nougaty) pandoro e pannetone, fruit
On Christmas Day we include Ebe, her cousin Umberto and wife and son and their aunt (who cooked the amazing gallina faroano at 80 something years old!) Also, his sister (Annalisa) and her husband and son. Marianella joins us, as well as Maurizio and Sofia along with their two very intelligent and cute (carine e brave figlie) daughters whom I have
not seen in a very long time. It is wonderful to talk to family and be able to communicate better than I ever have before, as the language is my means to connect. I was most nervous talking to the kids because they looked at me with such curiousity and eager eyes! I felt silly not being able to speak to them, but they had such patience with me when I fumbled for a word! Ebe runs around with the food, up and down the stairs several dozen times, and yet she is never out of breath and always ready to provide some sort of story. Her laugh is strong and hearty. Michele is telling stories and has a wonderful sarcastic humor that tends to run in the Pinton-side of the family as well. Marianella and I watch and chat. After every plate, most get up to go outside and smoke, which leaves a few of us (women) to gossip. I am full and happy and content. I do think, however, that this Christmas I realize just how much the little things, that happen every year, over and over so much that you don’t realize the routine, are where love
and meaning hide.
a few random things. Older women wear their long, lavish fur coats and pearl and diamond drop earrings when they go to the mini market for pecorino and pasta. Half of the people in this little city are either students or citizens over 60. This makes for an interesting combination of patience (or lack of) and tolerance, and a diffusion of values and culture. The young are mostly NON-native and the old have little tolerance for anything BUT what was native. I have not seen a more ACTIVE over 60 crowd however, as they are in general incredibly active here-both physically and mentally. The best dressed men are the grey-haired crowd (not to mention that MANY of the young Italian men I see (always in a crowds and rarely very welcoming to outsiders or passengers) are the bus drivers, who wear black and white Puma sneakers, blue pants and shirt, as well as jacket…with well- coifed hair and shaped goatees.)
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