Well when I don't feel like cooking and I don't want to really go out for a long dinner there is an option, sort of. The photo is of two little trays of food I bought at the butcher place. These things are available in most butcher shoes or other food stores. I have one tray of stuffed cannoli pasta and the other is not just potatos. It's the wonderful potatos, rice, and cozze (black mussels).

I'll put up photos and write more just as soon as blogger stops screwing around. I'm worried I may not be able to post today if I don't post now.!!

Antitourism in Brindisi

Well I'm cooling down a little after being pissed off at Brindisi this morning (I have Nora Jones playing while I write this). I guess I got of bed with the wrong state of mind. I had my first person push "my button" this morning at 8:00 AM!!!!! Porca... Mannaa... I immediately remembered a little conversation with my landlord. He asked if was ok if the man to clean the caldaie (water heater) comes on Saturday morning. I foolishly said yes so there he was at exactly 8:00 AM ringing my bell! I jumped out of bed. I rang him into the building and threw clothes over my pajamas. Thirty minutes later he's gone and I think he spent most of the time writing the bill but that doesn't matter because now I can't go back to sleep.
I decide this a perfect chance to do something I've been meaning to do. You see the photo in this post is of the wonderful "Sailor's Monument" made by everyone's friend Mussolini. I have been tharwted at least three times from going up to the top to savour the wonderful views of Brindisi. This time I was going to be there in time. It's only open in the morning so Saturday morning is my only chance. I get over there and it's open but I can't up to the top. Why was I blocked? Because I had a camera! What?!! I was so upset (to put it nicely). He said you can't go up there with a camera! "It's a Zona Militare". This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. They're afraid you'll take a photo of Navy Base (an castle built by Frederick II around 1200s) across the bay. I wanted to argue just for the fun of it but I could see he was happy to enforce this stupid rule. Never mind that every Italian that goes up there has a cell phone with a camera on it (some have cameras of 5MP now!) and all of them take a few photos. He said if that's true then they are risking being arrested for spying. What a joke!

Then I went over to the Theater Verdi to see the ruins under theater that are now open. I asked if I could take pictures. Guess what. He asked to see my camera. I showed him my new Digital SLR proudly. He said, "With that camera, NO!" WHAT?! Because I have a good camera that takes good photos he said no! This time I argued. He buckled and said OK but if I don't take any "detailed photos". I planned on writing whole posts about these two tourist attractions but now I don't feel like it. This is the one good photo I got under the theater.
All I can say now is Brindisi is merda for tourism. Sorry about the language but what is a tourist going to think. You can come but don't bring a camera. Good job Brindisi. Theater Verdi no GOOD cameras, Svevo Castle closed to tourists because they still use it(it was built in 1200s come on splurge a little Italy), Sailor's Monument no cameras, the little Argonese Castle out in bay also still being used by the Italian Navy and closed (what the he** could they be using that little stone castle for these days).

Tomorrow maybe I'll talk about how Brindisi is being cut out of the tourism map anyway. Trains that are no longer coming here. Flights only to Bari. Maybe it's better that way. Brindisi is not ready for tourists.

There is good news. I stopped at the farmer's market and picked up some minestrone. Cosimo's sister was still cutting up the veggies for the perfect cold weather soup when I arrived. It was only then that I realized there is pumpkin in my minstrone. I knew there was carrot for orange color but I didn't realize there was pumpkin too. It doesn't have a real pumpkinny flavor.

Sign Sign Everywhere a Sign!

A couple of strange things happened yesterday and I’m not sure what to make of it. The first thing occured when I went to the Sweet Sweet Way store. It’s a candy store on the main drag in town. I felt it was fitting that I go there the day after the dentist visit. The old guy working there said “Ciao, Jeff”. Now I don’t stop and converse with him like I do in other stores. I also don’t go in there nearly as often as other places but yet our relationship has moved up a notch. This is stranger because I don’t know his name. Then coming home from hanging out on the street, ok it’s not hanging out, it’s the passeggiata. I stopped to talk to some people that are always next door to the pizza place. Among this group there are 3 very young girls that are always talking to Antonio and Maurizio and just out of curiosity I asked their names because they are practically part of the pizzeria family so I should know who they are. The strange thing is that I remember their names, Rosella, Illaria, and Francesca. I wonder if remembering Italian names is becoming easier. I wonder if I’ve been exposed to these Italian names enough to make connections. I also commented that Rosella is very close to Rosetta (there is a Rosetta at work) and it worked. I seemed to be keeping them straight, for now.
Anyway I noticed another strange thing that is by far the strangest. My name is now on my button on the front of the building. Now you may say “Big Deal” but it’s very strange to me. I’ve been living in this same apartment for over 4 years and the whole time my name has been on that button but only because I wrote it on a piece of paper and then taped it on the button. The weather would take its toll and I would change it every few months. Now my name is printed in plastic and under the clear button cover like everyone else, but why now?

Strange isn’t it. My name just doesn’t seem to go along with the others. You’ll notice something that maybe you didn’t know. There are two last names for most apartments. That’s because Italian women almost never take their husband’s last name. That throws a lot of foreigners off when they come to Italy and do paperwork. If you’re married they are still expecting two different last names. Most of my readers probably know this but I thought it was worth a mention. Also notice how my name has a hyphen in it like everyone else’s. I guess there is one person living here with the last name Jeff and he or she is married to someone with the last name Gromen. It could happen. We foreigners have strange names, not like Italians. See Cacciapaglia that literally means strawhunt or huntstraw in the order it is here.
Maybe my landlord has grand designs that I’m going to buy that apartment. He says he’s going to sell it when I move out. I was a little curious about buying it and then I asked Marco what he thinks the guy would ask for and then I went into a state of shock. The thought escaped my mind very quickly. It would be 3 times the cost of my house in the US, no 4 times with the current exchange rates!!!!
This last photo is exchange from the old passport to the new. The old one can barely stand these days. The new one is ready to see the world. I hope!

Goodbye Old Friend

Well it’s time to say good-bye to an old friend. But this is a happy parting of ways. He's been there for me for 10 years now and he deserves a break. Ohh, the places we’ve been. I’m talking about my old passport, of course. I finally received my new passport today. It wasn’t as easy as it should be. You see for me I’m supposed to send my old passport, the fee, the pictures, and the paperwork to the US Consulate in Naples. I called them about how to do this several times I was never impressed with their knowledge. If you go to website of the consulate in Milan they have everything spelled out for you and they look efficient. The Naples website is, let’s just say, not so impressive. I used my judgment and decided to go another route. I wanted to make sure I had a passport in time to go home for Christmas. I sent everything I needed to my parents in the US. My mom sent the stuff in and received the new passport there. Then my mom sent the passport to me in Italy. It worked almost perfectly. There is one thing I forgot. My mom is too honest sometimes (now I know where I got it). When she sent me the passport she made the mistake of writing what is ACTUALLY in the package. When Italian customs realized they had something of value to me they started to think about how they could use this to their advantage. I’m not sure how it worked out. Maybe it was a miracle but in the end they agreed with my rationale that this passport has no commercial value so they delivered it with NO customs fee. I believe that qualifies as a miracle.
It must have something to do with my birthday. Last year I received my renewed permesso di soggiorno (permit to live in Italy) on my birthday. It was the best present I could get from anyone. The importance of getting my permesso has increased exponentially because immediately after I got mine the process has done nothing but turn into a BIG MESS. There are hundreds of thousands of permessos waiting to be processed. Italy went to this really nice credit card like permesso but the system is seriously flawed. Thank god I got mine when I did. So I’ve had two paperwork miracles in two years. Am I ready for sainthood yet?
This new passport is strange. The cover is much thicker cardboard and the photo seems to be printed into the page instead of laminated on like it was 10 years ago. It’s also the new electronic passport with a chip in it so whenever that’s required then I’m already legal.
The photo today is from when I went to Ostuni a while ago with another Couchsurfer. She just put up some of her photos on Flickr here. Again it seems other people find beauty in Brindisi in ways I wouldn’t think of. She has one photo of me in the group, one of Cosimo at the Pizza place, and one of fishermen in Brindisi. When showing her around I decided to take a photo above out towards the sea (instead of towards Ostuni). I don’t know what that building is in the foreground, but I love the expanse of carefully trimmed olive trees that go out in all directions until you get to the sea.

The Pain is over, yeah!!! I hope....

First, doesn't my helicopter look cool in flight? The thing has been broken twice so far but my amazing engineering skills have rebuilt it. It still flys after ONE WEEK. It's been one week since.... (come on you know that song). I guess I've already got my money's worth! I could use some spare parts though, if I find a place that carries them.
I'm feeling ok, now. The second trip to the evil dentist is over. My teeth are better than new. A few things you should know about the trip. The road from Ostuni to Martina Franca is BEAUTIFUL. A winding road on low rolling hills in the Valle d'Itria with grape leaves changing color, olive trees, and trulli scattered about in the countryside. I highly recommend it, but not at night. At night it sucks as you can't see a damn thing so I took the less direct route, Brindisi-Francaville Fontana-Ceglie-Martina Franca. Since this route is a little new to me I've noticed a few things. One is that people are ALWAYS burning olive cuttings around Latiano. I love the smell of burning olive wood but it rained most of the day so I'm amazed that the smell and smoke was as thick as ever around there. I thought they would wait a day for the wood to dry out a little, or something. Second, I hereby award Ceglie the distinction of having the most traffic lights per inhabitants for any town in Puglia. Italians aren't keen on traffic lights and now that I've had a ticket for running a red light I pay more attention to them. Well, Ceglie must have a traffic light factory nearby.
I also love the fact that they have a sign in Ceglie pointing to the left saying Brindisi 44 (44 kms). Thankfully I've never fallen for that trick. If you take that left you get 44 kms of side roads full of "apes" (little 3 wheel trucks) that will drive you crazy. The drive is much easier if you go to Francaville Fontana and get one real road.
That's my driving tips for today. Stay out of Ceglie and don't do the Ostuni to Martina Franca road at night.

Phoning it in

I'll admit it this isn't one for the books. A little busy today. Wait, I have something. In the gym I've noticed we've changed radio stations from Radio DeeJay to Manbassa. Why is this important? Because Friday night I was working out to Huey Lewis and the News singing "I want a New Drug!" The memories came flooding back. Then last night I did the John Stewart "Whaaaaattt?" when Shania Twain came on with that song "I feel like a woman". I didn't know American country music was on any station in Italy.
The photo is the ferry to Albania. The one in the background goes to Greece. I really need to that trip. One of these days!!!!!!

Day 12 Enter at Your Own Risk

I had big ranting blog post written but I’ve just read the rest of the story about Lazio fan that was killed yesterday. It was just simply a “tragic accident”. The police officer started by firing a warning shot in the air because fans were starting to fight. A warning shot is allowed according to police procedure. Also according to police procedure he should have put his gun in the holster while running but he didn’t. He started to run to the site of the fight with his gun in hand and his gun went off accidentally. This second shot is what killed the Lazio fan. The fan by the way was inside a car between two other people. It was just incredibly bad luck that the mistakenly fired bullet managed to kill. So the officer is in big trouble because he acted recklessly and well…we'll see. So in the end it was not a case of the police being violent towards fans. So what do all these fans have to say for themselves? Do they still feel their terrorizing of the area around Rome’s stadium was justified yesterday? Do they really believe that they can act as a mob and get revenge by destroying the stadium or police property? This only creates more tension between fans and police and it increases the likelihood that another officer will pull out his gun. In fact it’s more likely that police officer will feel he needs his gun for protection. If history is an indication then only more violence will follow unless they stop the games. Maybe for the rest of the year? I love watching the games but I definitely will not go to a game ever again. I don’t want to get caught up in a melee that could break out anywhere at anytime. Maybe we need the opposite. No police at the stadium and let the fans fight all they want inside and out. Enter at your own risk.
On the lighter side of the news I was only going to blog about a funny article that I saw in the newspaper yesterday. It was titled “Due nonnini a bastonate sventato rapina in banca” that translates to “Two old men with canes thwart bank robbery”. It seems two old men 72 and 75 years old saw a guy in a ski mask coming out of bank. They blocked his escape and beat him with their canes until the robber dropped the money and then managed to escape. So he still got away but without the money. Maybe the banks need to start employing two old guys with canes to be the security guards.
Also for the photo. What is this seed? They arrived in hundreds on a windy Saturday afternoon. The wind calmed down on Sunday so I could go out and sweep them up.

Day 11 The Big Game

I've never been a big fan of rugby until I saw it on TV and learned the rules. Now I find it very interesting because I know there are only certain aspects of the game that are brutal. There's also a lot of discipline and ball handling skills required. So, today I went to a Brindisi Rugby match. My friend Matteo plays for Brindisi and he always tells us about the game but somehow on Sunday afternoon everyone's occupied by soccer or sleeping. I awoke to a beautiful day and I knew I had to make it to this game (usually the weather can be real crap too). It was a well played game on our side especially because Brindisi trashed Lecce by about 28 to 11. I know Brindisi had at least 28 but I couldn't tell if some of the kicks were good or not. There was no scoreboard or announcer to tell you what was going on. It was a great game to watch but only because I know the rules now. If I hadn't watched it on TV I would have been frustrated not knowing why they stopped.
Brindisi really did well in all aspects of the game.


Brindisi scored its first 3 points on a penalty.


My buddy Matteo is about to kill that guy if he picks up the ball at the edge of the scrum. In the end the guy wussed out.


The Lecce player gets up high on a lineout.


The Brindisi team is made up of kids and adults. They have plenty of subs which really worn down Lecce. I was worried at the start because the Lecce team is a university team so they're all about the same age and appeared to have played together more.


I call this one "trouble". Time to pass the ball kid!!!

Day 10 Recipe from Jeff?

So today I thought I would do a food blog. It kind of came to me last night. I was coming back from the gym and I stopped in the veggie place. I joked with Rosalba that I wanted to make rape but I didn't have any orecchiette at home (and I was too lazy to walk the other direction and get some). She says, "That's OK. You can make "Rape Stuffate" This was a new one for me. What's it take?
Picture of the ingredients

The list of ingredients:
1 kilo of cleaned Rape (turned out to be way to much for me so I have some for lunch today)
2-3 tomatoes (I used 5 or 6 cherry tomatoes because I wanted to buy a big bag of cherry tomatoes for the weekend)
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves (Foglia d'alloro, sometimes I call these "foglia d'oro" or "leaves of gold" because I could swear that's what they say)
peperoncino
olive oil

You heat up about 2 cups of water (with a little salt) and add all the above cook for about 10-15 minutes and there you have "Rape Stuffate".

Just like she mentioned the smell when it's cooking is great. I was a little disappointed how it looked at the end. The red of the tomatoes tends to wash out the dark green of the rape. Maybe I did something wrong and the tomatoes were supposed to be added later. I don't know. Hey this isn't a foodie blog!!! It tasted good but then again it's all ingredients I like so I expect it to.

Day 9 OHHH THE PAIN!!!

If you’re squeamish then close your eyes when you read this one. It all started on Sunday night after my mom called. I get second call from someone I haven’t talked to in a while and it caught me completely off guard. The conversation was something like.

Me: “PPrrrroonto” (in a happy tone)
Him: “Hi Jeff. It’s Martin. How are you doing?”
Me: “I’m doing ok. How are things in Martina Franca?” (Slightly cautious now)
Him: “Ok. Listen. It’s been over 6 months since you were here last.”
Me: “OH really. (@#$%!#%$#^%$#^#$^#!*) It’s been that long. You don’t say…” (Trying not to show fear or anxiety)

Yes Martin is my evil dentist. Sorry, I’ve associated “evil” with “dentist” for a long time and for the sake of this blog I’ll try to refrain from saying evil dentist. I think I’ve made it clear that as a kid I liked the sweets and some things you never outgrow. My visits to the dentist were never fun. So the rest of the call is a blur. Me agreeing he’s right I need to get in there for a visit and me also thinking “How do I put this off for the maximum time possible?” In the end the appointment was made for Thursday night. I would have to go to Martin the English Dentist in Martina Franca unless a meteorite hit me, but that didn’t happen.
Just to make this visit more interesting he changed the location of his office. He gave me directions over the phone but I was so upset about my lack of excuses that I didn’t take very good notes. I had basically written down. “By the orange tower of the Citroen dealership. On the left. Ground floor.” Looking at the paper Wednesday night I thought, “I have no idea where I’m going.” I did a search for the Citroen dealership on Pagine Gialle (the Italian Yellow Pages online). I highly recommend this site. Holy crap they are good. It’s like Mapquest and the Yellow Pages together. So I find the Citroen dealership in Pagine Gialle and it looks easy enough. At least I could get there and then call him to guide me in from there. That’s exactly how it went too.
Now this visit was supposed to be a cleaning so why does my jaw ache this morning? I’ll tell you why, because I’m paying twice for my love of sweets. The fillings that I got some 20 odd years ago are wearing out and last night he (the evil dentist) had to drill one out and put a new one in. So let this be a lesson to all you kids out there. Brush your dam teeth! And listen to your mother about sweets! Still poor “Ozzies” by my elementary school might have gone out of business if it wasn’t for a few hundred sugar hungry kids and me….
The photo below is, yes, in my mouth!! The silver thing you see is the next to go. Next…. Wednesday…. AAAAHHHHH…. I HAVE TO GO BACK. The tooth right in front of it is one he did last night. At least now my teeth look better.