Each year the “host” of the festival is Papa Gnocco, who looks more like Santa, if santa wore a colorful outfit:

Papa Gnocco, 2017

There’s a parade …

.. plus a tradition to eat gnocchi (potato dumplings) for lunch. As usual when we make it here for this festival, we willingly followed tradition:

gnocchi with ragu d’asino

Gnocci with marascapone cheese and sausage

With a few cornmeal and raised fried doughballs through in for a traditional Veronese Carnival season dessert:

Corn meal fried dough with currants

Today’s weather wasn’t perfect parade weather, but at least the rain only sprinkled, it never came down in a deluge. However, the gray skies were not as festive or as photogenic as the bright, sunny day that greeted us in February 2009 when we came to Verona on  venerdì gnocolar for the very first time. Here’s a link to an old video montage of the 2009 parade I made (with a special soundtrack added) from footage Chris shot that day.

If you want still more photos/videos from the parade on sunnier days in the past, you can check out the links below.

1. Post from 2011 about Papa del Gnoco, the “leader’ of the celebrations
2. Post from 2011 about the Verona Carnival celebration in general
3. Videos from Verona’s 2009VenerdìGnoccolar parade:
   1. Floats
   2. Marching bands
   3. Scenes and Sounds

Enjoy and Buona Feste!

The flame wasn’t because it was a Friday, though. Rather, today is January 6th, which is the Epiphany holiday. It’s the end of the Christmas holiday season here in Verona, and it’s marked by a very particular event.

Now, before I get to that, I should first mention that in Italy, the (good) witch Befana roams around on the evening  of January 5th, trying to catch up with the wise men on their way to see the Christ child.  She brings toys to the kids as she roams around — like I said, she’s a good witch.

But in addition to that part of the legend, she’s also the symbol of the year that’s just ended. Which is unfortunate for her, since in order to wipe the slate clean of all the bad stuff from the old year, and to insure good luck in the new year, there is a tradition in some parts of Italy —including Verona — to burn a towering effigy of Befana to ring — er burn — in the new year.

Befana Effigy before the blaze

Befana Effigy – head detail

Befana Effigy – hand detail

In Verona this takes place in Piazza Bra,  near the Stella Cometa, the Christmas star that marks the spot of the manger with the Chris child. That is, of course, where the wise men were headed, arriving on January 6th.  According to the legend, Befana never actually finds that spot. But in modern times, at least here in Verona, she does at least see it, since the effigy of Befana is set up just opposite the Stella, in front of city hall. You can see the relative positioning of the Stella and the city hall in photos in the Holiday on Ice post.)

Now, during the past couple of weeks the weather has been unseasonably warm – until yesterday the lows were in the upper 40°s F/~5° C.  However,  just in time for gathering out in Piazza Bra today to watch the festivities, the weather turned colder, and it was below freezing. A bit cool for standing around waiting for Befana to burn.  But since we’ve never been in Verona for this event before, Chris and I braved the cold and froze our tootsies so I could get a few photos of this interesting, and very different, holiday celebration.

Of course, once the fire got going, it was very, very, very warm to be standing nearby.

Anyway, I’ve posted a little gallery of photos below to show the progression of the bonfire. Before you look at the photos, be sure to click on the following link to play the  the theme from Rocky in the background.  That’s what was playing on the loudspeaker as the fire burned. Seriously.

Don’t ask why – just play the music, and enjoy this glimpse of the 2017 Befana Bonfire in Verona.

It’s not the oddity of there being one there – we remembered a temporary one being set up during this time of year several years ago in the same spot in Piazza Bra.

Ice rink (foreground), L’Arena, the Stella Cometa, and City hall beyond

We happened to be walking by that morning as a crowd was starting to gather, awaiting the official opening of the rink:

Kids waiting for the rink to open

Now, this rink is not very big. Here’s a panorama view, which is distorted, so that it looks like it is curved. It’s not – it’s just a rectangle:

View from the other side of the rink (panorama effect; in reality, the rink is not curved)

I get why the kids are excited to skate – I liked skating on the river when I was a kid. But what I didn’t get was why all the fuss with the big opening. Take another look to the far right in that photo with the little girl above. Do you see the yellow and blue ribbon? Yes, it was a ribbon stretched across  the entrance — there was an official ribbon-cutting ceremony to “open” the open-air ice rink.

Ribbon cutting scissors on a velvet pillow

This is the mystery for today’s post: why does this tiny little temporary rink in Verona rate such a big to-do about it’s opening? I mean, there were a half-dozen dignitaries on hand to address the crowd:

Dignitaries gathered waiting for the mayor to arrive

Actually, those men had to wait for the mayor to arrive before they could get the ceremony underway. Now, look back up at the first photo. City hall is the big building in the background.  As you can see, to get from there to the rink the mayor had to go such a long way across that plaza.

I’m kidding, of course. You can walk across it in under a minute if you just go from point A to point B.  But it took the mayor 10xs that long. Or more. He stopped to shake hands and chat with people he knew all along the way. Then he was stopped by reporters who wanted sound bites for their TV or radio shows. Then he posed for additional photos with parents and children.

Not, though, with the little boy standing near me who had 10 minutes earlier asked his father why they had to wait for the mayor, couldn’t they just get on with it already?

Anyway, the mayor finally got to the rink, only about 15 minutes behind schedule.

Speechifying – the mayor is the one with the microphone

Note that yes, that is Santa Claus who is photo bombing the dignitaries in this photo. He’s standing in the background with the skaters who are behind the wall.  Santa Claus is called Babbo Natale here in Italy; one little girl was just sooo excited to see him while we were waiting for the mayor, she excitedly called out “Babbo Natale!, Babbo Natale!” over and over. Very cute.  Even though we’ve always been told that Santa Lucia is really the bigger deal here in Verona over the holidays, clearly some kids here are still excited at the sight of Babbo Natale.

There were bunch of speeches; most of the men had a turn. I believe I heard the mayor say that this rink was back this year after not being there last year, and maybe that’s why it’s such a big deal? I think he said something about budget cuts, etc. — but it was in Italian, and I was busy taking photos, so I only sort of caught the gist. Like the little boy next to me, I was getting cold and also ready for them to get on with it already.

But finally, there was a scrum around the mayor as he took those fancy scissors and cut the ribbon to open the rink officially. At least, I assume that’s what happened; from my angle I couldn’t actually see it, but the mayor did make people move back to allow the guy on the ice to get a good shot of the ribbon cutting, so it seems likely that it went OK.

Anyway, finally, it was time to skate:

Let the skating begin!

Babbo Natale got in on the action, too.

Babbo Natale on skates

But how he had time to skate on Christmas Eve is another mystery … even if it’s not the main Monday mystery for today.

First, a photo:

Tortellini with Onion Cream Sauce

BTW, that’s freshly made, meat-filled tortellini. Freshly made not by me,  you understand. Rather, it was freshly purchased by me (and Chris) at a bakery here in Verona that is famous for making that kind of thing. I did make the sauce from scratch, though: it’s cream and sautéed onions, where the onions were sautéed in a little olive oil and a tad of butter, and then the cream was mixed in.

It’s a recipe that a Greek-German woman who ran a little deli told me about years ago when we lived in Tübingen. The deli sold tortellini,  and the owner once recommended this dish as something quick and easy, but a little bit more special than serving the pasta with just a basic tomato sauce.

Anyway, fast forward a few years to two weeks ago. Chris and I are standing in line at a butcher shop here in Verona; we’re behind two little old ladies dressed to the nines in fur jackets and hats. It’s still more than a week before Christmas, but these two women are in the midst of a debate about what is the proper traditional meal to make on Christmas Eve. One is lamenting that she needs to run all over the place to find the necessary “7 fishes” makings for the traditional fish dinner on  Christmas Eve. However, the woman who is standing nearest to me is exasperated, arguing emphatically that one does NOT need to do that whole fish dinner on Christmas Eve.  Rather, she says, a simple meat-filled tortellini, served in a quick cream and onion sauces, is all you need.

And then she turns to me for support, saying, “Am I right? I’m right, aren’t I?”

Yes, well. I rapidly consider:

1. I have heard about there being some 7 fish traditional meal  on Christmas Eve, but I don’t really know what that is exactly.

2. I actually have made that tortellini dish with cream and onion that she just described, and it was indeed good, and it was indeed easy to make. And it certainly does sound easier than having to track down 7 of anything, particularly fish — which, btw, the store we’re in doesn’t even sell. I’m not even sure why the issue of fish has come up between them as they are standing in this butcher shop, actually.

3. I realize that no good can come from getting dragged into the middle of a debate that is being conducted in Italian between two little old ladies at a butcher shop in Verona.  I haven’t actually followed 100% of their argument, and I realize at that moment that they might not actually be speaking in Italian — which I speak somewhat — but rather in Veronese, the local dialect — which I don’t speak at all.   But then, I do realize that I did actually understand the whole tortellini part of the discussion, so maybe they are speaking in Italian after all.

Anyway, what to do, what to do. The woman advocating for the tortellini waits for my support.  I smile and nod sympathetically at her,  but then try to cover my bases by also trying to nod sympathetically at the other woman, too.  Smile and nod, smile and nod.

I don’t think either one was completely satisfied, but they went on with their debate without me, which was just as well. FWIW, their discussion appeared to be set to continue even after Chris and I got what we’d come for and left the store.

But the following week, when we were trying to decide what to make on Christmas Eve,  I remembered that conversation. And decided that the tortellini woman was right — that tortellini dish with the cream and onions is a bit more special than my regular tomato sauce, but it’s also quick and easy to make. So, score one in the Christmas Eve wars for the tortellini woman.

So, to recap, Chris and I now have a new tradition for Christmas Eve:  an Italian tortellini dish made by an American according to a recipe provided by a Greek woman who runs a deli in Germany and endorsed by an Italian little old lady in a fur coat in Verona.

It would be hard to get a more multi-cultural food than that for a Food on Friday.

Good luck – and hope we all have the luck of the Italian tradition with us for 2017!

Of course, at this time of year, you get a photo not just of L’Arena, but also of the big Stella Cometa metal sculpture that represents the Christmas star.

On Christmas Day we walked down by the Stella Cometa and I snapped a photo that gives you a sense of the atmosphere: lots of families walking around after the big Christmas dinner, with all ages of folks wandering by, and lots of kids eager to try climbing up the “rays” of the star.

L’Arena and the Star, December 25th, 2016

Yesterday, December 26th, is also a holiday here: it was the feast of St. Stephen. As in “Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the feast of Stephen… “.

We didn’t see any kings in the plaza yesterday morning, but there was one addition: a manger at the base of the Stella Cometa:

L’Arena, the Star, and the Manger, December 26, 2016

Manger near the Stella Cometa

Unfortunately I couldn’t get closer to get a better shot. The cows in the background are live, the baby in the manger is a doll. There was a sign saying it was going to be a living nativity scene, and we heard an announcement about something happening later in the day. However, we never did see Mary,  Joseph, or any of the kings. At the end of the day when we walked by again, the animals were gone and the manager was being loaded onto a truck.

But, fun to happen to see  it while it was up yesterday. You just never know what you’re going to find when you walk by L’Arena and the Star in Verona.

To celebrate, here are a couple of images for the season from Chris’s new “ND Series”  of artworks. Enjoy!

1. ND Series 25122016: one of Chris’ digital visualization art works ( I added the blue frame to create a virtual card to share):

ND25122016

2. AND Circles – an animated version of an ND artwork:

Although Osteria al Duomo has been our favorite restaurant in Verona for a number of years, I noticed today that I’ve really never mentioned it on the blog by name. There’s a reference to eating at a favorite place in this old post, and a reference to eating my favorite foods at our favorite place in Verona on my birthday in this post. But neither post names the place nor has photos from the meals we always have at  ‘al Duomo’.

I think over the years I’ve tended in general not to post much about Verona, because we come here a lot, and we do a lot of the same things every time. So, I guess it never occurs to me that I haven’t really posted about these simple things before.

But, since we’re been in Verona two weeks, and eaten at al Duomo twice already, you’re in luck: this time I have some photos of the meals.  Osteria al Duomo is a tiny little place that serves excellent examples of typical Veronese food, so the food is fairly basic, simple and very tasty.

For example, one of our favorites is a pasta dish with macaroni, sausage, and marscapone cheese uses the local tastasal sausage.  This is one of our typical go-to dishes in recent years; we had it at our first lunch two weeks ago, and again last week.  The funny thing was that I thought my photo from two weeks ago was blurry, but in the second photo below you can more clearly see it’s served hot and steaming, which can look like blur:

Macaroni with Tastasal sausage and marscapone

Steam rising off the macaroni dish

Here in Verona, as it the rest of Italy in general, a pasta dish is typically the first course, aka primo, and a meat dish is typically the second course, aka secondo. Chris and I don’t always have a secondo, although at al Duomo we typically get 2 primi and then split a secondo. We had different secondos on our two visits this month:

Cotechino with cabbage

Polenta with pastissada

 Cotechino is a type of cooked salami, often served with polenta or lentils, but on our visit weeks ago it came with a warm cabbage side dish that had a dash of cumin and was very tasty.

The other dish, pastissada is a traditional Veronese stew. It’s  made with horsemeat marinated — and then slow cooked — in a strong red wine.  Years ago I blogged about making this stew on year in Bolzano; my old post is about the oddity in our cookbook,  where it seemed like an automatic spell-checker had “corrected” pastissada to “pesticide” as the name of the dish. The real Italian name sounds a lot better, of course.

But I digress.

Anyway, as I said, Chris and I typical share one secondo at al Duomo, but we always get two primi pasta dishes and split them.  We sometimes vary one of the pasta dishes that we order, but we always get an order of the bigoli con ragu d’asino, thick spaghetti with a sauce made with donkey meat.

Bigoli with Ragu d’Asino

Both horse and donkey are typical Veronese meats, and these meats feature prominently in many Veronese dishes.  Our favorite place to get them in Verona is Osteria al Duomo — we’ve been going there for years, the owners typically recognize us (and split the seondo for us, as you can see from the pastissada photo above.  It’s definitely one of the restaurants we seek out more than once on a typical visit, and we will vary the items we order there up to a point. But Osteria al Duomo is invariably our “first lunch in Verona” tradition – we look forward to it every time we come to Verona.

First and foremost is the Stella Cometa, the huge white, metal Christmas Star sculpture that “comes out of” the old Roman amphitheater, L’Arena.  It’s magnificent, day or night.

L’Arena and the Stella Cometa, Verona, 2016

L’Arena and the Stella Cometa at night, Verona, 2016

I love seeing this – it’s one of my favorite things about Verona at this time of year. The fact that I’ve posted a photo of this star already this year should convince you of that.  I have taken lots of photos of it every time we’ve been able to visit; heck, I even sell merchandise with a photo I took of it years ago.

Shameless plug, I know, but I’m carrying one of those tote bags with me here on this trip.

But the Stella Cometa isn’t the only beautiful holiday decoration in Verona.  Several of the main streets/areas in the center of the historic district have decorative lighting.  Here are a couple of examples:

Holiday lights, Corsa Porto Borsari, Verona 2016

Via Mazzini decorations, Verona 2016

Via Capello decorations (foreground), Piazza Erbe decorations beyond, Verona, 2016

The lights in Piazza Erbe — which are the lines hanging in the background – are in motion; they change, going from a straight “drip” of the lights (like a snowfall) to a sparkly display.  It’s enchanting when you see it in person. Here’s a video to  try to share a sense of that; (let me know if you have problems playing the video; be patient, as it might take a minute or so before the video starts playing):

Anyway, I love walking around and seeing all the decorations; hope you enjoy this bit of a Verona Christmas!

Well, at least we look at a pizza tradition that Chris and I have had over most of the last 14 years.

Now, in Italy, and particularly in Verona, people eat late. So, if you arrive rather late, e.g. 8pm, it’s actually rather early for dinner. I mean, Italians will often go out to eat around 9pm. So, even if you arrive in Verona at 8pm there are still going to be plenty of restaurants open after that for dinner.

But early on in our visiting here, we didn’t necessarily understand that. At least early on we always wound up arriving late in the day, and were in those days worried that we wouldn’t be able to find dinner if we got in late.

However,  we did know that pizza places are always open very late, unlike other restaurants. So, having been to a pizza place on our very first visit, San Matteo Church, we knew that it was a decent pizza place that was sure to be open late when we arrived in Verona.

Now, over the years, we have learned that it’s actually possible to go to other places on the days we arrive in Verona late.   But our little tradition is still to choose to go to San Matteo on our first night. It’s quick and easy, and the pizza — while not as good as 14 years ago, due to a change in the management — is still predictably pretty good.

So, last Wednesday, when we arrived in Verona late in the day (by train from Tübingen), and even though we knew we could have done something different, we headed over to San Matteo for a pizza after checking in at the hotel.

Now, we don’t always have the same kind of pizza; their menu has 50-70 different possible combinations.  Here are the two we selected last Wednesday:

Pizza with spicy salami, black olives, and onions

Pizza with prosciutto and mushrooms

Each pizza is served to be eaten as a “personal pan pizza” concept; it’s a very thin crust, and you eat it with a knife and fork.

BTW, the San Matteo Church is a pizzeria, but the name is accurate, as it is in a building that was a former Catholic church (called San Matteo). Not often you eat pizza in church, eh? (In the interest of full disclosure, though, San Matteo is not the only pizza place in a former church here in Verona, either; we’ve eaten in at least one other one, but I don’t recall the name right off.)

Anway, while we lived in Europe we used to go to San Matteo several times a year, and even before that on average more than once a year since 2002. But this is our first trip back to Verona in the last 20 months. So, it was fun that the maitre d’ — who used to be a waiter many years ago — still remembered us!  He’s always pleasant, and always seems to get a kick out our telling him that it’s our tradition to go there for our first meal on every visit to Verona.

So, that’s it for today’s Food on Fridays post. Doing these posts is another tradition that I’m happy to get back to, particularly when I get a chance to introduce you to a traditional pizza — er, rather, a pizza tradition — in Verona.

——

As I’ve just explained,  I know why piazza at San Matteo Church is our tradition. By contrast, Tevye doesn’t know why certain things are a tradition in the opening number from Fiddler on the Roof. However,  I’m including links to clips of that song below anyway. After all, including a Broadway show tune in a post on this blog is another tradition.

• Tradition (song) from Fiddler on the Roof – movie version
• Tradition (song) from Fiddler on the Roof  – Broadway soundtrack version performed by Zero Mostel.  I saw him perform in a revival of this show in Philadelphia many years ago; thanks, Mom, for getting those tickets for us!

Anyway, the fog hasn’t been as bad as we remembered from years ago, but it still does creep in to create a some atmospheric photographic opportunities. I’ve included a few below – see what you think.

Piazza Bra and the festival market in the fog

Fog starting to come in over the Adige River

Looking the other way down the river, a little later

Another look at the fog coming in on the Adige (same photo, different photo treatment, no sun included)

Chris and I first visited Verona 14 years ago today, on December 13, 2002, and  it’s always fun to be back in town in time for Santa Lucia. Below are some sights from today, which was a grey, slightly foggy day.  The festival goes into the evenings, too, so I’ve included one taken on a dark and foggy night, too.

Listone marble walkway and the Santa Lucia market, Piazza Bra, Verona

Santa Lucia market on a foggy night

Food stalls include places to get savory porchetta (roast pork) sandwiches; fritella, a deep fried dough coated in sugar; and all kinds of candy. There are even candy applies, which I associate only with summer festivals in the U.S., so it seems funny to see kids eating them walking around when it’s freezing. Chris and I had porchetta sandwiches and a fritella today at the market, to get in the festive spirit on a cold, grey, slightly foggy day.

Porchetta (roast pork) and roll being heated on the grill (behind the hotdogs)

A worker handing over a fritella to a customer

Candy stall at the Santa Lucia Market

We didn’t have anything from the candy stall today, but I included a photo of it to show the candy apples at left.

Dozens of stalls — each topped with a white or pale yellow “roof” — are arranged all over Piazza Bra, the big plaza near L’Arena.  The following photos show the area around the plaza; to take the photos I’m standing in the middle of Piazza Bra, where there’s a small park with a fountain and trees. From this vantage point, you see the stalls from behind but that way you can also see all the buildings around the plaza.

Plus, I added an artsy black and white one, just for fun.

Enjoy.

Santa Lucia stands set up in front of Gran Gardia Buidling, Verona

Piazza Bra Fountain, Santa Lucia Day, Verona

L’Arena (left), City Hall (right) and Santa Lucia stalls, seen from the park in Piaaza Bra

L’Arena and the Stella Cometa star, Verona (B&W)

I should note that between my last post and today — actually,  after leaving New Zealand on October 16th — Chris and I returned to the US and then almost immediately hit the road. Again. First, we picked up our car from Palo Alto, California,  where we’d left it (thanks, Dovie!).  We headed to Florida first, by way of Idaho, with quick overnight stops in states in between. Eventually we then drove north from Florida to New Jersey and Connecticut, too.

And yes, you do not need to point out that Idaho is not on a direct path from California to Florida,  our initial East Coast destination.  Why we went to southern Idaho is a mystery for another day, as it’s connected to my early women photographers project, and too complicated to explain in a quick post today.

But one big mystery, of course, is after all that US travel, where are we today? Well, the answer to that lies behind door #9:

The Friendly Tourist & Door #9

That’s the Friendly Tourist, aka Chris, standing in front of a building with a white house marker with the number 9 on it to the right of the door.  Please note that the panorama mode I used for this photo makes both the building and street it’s on looked curved; neither is, it’s an illusion by the camera.

Anyway, what’s behind the door #9? Glad you asked. Let’s take a peek:

Opening door #9

Behind door #9

Looking to the right in the courtyard behind door #9

Looking to more to the right in the courtyard

Looking right again

Yup, behind door #9 is an interior courtyard in an old Italian palazzo, which has been remodelled over the years and carved up into apartments.  It’s in Verona, not too far from L’Arena.

And that’s where Chris and I are at the moment. We’re renting a “vacation apartment” (i.e., short-term, full furnished place) in this building for the next month here in Verona.  Our apartment is behind the door on the right in that last photo, which is also shown in the following photo:

Entrance to our vacation-apartment in Verona

What’s behind that door? Well, here are some photos I borrowed from the apartment owner’s website to show the interior of the apartment. The photos are in a little slide-show, you can click to get to each photo in turn or wait while they cycle around. Note that I included a photo of a fresco that’s on a wall within the apartment. As I said, this is an old Italian palazzo built hundreds of years ago, and it comes complete with marble stairs and a fresco or two, too. There’s a bedroom and bathroom that aren’t in the photos I’ve included, so the whole apartment is actually a pretty good size.

BTW, over the past 20 months we’ve stayed in a lot of vacation apartments and hotels, all of which have been nice and affordable.  But oddly enough,  this palazzo is one of the cheapest per night of any of them. We’re not complaining – but the fact that it’s so affordable to rent is another bit of the mystery about what’s behind door #9.

While you can spot the bell tower of the Basilica  in the distance from many vantage points in the city center, the church and tower sit outside the historic city center that Chris and I usually visit in Verona.  The location has always seemed odd to me, since San Zeno is the patron saint of Verona.

Although it’s really only a 30 minute walk from where we normally stay, the weather is often too hot or too cold for that amount of effort when we’re enjoying the rest of Verona. (And, until this trip, I actually thought it was further away).  As a result, even though Chris and I have visited Verona numerous times, we’ve only managed to get ourselves over to visit San Zeno twice, and the first time was only for a few minutes before the church closed. So it was only this past April, on our second visit to the church, that we finally got to spend more than a few minutes inside. It’s a beautiful church, originally built in A.D. 967 and then remodelled over the years (including rebuilding part of it that was damaged in the same earthquake in  A.D. 1117 that heavily damaged the L’Arena amphitheatre. ) As a result of the different styles that used over the centries, it’s filled with a variety interesting murals and decorations, so it’s well worth a visit on this Travel Tuesday.

Photos and captions are below.

Enjoy.

Basilica of San Zeno, Verona

Exterior, Basilica of San Zeno, Verona

Bell tower, Basilica of San Zeno

Lion column, Basilica of San Zeno, Verona

Men on Horseback carvings, front of Lion column, Basilica of San Zen

Bell Tower seen from cloisters, Basilica of San Zeno

Cloisters, Basilica of San Zeno, Verona

Fresco, Basilica of San Zeno, Verona

Different layers of frescos from different periods, Basilica of San Zeno

Oldest intact Bronze-casted bell in all Christendom, Basilica of San Zeno

Altar, Basilica of San Zeno, Verona

San Zeno, patron saint of fisherman (and Verona)

24-hour clock, Basilica of San Zeno

Statues overlooking the main church area, Basilica of San Zeno

Crypt, Basilica of San Zeno

Rosetta window and shadow

Ceiling decoration, Basilica of San Zeno