Le Chiacchiere

Le Chiacchiere, or chit chat as it is literally translated, are a great Carnivale treat. They are fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar. We buy a whole plate and it is GONE in a few hours. I went and got some this morning and there is no more. What can I say? We love them.

The panificio wraps the treats in a lovely paper with a ribbon.

These are great with coffee. Gilda says they got their name because the old women in the south would sit around and "chit chat" while making them:)

DC Snow hits Italian Newspapers

Met some friends from the US in Caserta (by Napoli) over the weekend. The front pages of the morning papers on Saturday were full of stories about the record snowfall in ... DC! I remember that when I lived there from 1982-84 just the thought of snow would send panic...a few flakes would send people running for the hills...What fun a whole storm would have been.

Euro Bills

I had to pay the girl's tutors the other day so I found myself with some euro bills that are not usually in my wallet! It thought you might enjoy seeing this lovely currency. I love the varying sizes and the bright colors. The fronts are decorated with fictional architectural drawings from various historical periods and the backs have the same fictional drawings of bridges. This representation of the architecture of a period makes sense once you think of the original 12 countries vying for representation of their particular landmark on the bills.

Fronts

From top to bottom the representative styles on the fronts and backs of the bills are:
500's: Modern 20th century
200's: 19th century art nouveau
100's: Baroque and Rococo
50's: Renaissance

All of the euro bills have six things in common:

• A depiction of the European Union flag
• The initials of the European Central Bank (ECB)
  
• A map of Europe
• The name "Euro" in Latin and Greek
• The signature of the current head of the ECB
• 12 stars representing the initial members

FYI: We were living in Berlin when the euro was introduced on January 1, 2002. The change over was amazingly smooth. Shopkeepers accepted German Marks but gave you change in euro. Within six months the change was complete and the European economies were working on one currency.

If you want to find out more about the Euro this is a good explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes

Right of Way

This is a sign that you have to look for when driving in Europe. It indicates who has the right of way. Unlike in the US, if you are cruising down a major street in town and there is a smaller road entering from the right, you must look to see if there is a yellow diamond or not. If there is you have the right of way and traffic from the smaller road must yield. If not then YOU must yield.

Easy to see, right???!!!!
Oh and that little blue sign with the white arrow that is only visible once you are close to it...that indicates it is a one way street going in the direction of the arrow.

Italian Signage

Italian street signs confuse me. They list a multitude of destinations. One must stop or slow down if you are to really read and find the direction you are looking for. A friend said her strategy when traveling was for her to start from the top and read down and her husband would start at the bottom and read up. Whoever found what they were looking for shouted out! This is a small sign at what we call "the intersection from hell". It is a four way intersection but traffic is a free for all. Also, to the right of the directional sign is a lighted sign announcing that the railroad crossing is closed for a train coming through so you can take an alternate route.

I like the color coating. Green for autostrada (toll road) and blue for major intercity road...plus a little straight on for the hospital.

Another great novel of a sign.

Views of Trani from Corato

We live in Trani on the Adriatic and the girls go to school about 12km inland in the town of Corato. Twice a day I drive out to drop them off and pick them up. On the way back to Trani I come over a small hill and am greeted with this amazing view! Trani is a city that was built with marble from the surrounding countryside. It is white and shines next to the blue of the Adriatic. Beautiful.

View of Trani in the distance.

A closer look..the tall building is the tower for the cathedral. It is the tallest building.

Still enjoying the view. FYI Eileen was taking the pictures. I do not usually try to drive and take pictures :)

This view is continuing toward Trani. We are crossing the autostrada so we have a little higher view. Notice the great colors; blue and white in the sky, dark blue sea, green olive orchards.

Another view of the never ending olive orchards. As far as the eye can see in three directions are olive orchards.

SNOW IN CORATO

Little yellow flowers.

I left Trani this afternoon to head up to Corato to pick up the girls from school. There was chubby rain in Trani. Big fat lumps falling on the windshield. But as I got closer to the school the sun came out...then I noticed that between the olive trees was a blanket of white! I found a side road on which to pull over to take pictures. But wait. One side of the road was blanketed in little yellow flowers and the other in snow! What a strange sight!

SNOW