A Season Filled with that Warm and Fuzzy Feeling

A Holiday Hello from your Home in Tuscany, Your Home in Cortona- We Wish you a Joyous Holiday Season, May Serenity and Happiness be yours in 2009! We look forward to welcoming you home ! Jeanette, Luciano and Carlotta

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

One of the things that makes Cortona Christmas different from San Francisco Christmas is the timing with decorations. It seems that right after Halloween it immediately becomes Christmas in the US. Here in Cortona, the lights on Via Nazionale and Piazza della Repubblica were the first things to appear. The truck with the "cherry picker" basket arrived on December 7th and started to install the lights which hang above the street like a canopy of white strands of lights. The tradition is that decorating should begin on the holiday of the Immaculate Conception (December 8). Carlotta was decorated by her Sig.ra Paola, her groomer with her annual red holiday bows and then we set about deciding how to transform our B&B-
Here's a picture of some of our effort and that of some of our neighbors' to welcome in the holiday season:
Giulio and Antonella's window is always eye catching
!

No cookies and milk for Santa when he stops in Cortona-Vin Santo and Cantucci take the chill off better!












Ivan always goes all out-he really knows how to organize a transformation that would make the best Christmas elf proud

-



Marco and Paola Nocchia's Galleries bring back memories of Christmases Past in Downtown, SF.




















Even Roberto and Nunzi got into the spirit:






Which spread over to Massimo's Bar
















And so the stage is set for Christmas in Cortona 2008-





God Bless Us One and All!

I Can't Believe They Ate the Whole Thing !

Well, what do you think? In the end we had 15 guest and ourselves. We had leftovers all the same and our inn guest Judy Testa and her local friend , Teri, who took the following pictures helped us out with leftovers. We had already sent a few plates home with some of our guests on Thanksgiving eve as well as a few jars of quince jam!!


Final menu:

Pumpkin Leek soup with Barley

Roast Turkey with Sage and Herb stuffing

Baked broccoli

Cranberry with candied kumquat and ginger chutney

Regular Cranberry relish, Pumpkin Crostata with a Gingersnap Crust served with a dollop of whipped cream. Homemade white and whole grain rolls.

We put all five tables end to end and set about with the task of creating an authentic Thanksgiving dinner. Our company included the diligent electrician Giulio Moretti, who helped us create our incredibly up to date lighting system, with motion sensors, dimmers and the like. He came with his family, his assistant Simone and his assistant's fiancé, Giulia. Our talented housepainting team, Ademaro, Giuliana and Rolando-Ademaro's right-on sense of color and Giuliana's gift of hand decorating worked magic, while Rolando's good temper and dedication moved our works forward. We expressed our thanks then and we express our thanks now, that the teams of artisans who worked on Casa Chilenne believed in it and gave it their best.




I couldn't help but express our thanks to these neighbors, these friends who helped us through the first harvest of a long, hard year and a half.








We also wanted to thank the friends old and new who encouraged us on this endeavor. Who believed in us enough to cheer us on. Missing from these pictures but not at the dinner table, is one of my biggest supporters, Alberto who came to shiver in the dust while we went over his English homework and was a great help at our inauguration celebration shuttling food, dishes and beverages from the kitchen up to the terrace.








Casa Chilenne is the fruit of our investment, but more than anything it is the fruit of a labor of love for one's origins, heritage and the desire to share with others the beauty of their city. These artisans dazzled us with their dedication to making our bed and breakfast the best it could be.

As hectic as it may get and as uncertain the future may seem, we know we have much to be thankful for.

Over the River and Through the Woods

OK, so the whole point of getting the oversized oven for the B&B was the Thanksgiving Turkey. How many years this endeavor had been foiled by the reduced dimensions of European ovens, but this year no. It wasn't easy but we're ready, hopefully photos later.
The Thanksgiving scavenger hunt started months ago...the most challenging task was finding the source for cranberries, second only to finding the real name of cranberries in Italian (thank God for Internet!). Cranberry juice can now be found in some health food stores and of course our well stocked Molesini grocery store, but always labelled as Mirtilli Rossi. Not exact. I sent the first search and retrieve request to Roberto, the best furnished green grocer in town at the end of September. One month prior and he still couldn't get the supplier. No one knew what he wanted. We had found a small basket of them once, mixed in with the strawberries, raspberries and blueberries one winter in a year long lost in our memories ago-but no one could recall where they came from.
Back to the drawing board, I was more thorough this time I "Googled" and printed out pictures, latin name and another Italian name "mirtilli palustri", native to North America, imported by Dole. Armed with further information Roberto perservered. There was a slight detour when I ended up with 22 lbs of Quince when I thought I would have to settle for a substitute, but sure enough, I received a call from Roberto. He could procure them. Minimum order 6.5 kilos (roughly 15lbs) and he would pass them on to me at cost (65 Euros!!!) we had come too far to let mere Euros stand in the way-DO IT! I said, feeling like I had the bird of paradise in the cross-hairs of my high power rifle (no I don't have a rifle or a hunting license I just like the image). And so on Monday, a smugly satisfied Roberto delivered 6.8 kilos of cranberries (Ocean Spray from Canada at that!).
The Bird itself was the next challenge. The first Turkey order intention warnings had been placed in September as well and followed up on in the months after. How large is always the dilemma. If one has a group which can be satisfied with a 6-7 kg bird (our famous 15lbs) then a tacchinella can be ordered, that is, a female bird. If you need any larger then a tom turkey must be ordered...hmmm. I have to feed 16 or so. I put in my order for a 9-10 kg. turkey (max). Second snag, I run into the butcher and his wife on the street a few days ago- the turkeys have arrived, they are upset with the supplier, he could only send a 6.5kg and a 13+kg bird. I go home and pull out the tape measure, size up the oven. Upon doing so I slip the tape measure into my pocket and it's off to the butcher's.
Upon my arrival in the small shop, the butcher and his sons rush in the back to pull out the now famous turkey. Onlookers are amused as I pull out my tape measure and size it up. The butcher tries to be helpful. "Well, if you want I can chop off the legs"--No, that would be sacrilege.."or we could chop off the part where the wings are attached"--you just don't understand, the bird has to be whole.
Years prior I had to accept such compromises, roasting only a thigh and a breast, buying a mini turkey, no, this year was special- I had demanded and obtained the 22" wide, 11" high, 18" deep oven-there could be no compromise this year.
The good news is that this turkey is 20 inches long 10 inches high at it's highest point and I didn't measure the width but it seems to fit.
Thanksgiving will arrive in Cortona this year...if only I had planned it better and had a few more days, I could have foraged for sweet potatoes in Arezzo.
Blessings to all this holiday-we have many to count this year-hope you do too.
Update and photos to follow turkey stupor.

Everyday Heroes

Sunday morning was the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Blood Donors Society. As we were cleaning up after breakfast a marching band could be heard outside our window and we went to see what was happening. The marching band was leading a procession of stendard carrying participants. From all over the Valdichiana representatives of the blood donors groups came congregate and remember the loved ones lost during the wars by placing wreaths at the monuments. A bittersweet celebration which can move one to tears as these proudly altruistic individuals marched down the Via Nazionale-each banner brightly colored many lovingly hand embroidered to proudly proclaim which chapter from which town was participating in this show of solidarity to this heartfelt cause. To give to others, to take time out of busy lives to share and give a gift of life. Italy has long been a community of volunteers. The ambulance drivers, hospital volunteers, are a tradition which date to the Misericordia fraternities of the middle ages.
But it seems that people are involved in many different charity organizations. Setting up fund raising dinners for the cancer society, selling apples in the piazza to support multiple sclerosis research, hydrangeas for the child abuse hotline telefono azzurro, the rummage sales for the Caritas. As the year unfolds the piazza can host sales of gardenias, of chocolate easter eggs or ceramics, sales organized to raise money for many worthy causes.
Italy has been a nation ready to give, the victims of hurricane Katrina and the tsunami which hit Southeast Asia received millions of Euro from Italy, 2 Euros at a time when people were asked to donate via SMS . Each message sent would automatically deduct 2 Euro from the credit on the phones and be sent as a donation we were told.
As I watched the Blood donors reverse their direction after laying the wreaths and march back to the Piazza Repubblica it was easy to see the proud faces like the elderly man who marched with his two age worn hands firmly grasping his lapels. I thought about a blood donor I had met, a man in his 70's who proudly told of having made 70 donations of blood. That's at least 210 people whose lives were touched and hopefully healed due to the generosity of 1 man.
It doesn't take wars to make heroes. It only takes generosity of spirit and the willingness to give. Hats off to Everyday Heroes.

Love is in the Air! Weddings in Cortona-

September blew by us in blurry flurry and the word was weddings! The big wedding here in Cortona was Jovanotti's (remember the Italian rapper? see previous capers posting) September 6th wedding. We hosted our first destination wedding guests last week! Excitement of all the celebrations just vibrated through the house. The groom was a Chinese-Italian, born and raised in Milan and the bride a lovely Korean woman born and raised in London. They had met in university and were joined by their family and friends from literally all over the world! Our house was abuzz with energy and planning.
There's something incredibly romantic about Cortona- for the past number of years there seems to be at least one wedding a week-most in our town hall but many at some of the many beautiful churches. We have 3 separate wedding planning services working full time in Cortona and they all seem to stay very busy.
One day while out on the street I heard the wailing music of bagpipes in the distance. At first I thought it was the Christmas zampagnari coming early for their tips, I was informed by a shop keeper that it was a Scottish wedding party. She told me that the tradition was for the bridal party to be led to the festivities by a bag piper.
I didn't believe it until this afternoon when I heard piper's music first in the distance than passing under our open window. Sure enough as the music grew closer, I looked out my window and saw a group of kilted men and silky gowned ladies all making their way down Via Nazionale. As they passed by, the little feathered head dresses that the brit ladies seem to favor for these occassions and the hems of the kilts fluttered a bit in the autumn breeze. The impeccable jackets with shiny buttons arranged in almost a horseshoe shape on the back of each one, and shiny, sharp black shoes with special laces were the accessories to the kilts. I wondered, do these men all own kilts? I started to have silly thoughts, such as, do kilt renters exist? Thinking back to prom night with tux rentals and mint green or baby blue ruffled shirts to match the girl's dresses.These wedding goers definitely looked less silly then we did at the prom.

This summer we saw one of the most unusual choices of wedding garb here. The bride had a dress which seemed to be a real life version of the Disney Cinderella gown-complete with bows around the hoop supported skirt! and the groom was dressed as a prince-complete with shiny silver breastplate armour-his long hair perfectly coiffed into long sausage curls! They were out and about in Cortona by night, taking wedding pictures on the medieval facade side of town hall. The reflections from the armour lit up the piazza.

When Luciano and Jeanette got married in Town Hall in 1989, they didn't know they were having a destination wedding. They thougt they were having a simple, no frills ceremony for intimate friends and family.They should have got the hint when a Danish tour group walked through their wedding ceremony and they were able to pass off the flag thrower's demonstration in the Danes' honor as a carefully planned part of their wedding celebration.

Romance seems to live here-and it seems that more and more are continuing to plan weddings in Cortona. Casa Chilenne will be hosting more wedding parties this year and in 2009-so this seems not to be a passing trend.
Optimism lives, love lives and Cortona seems to be the perfect backdrop.

Discovering and Re-discovering Cortona

According to archaeologists Cortona's history as a city can be traced back at least to 700 BC. However, for the citizens of Cortona this is just not old enough. When asked how old Cortona is, almost every citizen will look you straight in the eye and tell you, "Cortona è la mamma di Troia e la nonna di Roma" that is "Cortona is the mother of Troy and the grandmother of Rome" . They are making reference to Dardanus of Cortona in the epic poem by Virgil, the Eneid, Dardanus left Cortona to found the city of Troy and when that city fell, the citizens went on to found the city of Rome...or so the story goes. Therefore, Cortona as a city supposedly older than Troy and Rome.

Still others want Cortona to be even older. Stories of Pythagoras being buried here at the Etruscan temple outside the city walls. There is also a legend which tells of the selection of the site of Cortona for a city...it starts something like this-And after great the waters subsided, the son of Noah, while navigating down a canal on his barge -looks up- and lo and behold there is a great beam of light shining down upon a hilltop...and which hilltop could that be? Of course the one right under Casa Chilenne! And after consultation with his father, it was decided that yes, this was truly a sign from God, and thus Cortona is said to be the third city built on the new, dry land that became Italy!

However, local pride aside, there is much to admire and discover here-apart from the fine artwork in our museums by Fra' Angelico (the painter, not the liquer), Luca Signorelli and Pietro da Cortona (Berrettini) and the astounding relics uncovered from the stone-age forward which are showcased at our MAEC museum, there is something much more to be appreciated in Cortona. Cortona itself.

There is a magic here, some in my home state of California would say it has an aura, an energy which makes it distinctive from any other place. It calls to you like a siren perched on the hill over the sea of the haze-filled valley. Once you are caught in its spell you must return, you want to discover, know and understand more. And when you think that you have seen it all, there's something new to discover...the Celle, one of the first monasteries founded by Saint Francis of Assisi, Luca Signorelli frescoes and paintings tucked away in San Nicolò Church, the stations of the cross designed by Futurist artist, Gino Severini , a native son of Cortona.

The list continues but you must come to discover it for yourself-

We hope you'll choose Casa Chilenne to be your home in Cortona-Your home away from home.