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// March 30th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // On the Radar
When Robin and I were in Turin, Italy we noticed the Google geo-car running around after we got a fresh buzz from some chocolate and coffee. Although I haven’t caught the shot yet of us waving at the car, the car definitely caught us while abroad.
Now until they trace their paths again Robin and I are a part of Europe. What fun.
// November 20th, 2008 // Comments Off // Activism, Excursions
With great fanfare and after a lot of fundraising Slow Food Charlotte accomplished the huge task of sending over 14 people to Turin Italy for Terra Madre 2008. As a part of the observer arm of the delegation we were there to experience something special and unique. Which if you are in to food, culture, and a wider world view should be experienced.
The real question upon return is how to best speak of the event. How to best capture, seal, and use as a foundation for our local conversations and action. I’ve found it difficult. Speaking with many of the delegates there are similarities of not having just one thing but a peppering of tens if not hundreds of little moments that remain indelible.
We arrived in Torino after a short stay in Lucca by way of an overnighter in Pollenza where we had visited the Slow Food Universita di Scienze Gastronomiche, eaten at Osteria Boccondivino, & Slow Food HQ in Bra. (We know how to move around.)
Picking up our passes and checking in with the US liaisons we were able to meet some of the other US delegation and see a plentiful and diverse group of peoples. The opening ceremonies was long yet brilliant.
Beginning with a procession of Sardinians showing off one of their rituals (impressive, daunting, and powerful) to follow was the marching of the flags. Many countries of the world were represented and as we later found out from Winona laDuke a hope that indegenious cultures will be able to fly their flags next session.
Speakers included those in Slow Food and beyond, Alice Waters introduced a video of Prince Charles, UN Asst. Secretary General Carlos Lopes spoke on behalf of Ban Ki-Moon, Vandana Shiva was passionate and fiery in her remarks, a student Sam Levin blew us away with his youth, determination, vibrance and step-taking, Carlo Petrini brought it all home in the poignant thoughts of our development and rich diversities.
I had chills so many times I thought my brain was going to fry out. I’m not sure everyones world view is ready to accept what is going on. The world is being dominated by those with power and we are constantly seeing large companies leverage that power into poor decisions; squeezing the bottom of the chain, selling consumers marketing and bad health, while replacing nature with man management which is leading us down a very bad road.
America will always amaze me. We are a super culture, a mixing pot of everyone. Including the great diversification of the indigenous countries within our country. How often we forget our own brief history.
The meeting of the US delegation was huge and very long. I understand why Slow Food Nation was conceived. We have a lot to talk about. With over 300 million in our borders we have a lot of work to do to corral this great nation.
We heard from many great regional speakers (session notes from Robin):
Josh Viertel, President of SF USA
We cannot take out without putting back in.
Our priorities: #1 The Youth, #2 Social Justice.
We are a movement, not an organization.
Farmer Dominic
We feed the community, and the community feeds us.
The importance of teaching.
Green Mountain College Farm and Food Project
Initiated under three goals: #1 Food, #2 Minds, #3 Ideas
Community supported agriculture (CSA) in the classroom to the kitchen and dining.
Common goals with continued partnership and community building.
White Earth Land Recovery Project
Winona laDuke, protecting our sacred wild rices, listening and talking to our relatives (the vegetation), cultural diversity is as important as bio-diversity, remember where we came from and how we got here, honor the history of food, and that we all have the right to own and eat food.
Kellen Vaughn Shelendewa, the crops are your children, learn from your elders, the ancestors are with us and watch us, the earth has been entrusted to us.
Brett Ramie, community inclusion cannot be done without elders, our world cycle is a non-linear progress and we must apply the knowledge of our elders before it is lost to us.
Ian Marvy, creating future eaters and teaching young people to farm.
Peace and refuge exists in the garden.
From seed to sale, helping the youth see potential in alternative markets.
Embrace the joy, understand the anger, and transform one to the other.
Chef Tony Miller, cook to farmer collaboration.
Let the food be the food, the star of the plate. Finish strong, show the youth what we need to continue. Keep the dollar in your yard, source locally whenever possible.
What Novice Farmers Need to Succeed
Access: land, info, market, cultural institutions, encouragement.
Land, liberty, sunshine, stamina.
serveyourcountryfood.net
Inter-generational collaboration in activism
Coalition of Immokalee workers, a 32 pound bucket of tomatoes gets $.45, the same as in 1978. Equating to $8-10,000 a year. 7 cases of slavery in the last decade. They have fought and won cases against large companies to pay more for their produce. Big companies can not keep applying this financial pressure downwards.
Strengthening Food Communities, Will & Erika Allen
Engage and inspire the community. The need to break down the social constructs that are oppressing people. Food justice, generations of justice. Look for the small projects to produce tremendous results, “Below the Grass”. Rich food for all folks.
Robin and I wanted to break through the cultural divides and meet people. We built a photo book, packing it with pictures of who we are and where we are from. Upon meeting someone new usually it involved the act of smiling and gesturing for a photograph.
I would take their picture and then we would approach showing them their picture. This then turned into an often funny trial and error of english, italian, french, hand signs, and laughter.
Showing our city at night, Robin and her classroom, our farmers and local agriculture, our family.
Through this exchange we would learn who they were, where they were from, what they brought with them, and with many contact information for penning them later. Our parting gift to those we met was a simple photograph of Robin and myself surrounded by some of the pictures they had seen with a set of email and snail mail addresses so that we might keep in touch. We hope they do.
There were so many things to learn and not enough time to learn them all. Between Salone de Gusto’s formidable tasting, pairing, and food explorations you had multiple tracks that you could run on in the Terra Madre sector. Climate change, soil protection, fair trade, bee colonies, getting to market, how to market, activist luncheons, youth meetups, and so much more.
We attended many which I’ll go in to in individual postings later, but would have loved to entertain more. Watching and being a participant with all these groups of people, each having a headset and a translator was just brilliant in being able to communicate across the gulf of language.
In the end we all share this world and many of us are experiencing the same problems. How we face those problems, find solutions that are good, clean, and fair, will be a monumental challenge. If we don’t face it head on though it will get no easier later and if the damage is irreprable, then what.
I’ve said it before, I got into this movement for a hunt for quality. I fell in love with the chain of agriculture and now am in it for my future family. If we can adopt a greater outlook for ourselves and for those in our charge maybe there is hope yet.
More to come. We thank all of those who helped us achieve our goal and look forward to building further essays and pictorials that give light to what we learned. I end with a musical slideshow that encompasses some of the sights and similar musics heard during our time abroad.
// July 15th, 2005 // Comments Off // Excursions
Upon porting to WordPress this little ditty was staring at me under ‘Drafts’. I’m glad to dust it off and put it in its rightful place.
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Prior Pages:
Heading from Florence to Venice was our best train ride yet. We rode on the Eurostar in second class. Lots of foot room, computer power, tables, smooth fast ride. For all the travel we did we never missed a car. Why hassle?
Once in Venice we had to aquaint ourselves with the water bus system. I was a little shocked at their pricing. For a public bus service it cost us 12EU to get a one way ticket for passengers and luggage to our stop at Zattere. Immediatly upon being in Venice you notice the lack of car sounds. You get kind of used to this low level moto-buzz that was pretty consistant from city to city. However here, there is no city traffic. You see a lot of strong men carrying/carting goods all over the place. This labor is translated into the price of everything, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Once at Zattere we walked about 4 blocks along one of the outer canals to reach our hotel, Pensione Calcina. Our check in was met with a friendlyness and hospitality. Once in our room we were excited to find that we had a lovely terrace overlooking the canal and hotel restaurant. Deciding that we did not want to journey far for lunch we ate at the hotel. We ended up eating a toasted prosciutto e formaggio panini & salad. Robin and I ate light because the meal was so expensive. It seems the more on the water you are whether east or west coast and you’re going to pay a higher rate than when you are in the interior. Back to the earlier statment of seeing all the labor to bring goods to these places, at least here it is probably justified. At any rate we had a delightful sandwhich and a very expensive salad with our 3EU water.
With our tank refueled we decided that it was late enough in the day that we didn’t want to really see any one specific thing. We meandered along the canals west of the Rialto. Passing many little piazzas, tons of artisanal shops ranging from hand gilded masks, glass works, jewlery, pastry, pasta. Again we found a city chock full of antiquity. Enjoying ourselves we passed the old Venice market place and paused over the Rialto.
Much time has passed and this is where I had laid my pen.. on fond reflection we did more, we had a few good seafood based dinners, drank much more coffee, ate confections, and wandered around the squares and museums. We then packed up or gear and headed back to Milan, where to our dismay our hotel was under repair. They were so very kind though and whisked us to another sister hotel where we were given a nice room and a ride to the airport far far too early the next morning.
We miss Italy, and will have to return to continue our journey, re-reading our chronicals has brought back many a fascinating memory.
-a
// July 11th, 2005 // Comments Off // Excursions
[Continued from Florence, Italy, Part 1 of 2](http://andy.ciordia.info/articles/2005/06/08/florence-italy-part-1-of-2)
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We tracked back to a Cafe that had a plethora, (yea I said it), plethora, of panini’s and sweet yummies. I never figured out how, or who makes up these cases of items. If someone out their does, let me know. Every cafe/snackbar has a supply of foodstuffs, do they make them? Do others? Is the general rule of thumb to stock and run out and thats that, or make more on demand? Not having a handle on the language to that degree I couldn’t navigate business, just observation for the most part.
Freya had informed us of some cafe’s to check out so we hit up Gili’s, Paszkowski’s, & Cafe Rivore. Each one of these was a rather historical and popular piazza location. We tried many little desserts at these places from amaretti’s to nonni’s, a flan to cioccolato. All three of these places worked a little latte art mojo. Hearts for my lady, rosetta’s for me. We spoke to their barista and learned that they had worked there somewhere in the 3-5 year range. These guys really work it spinning all sorts of little concotions from the bar to the espresso machine. Lots of small movements, well formed enviornments, and being highly used to burst capacity needs. Really fun to watch. Again though, lacking enough language was a barrier to having any real deep conversations, but it was fun to work on non-verbal communication.
We took a day off of anything planned by just wandering. Robin and I like to wander. Sometimes its with purpose, sometimes its just which way our gut pulls us. We figured out in hindsight that you need three days in all places so you can afford a day to just be mellow. Heading to dinner we stumbled upon [d. Bartolini](http://www.dinobartolini.it/). Reminds me of what [Sur la Table](http://www.surlatable.com/) is, but a bit bigger. The staff was very friendly and we quickly found a line of cups from “Thun”. Really cute series of cups, and also found their catalog showing they had a rather extensive collection. We have so far researched it down to a Czech company and a few european resellers but I haven’t translated enough to find one that will ship to the States.
The day of rest was good since the next day we were off on our day trip to Siena & San Gimignano. Robin slept on the trip while I looked out the bus windows and worked on balancing levels of photos. We arrived in Siena about 10am or so, clouds were rolling in, you could smell rain in the air. Meeting our local guide we were off to the races learning about Siena’s history, the competition and wars with Florence, what the Medici did upon conquering, banks, districts, churches, monestaries, piazza, oh my. Coming out of Siena’s duomo we were met with the rain. Robin and I generally don’t care so we walked to Campo square where we tried to identify some non-tourist trap to eat in. Failing, we walked out of the square and into one of the best pizza shops to date. Of course being wet and a bit tired we ate communally and I took no photos of food. A small beer later, my spirits restored, we walked around on our own for a while stopping into a cafe for a cappa and double cappa. I was hoping if I ordered a dopio cappuccino, I would get a 2oz espresso cappa. Nope. I did however find out how to get a latte. hehehe. How do I get a double-espresso, cappa in Italian? Have to find that out for next time. We never got to feel comfortable as we then got on the bus and headed towards San Gimignano. The sun however did greet us as we arrived at our destination.
San Gimignano, a town of towers. I can only imagine what it must have been like back in the day. A tower was how you showed you had wealth. The more towers the more money, the higher the better. If you were to lose your wealth a town might decapitate your tower to keep you in check. Crazy times in deed. In San Gimignano we only had a little over an hour. I wish we had more time because this place is just a little gem. It wouldn’t take more than a day, but it just feels so nice. Corridors of streets, the gothic nature of the towers, and the countryside so green and fertile. Beautiful. We stopped at one of Italy’s famed gelato shops, “Gelateria di Piazza”, and enjoyed some of the richest gelato on our journey. It had won the national gelato compeitition so many times they withdrew to allow others to win. We ended up just meandering through the town and soon found it time to return to our bus.
The day before we left Florence we visited the Boboli Gardens. In the surroundings of Florence it is all populated. You don’t get to catch much of a green countryside except here or if you leave the city all together. If you have been to European palaces many have a “garden”. A garden can constitute acres of land that might have pools, arenas, fountains, statues, guest houses, etc. They are very large, very ornate, and I think we all wish we had one, hehe. One of the things I am constantly in awe of is how much artistry was put in to everything and how I miss it in the States. The gardens took about three hours of walking to encompass and enjoy it all. Since we had paced out the area before we went to the gardens, for dinner we decided to go to “Osteria Santo Spirito”. Which as you can guess was off the Piazza Santo Spirito. A very young and hip crowd lives in this area and a more relaxed feel can be felt over the Arno, rather than in Florence proper. For dinner we enjoyed fresh pasta, lamb, chicken, and veggies. Robin and I also got quite squirrelly off a bottle of wine.
All in all Florence is a wonderous and beautiful place to visit. It offers days of things to do and enough places to eat to keep anyone satisfied. We could have stayed over a week and indulged in more of the museums and a broader sweep of the region, but on to Venice we went!
// June 8th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // Excursions
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Prior Pages: Cinque Terre
To get into Florence we had to change trains outside the city and head towards Santa Maria Novella station. Our train skills had improved enough we got our tickets rapidly and we were there before we knew it. A short walk around the corner and a few additional blocks brought us to Hotel Aprile. We checked in but had to wait a half hour for our room so we scavenged their booklet bins and sat down in there patio to figure out the plans. We mapped out a few of the suggested restaurants we brought with us and then found a tour group doing a Siena / San Gimignano trip on Monday. We thought it a good idea at the time and booked later that afternoon. Our evening walk was at 5:45p, with that in mind and a few restaurants at hand we were ready.
We really didn’t know what to expect out of any of our rooms as we booked them. Hotels can make something look one way online or in photos but until you’ve stayed in the region you just don’t know. Hotel Aprile was pretty fantastic. When we got our room we were treated to vaulted ceilings and spaciousness that we had not afforded any place as of yet. A view of Santa Maria Novella church from the window, and the courtyard below, we had been given one of the quiet rooms away from the main street. Fabulous. We explored the area surrounding the hotel and grabbed panini for lunch then went back to our room to get ready for the evening.
We got to our meeting spot for the _Florence Evening Walk_ a little early so we stopped in a bar/cafe for some caffeine. It was rather foul which was disappointing but there is no excuse to scalded milk in Italy! heheheh. The tour however was another story. Our guide was Freya a cute little Australian blonde that had come to Italy for 3 months of language lessons and ended up staying five years. She took us across the Trinity bridge and gave some nice stories of local lore and old Medici intrigue.
After a good hour or so walk we stopped at a wine bar and enjoyed a wine from San Gimignano, Vernaccia. Freya gave us all tips on where to eat which turned out to be off the charts. After Freya left we went to _Sasso di Dante_ with an Australian mother and daughter duo, Carroll & Kathy, that was on the tour with us. This was probably the best time we had our whole trip. Our dinner mates were great company, and the food we had at Dante’s was just amazing. We got a bottle of Chianti, a filet w/ cognac sauce, a filet with peppercorn sauce, an herb & cheese gnocchi. The peppercorn steak and gnocchi were the best I have ever had. Simply writing about it makes me salivate. After finishing the wine and meal, Kathy got her mom & Robin into another mezzo (1/2liter) while I sipped on a single caffe’. Then, to top it all, our great waiter brings over a chilled bottle of lemoncello and shot glasses. A digestive he called it. Woooo.. It was snappy! We enjoyed a few sipped shots of that and stumbled our way home. Excellent suggestion from Freya!
The next morning I thought I would try and use the “Internet Point” that the hotel provided. It was a rather cheap windows box with some bad pay as you go ware on it. I picked up a scan pass and began to check my mail when I noticed the international keyboard for the first time. Well that sure did throw me for a loop. I still don’t know how to get the @ sign. I got what I needed done through as little duress as I could muster. Everything seemed quiet at home which is always nice. I did note the little technical geek in me that they were using ADSL and I could probably hijack their connection, which I did so on two occasions. I paid for my time didn’t I?
We packed our day bag and had decided that our targets for the day were the Accademia & to see one of the Leonardo da Vinci exhibits. To get to the Accademia we went through San Lorenzo square which is also the street Market (Mercato). Here we saw blocks and blocks of wares of all sorts. Shirts, bags, glasses, glass, plates, belts, leather products galore. In the middle of all this is their large market which has a bottom floor full of 2x2 blocks of meat, poultry, fish, while upstairs has all their fresh vegetables & fruits. Quite amazing. I am so jealous. We kept on going and ended up waiting a small spell in the reservation line (always good if you don’t want to wait 1+hrs). The Accademia really isn’t as large as I had thought. Michael is the largest attractor which was great to see. I am still amazed at how much artisan-craftsmanship was needed to make such a thing. After that we cruised through many rooms of religious artifacts and an exhibit on the history of music.
Leaving the Accademia we headed a few streets and blocks away to where an exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci bringing his sketches to life. You can see through his work that many ideas in the world were linking together. Ancient thoughts, old thoughts, modern thoughts, renaissance thoughts, all merging together to form so many of the fundamentals we still use today. It would have been neat to see the man in action.
More on Florence later..
Florence Part 2 of 2
