Month: October 2011

Cart and I were in Bracciano last weekend to see the la Sagra della Castagna, or Chestnut Festival. It was reported to be quite crowded due to lunch time, so we made a little detour.

Our first stop was in Anguillara Sabazia.

This is another little town facing Lake Bracciano. We’ve already been to Martignano, a little town facing the lake, in the middle of this year, as well as Bracciano itself. And here in Port of Molo, like the other towns, is very tranquil and beautiful.

I like seeing families chilling out with their kids, taking in the view and listening to the waves.

And of course the ducks and the seagulls … waiting patiently for crumbs of bread … Greedy little bastards.

As we were both ravenously hungry, we stopped at a restaurant called Nonna Carolina. It was a charming little restaurant where you could dine and admire the view outside.

The restaurant specialises in fish caught from the lake. I had a difficult time in choosing between fish pasta or the secondo piatto.  Eventually, knowing how bloated I’d feel if I ate too much, I chose the mixed fried fish platter, so I could try almost everything.

And here was my meal. At the bottom, the roundish shaped one is Anguilla – Eel. The orangey fillets are Luccio – Pike fish and the small ones on the right is Latterino.

Don’t be deceived by the simplicity of the dish. It was wonderful. I love the eel especially as it was wonderfully succulent and meaty.

Below, the latterino is basically baby-fish. I really liked eating this. It was slightly crunchy, a little chewy and salty. Not the same, but still not too dissimilar with anchovies.

The only fish that I didn’t really like unfortunately was the Luccio though. While it wasn’t bad, I thought that the fish would taste much better if it were baked of grilled.

An interesting thing to note, is that all these fishes were Freshwater fishes. And freshwater is called “Aqua dolce” in Italian which literally means sweet water.

Cart had bruschetta with eggplant.

He also had an interesting pasta with Radicchio – the red vegetable that you see below. Cart loves it.  Not one of my favourite vegetables though as it tends to be bitter.

I was admiring the tablecloth at the restaurant and casually commented to Cart that it looked nice enough to be turned into a dress.

An amusing thing I noticed was this sign in the bathroom. The original word was in red ink and someone corrected the word BOTTOM to BUTTON.

After we had our lunch, we then headed to the Sagra della Castagna, the Chestnut festival which was held in Manziana.

Unfortunately, it was just a small festival, probably because of the strange weather that we’ve been having that time in Italy affecting the crops.

There was a bigger one up North, but it was a little too far for us. Nevertheless, there were still a number of interesting things to see. Like foodstalls which uses chestnuts in their dishes.

Jams and preserves made of chestnuts.

As other non chestnut related stands.

So many amazing foods here! Like doughnuts and this twisted dough of tomato and basil.

There were a lot of street performers too.

The air definitely felt festive, as like the feeling that I had during the maratona di Roma, earlier this year.

These was also a group of soldiers performing. Look at their hats all covered with feathers. Cart told me that this was an official outfit.

But I think the most wonderful performer was this one that we came across. He’s amazing! How does he whistle like that? Just take a listen!

I only knew later that his name is Claudio Montuori, more commonly known as Birdman and he’s famous! Just take a look in youtube and you’d see his other amazing performances.

Eventually we reached the end of the piazza and came across this delectable looking stand. I love roasted corn, but we didn’t stop here.

Instead we queued up behind this large group of people to get roasted Chestnuts. After all, how can anyone go to a chestnut festival without eating some chestnuts?

So while Cart was queuing up, I stood in front of the fire. Mainly to keep myself warm but it was also interesting to see how the chestnuts were made. There were at least 4 men around a big tripod with a huge roasting pan attached below it.

First, sticks and kindlings are thrown into the fire

Then the first man pours the chestnuts in the pan and he’ll let the fire singe the shell. See how the shell looks dark here?

Eventually the chestnuts will expand inside and the shell will mostly pop away to reveal the yellow flesh. And then the pan will be rotated round and around.

And then it’ll be passed to another person, taking turns. The pan must be very heavy.

Eventually, one of the men picks a chestnut to see if it’s ready and when they’ve agreed, the chestnuts are thrown into an already waiting sack.

And these will be quickly served to the impatient queue.

One of the nicest feeling is to have a warm chestnut in your hand during the cold season. I felt like a squirrel somewhat after that, sitting at a corner peeling away the shells and nibbling every chestnut till it was all finished!

There was also the boiled chestnut version. I think I’ll try that the next time we come here 🙂

If you like this post, you might enjoy :

• Artichoke Festival in Ladispoli

I’ve been quite sick for the past week. But I’m all better now and am raring to blog again!

Anyway, last weekend was cultural week in Italy, which means that entry to many museums and monuments are free! Cart and I took the opportunity to visit Villa Adriana.

Villa Adriana is about 45 minutes drive out of central Rome. When you think that Adriana, you’d think of a girl’s name right? But Cart told me that translated, Villa Adriana means something like “Hadrian’s House.”

In any case, the Emperor Hadrian constructed the area as a respite from the palatine palace in Rome to an area which  reflected to his own taste.

By the way, even though entry was free on the day, the strange thing is, you’d still need to have a ticket to enter. Same thing as our last visit to the museums here and here.

In any case, it’s rather confusing for the first timer going around Villa Adriana though. Even with the map, I was clueless at where to go and see first. It was a really large area. And in the end, I thought that it was best to just go with the flow.

One thing that you’ll notice as you enter the area was that there are loads of olive trees. I’m not sure if it was the right season for them but nevertheless, there were both green as well as olives which was starting to turn purple.

They looked so charming, being all in a row like that. There were interesting holes in the tree, making it seem enchanted and for me, it felt as if I was in a fairy tale come to life. The only thing missing is probably a food basket and a red cape. Cart can be the nice wolf

Camwhore time!

As you can see, I’m wearing my really sexeh jeans! 

Ok, let’s explore the Villa proper!

Gosh, I feel like Lara Croft (she’s an archaeologist by the way ) walking around the area. All that I’m missing is brown shorts and a blue top … (and maybe some guns too)

This is the area called “Teatro Greco”. The emperor was influenced by a lot of Grecian as well as Egyptian architecture. And this was the open theater that he had.

Just imagine how it would have looked like when it was pristine!

Next, we walked towards the heart of the villa where the pool were. See this wall here? It’s amazing isn’t it? That it still stands after so many many many years.

In any case, the walls looked interesting to me. It sticked out like a hedgehog spikes somehow. But this was an example of laying of the bricks as how ancient Romans did it.

Could you just imagine walking around this pool? The orange fences are ruining the picture though, but nevertheless, it’s so peaceful and tranquil here. Man, the emperor really knew how to live it up!

I’m not sure what the rest of the monuments are, so … ehm … I’ll just leave the rest of these pictures uncaptioned 

Oh! And by the way, there are some modern pieces every now and then, decorating the area. Like this grandma statue, chilling out by the trees.

Oh, and this tripping pegasus figure with some beheaded greek statues and a chopped hand … the artist was probably high! (on creativity)

AAA! Medusa! However does she shampoo?

We walked deeper in towards another large pool. This was the area where Emperor used to have his lunch at.

Can you just imagine if your dining area looked like this? I’d be working up a nice appetite just before I get to the table!

And right in the middle here was where he’d lie down on his side while having his lunch. It was the fashionable thing to do for rich to do. Commoners like us would have to eat sitting down.

We continued walking and stumbled upon this area. Cart was telling me that there was a thermal bath around there. This was possibly one of the areas where you changed outfits I suppose. It looked pretty spacious. I wonder if there were doors or they had to suffer as I did

The area was amazingly large. The roof of this building for example, you could stack at least 8 people on their heads before they touch the roof.

So much energy and work dedicated into building these.

Cart was telling me about this particular area which he liked. He was here before with a group of friends and they were able to enter this place below.

Today it is closed because of the danger of falling rocks. But Cart told me that this was a good place to be during the warm days as it was constructed specifically for keeping cool.

Nope, can’t explore in there

And then we walked to yet another area. By this time, I’ve totally given up on looking at the map to know where we were.

This is quite cool. I imagine that the area were houses for the servants to the emperor. See the brick formation? And we were free to walk inside the space! And I tried to visualise how it would have looked like then.

And before you knew it, 2 hours has passed by  and we were approaching closing time. One of the last monuments that we managed to see was Piazza D’Oro. (Gold Piazza)

I think if you are ever in Villa Adriana, you shouldn’t miss this. This place really feels very tranquil and peaceful. It was really relaxing to see the hill and the rolling clouds in the background.

And now visualise white marble pillars in front of you. And people walking around with toga.

But before we knew it, it was time to go. And we had to say goodbye to this amazing place.

To end this post, I’m also going to put up this picture which I spotted on our way to Villa Adriana

Look! It’s an Italian Pentagon!