Terme di Saturnia

Day trip with Daniele to Tuscan hot springs of Cascate del Gorello in Terme di Saturnia in the morning. Followed by visiting towns of Saturnia (Frazione di Manciano), Montemarano, and Tarquina in the afternoon.

Yesterday Daniele and I took a day trip two-hours north to some Tuscan hot springs, the Terme di Saturnia. There are a few spots, both open to the public and private pay-to-enter places to enjoy these Terme. We went to the public Cascate del Gorello (Cascate is Italian for waterfall). These are natural forming pools, similar to Bagni San Filipo, Castiglione d'Orcia also in Tuscany where we stayed in 2011. The alternative is man-built (or more likely Ancient-Roman-built) pools, like the ones in Viterbo. Where as Castiglione d'Orcia was a giant mound of calcium carbonate fit better for sun bathing as the water splashed by the smooth surface, the Cascate del Gorello were many small waterfalls each making a little pool with a whirlpool-like effect.

We headed out early (6 AM) to arrive at the Terme around 8 AM. Daniele had read it gets crowded, especially in the Summer. This is March, but it was also a Saturday. Personally, I think March is the perfect time to go. In the dead of winter I couldn't stand getting out, and in the hot summer, I don't think I would want to go in. There were only a few (~4) people already there, one other couple and some people alone who looked like "regulars".

We struggled for a little leaving our bag. We knew this moment was coming and had packed as light as possible reading that cars get broken into (like everywhere in Italy). Being there almost first we had a very good parking spot and we could choose anywhere to put our stuff, we put them on a mount of dirt I could see from almost anywhere in the waterfalls. An older couple that arrived as we were struggling with this, walked past us and put their stuff on the one hook. Clearly regulars. As more and more people arrived and everyone left their stuff more or less near ours and it felt safer.

The waterfalls couldn't have been formed better. The river flows down in a more forceful waterfall at the top, then into dozens of small and medium sized pools. The ones farther down are calmer and later on there were families with children down there. In the middle the water flowing into each pool from the one above makes it like a jacuzzi, and most people lean up against the back of that wall so the water runs over their shoulders. At the top there are a few spots where you can sit and let the more powerful waterfall pound away and your back. I sat here at the end, it was amazing.

We stayed at the Terme from a bit after 8 AM until a bit after noon. On the road down we had stopped to take a picture of the waterfalls from above at a view point and noticed there was a little picnic / rest area there. So we returned there to have the lunch we packed. You can see it is much more crowded now.

After lunch we went to check out the little town of Saturnia. These were Terme di Saturnia after all. Saturnia is pretty small, in fact it is not a city in its own right, it is sort of a suburb of another city. Italians call this a Frazione. Saturnia is a frazione of Manciano, where we did not visit. Daniele spent a large amount of the time there complaining how the people of Tuscany turn everything into a tourist sight, and how even a little town like this with nothing to see has 15 "brown signs".

View of private terme from center of Saturnia (Frazione di Manciano).

Next we went to the nearby city of Montemarano. Montemarano is really, really pretty. All the buildings here have the stone exposed, with cement holding them together, opposed to the more popular today stucco / cement siding. It was very charming. Thinking more about our water adventures (and the possibility of a car break in) than our afternoon walking around little Tuscan towns I didn't have my good camera, just my waterproof point-and-shoot. Since I use this camera less often, I didn't realize the battery was about to go dead, which it did shortly after we arrived here.

As sort of a random idea we made a quick stop on the way home in the city of Tarquina. This is just on the Lazio side of the boarder near Civitavecchia (where cruse ships come into Rome). Tarquina was the head city of the 12 that encompassed the Etruscan civilization (an important power in Italy overlapping and then consumed by early Ancient Romans). I got to know my Etruscan history staying in Volterra a little while back. The city is larger than the other two we visited today, but still charming. It had spread out beyond the walls of the historical center quite a bit, though we didn't explore that much. What was really amazing is that you could see the Mediterranean from this ancient hill town. Many old cities are on the sea, but this one didn't feel like a beach town, it felt like a hill town. We didn't have time to see the beach there, but I would like to go back. This is only an hour away and there is a UNESCO World Heritage site there we didn't get to see either.

We got home around 6 PM. Which gave us time to shower, unpack our things, clean up a bit, and heat up the frozen pizza I had specifically bought for tonight (don't judge, this is a once in a blue moon, also it's artichoke and ricotta in puff pastry, and it's delicious!). We were both exhausted (and delightfully tanned) from our four-hours simmering in the Terme.

The rest of the photos from this day trip:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5859007497821517137

Coronation Pope Francesco

It was pretty big news here in Rome, and everywhere, last month when Benedict XVI put in notice. It happened really fast, he announced on 11 February that his last day would be 28 February. I was mostly excited that I would be here in Rome for the Conclave. Unfortunately, conclave takes place over a period of time and you never know when the cardinals are going to come to consensus and send out that white smoke. They happened to decide very quickly, conclave started 12 March and they decided 13 March. I missed it. I watched on TV like everyone else, as they announced Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina Pope Francis, or Papa Francesco (after St. Francis of Assisi).

I was able to plan on being in the Vatican for the coronation of Papa Francesco. They call it a coronation from when the Pope was the ruler of the "Stato Pontificio" comprised of modern Lazio, Umbria, Marche, and southern-eastern Emilia-Romania. The new pope would hold a mass, which is special because the pope almost never does the mass, he just does the blessing.

We filled into St. Peter's Square, passing through security. The square was crowded, but we were able to enter. There were walk ways fenced off separating large areas for the crowds. The round piazza is a bit bowl shaped, presumably for water drainage, however it is not the best design for a stadium-type event.

Before things kicked off, Papa Francesco took a few laps around the crowds on an open top vehicle of some sort. Everyone was going nuts trying to rush to the fence where he was. The only time I saw him get down was near what I referred to as "Campo Argentina", there were supposedly some disabled people or children there.

The first part of the mass/ceremony took place inside of St Peter's Cathedral. It was pretty short and we had big screens to view it. The procession leaving the cathedral to the altar set up just outside was rather impressive. There are a lot of cardinals. They all had on their matching robes and were just generally impressive.

The mass was pretty normal. As mentioned, there was an altar set up just outside the doors to the Cathedral. There was an amazing choir to the left, along with the other clergy. The diplomats were seated to the right. Pope Frank gave a great speech on how we are not just Christians, but humans and doing good in the world. This was also the mass of San Giuseppe (Italian Father's Day), many people had books that they were following along with the mass and songs. I didn't get one until the mass was over.

I admit I was a bit lost in the mass, as it was in Latin/Italian opposed to my more comfortable English/Latin mass, though I probably understood better than most of the crowd (minus the Italians). Where as the every Wednesday Vatican blessing is repeated in several languages, very few parts were done in multiple languages.

At one point soft yellow and blue (the colors of Argentina) umbrellas seemed to almost be floating down where I knew the fenced off corridors to be. This was shortly after the "peace be with you" bit which was surprisingly fun as no two people I shook hands with said the same thing back to me. Right around then there was also a lot of shuffling in front of me and I took the opportunity to get closer. Then I saw there was a yellow and blue umbrella just in front of us, and beneath it a priest giving communion... duh. Though not that big a 'duh' because they normally don't give communion out in the square. In fact, Daniele says he's never heard of it.

Obviously at this point the mass was almost over, but I had a really great spot now! I hung around for a little hoping that Papa Francesco might make another round and we could spend more quality time together. But as that looked less likely I asked the Swiss Guard in front of me if anything else was planed, and it was not, so I headed out.

Pictures from the mass:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5857941830730346881

Our Home

I've been asked a few times to take pictures of our home in Monterotondo (Rome), Italy. It is a pretty new apartment building with a garage on the ground floor and four apartments on each of the three floors above.

We're on the “first” floor, that's a European first one floor up. We have a kitchen that opens to the living room, bathroom, a master bedroom, and a smaller second bedroom that functions as my office and a guest room. We also have a skinny balcony that goes along the whole North-West wall and wraps shortly along the North-East wall. The two bedrooms open onto that balcony. The kitchen opens to a larger balcony where we have a dinning table, clothes drying rack, and stairs to the garden below. All the windows in the apartment are doors to balconies except for the one in the bathroom. The window/doors are really interesting, they are made of double glass doors (window/air protection), a screen that slides to the side (bug protection), a plastic shade that rolls up into the wall above when not in use and could keep a vampire safe from sun when it is in use (for privacy), and an iron gate each with a unique lock (for security, everyone in Italy has these).

The aforementioned garden is the width of the apartment and right outside and below our kitchen. The building is surrounded by a ring of garden space minus the side where everyone enters the parking space under the building. The ring is sectioned into six pieces. We own one and seem to be the only ones who use ours, most the others are just overrun. It's not a huge space but it's very nice for a city. We have a patio covered with a kinda tent, a stone barbeque in the corner, some paving stones to navigate watering the plants, and another entrance in the fence from the garage. Normally it is very green with herbs, peppers, flowers, and Daniele's tomatoes, but I just took these photos now in January so it's pretty barren.

It's only 11 photos, so I will just link to the album rather than re-placing them here. Most of them are rough cut panoramas because I couldn't get much even on my wide angle lens in the space.

https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5836701962471254273?authkey=CLHzp77w4_bBcw

I've started to make the place my own, but most of the décor was chosen by Daniele, his mother, or was just handed down when he first bought the place two years before we met. So don't expect it to really scream “me”.

Rome at the Holidays

This year I came back to Rome right after Christmas. This allowed me to spend New Years with my sweetie and to see the holiday decorations in Rome that I normally miss. They strictly take them down after Epiphany. They put trees up in most of the big piazzas but their big thing are the Nativity scenes.

We started with an old special Nativity that was made by the garbageman. It is called the "Presepe dei Netturbini". It is actually open all year long, so coming this time of year when there is a line to get in may not have been the best idea. It is made to look like Jerusalem and incorporates pieces of rock from all over the world.

Next we went to Saint Peter's Square (the Vatican) where they had both a beautiful tree and nativity. Different countries in Europe alternate donating the tree to the Vatican. This year the tree came from Southern Italy. It was lit during a ceremony on December 14th. After the holidays the wood is donated to several groups that manufacture toys for children in need.

The nativity at Saint Peter's Square this year was modeled after Basilicata in Southern Italy, from where it was made and donated. It was very impressive. It had just been revealed Christmas Eve.

The city of Rome also decorated most of its streets with lights. Including a ribbon of lights down Via Del Corso and lamps down the high-end shopping street Via Condotti. Different shops alternate sponsoring the lamps on Condotti, this year they were from Mercedes who also put up a tree at the head of the street where it intersects Via del Corso. Fendi, who have their giant store at the location also have a tree there made of baguette bags. Most of the little side streets in the historical center are decorated as well.

Ribbon of lights down Via Del Corso

Mercedes lamps down the high-end shopping street Via Condotti. That's the Spanish Steps at the end.

Mercedes tree at Via Condotti and Via del Corso

Fendi tree at Via Condotti and Via del Corso

Piazza del Spagna (Spanish Steps) was probably the most impressive. The church at the top was all lit up and there was a giant tree with a nativity below. Approaching it by way of the sparkling Via Condotti made it all the more magical.

Nativity under the tree at Piazza del Spagna

We didn't think there was anything at Piazza del Popolo, but walking through there on our way home we found another tree!

We came back for another round on Saturday, January 5. We still hadn't seen all the big piazzas and that night they would be having Epiphany celebrations in Piazza Navona, so I could check that out, too.

We started with Campidoglio Hill. They had a tree and a small detailed nativity behind glass. They were also setting up another life-size nativity that would be revealed the next day as part of the Epiphany celebrations along with a concert I gathered. But we weren't free Sunday to come back.

We went next to the Colosseum. I just can't get used to turning a corner and seeing the Colosseum no matter how long I'm here.

From there we headed to Piazza Navona where it was full of people. Full. Navona is possibly the largest piazza in Rome. It is the ovular one with the three fountains, the middle one is themed after the four great known (at the time) rivers. It is the one they used to flood and stage naval battles in-- a big piazza. Along the sides there were vendors selling donut-like sweets and cotton candy, as well as toys and La Befana dolls.

A side note on the history and Italian traditions of Epiphany. While in the United States the Christmas Season is unofficially observed from Thanksgiving to Christmas day, in Italy on the other hand it is very officially observed from Christmas Eve night through Epiphany (January 6). These “Twelve Days of Christmas” are a celebration of the period from Christ's birth through the visit of the Magi / Three Kings / Three Wise Men. While you may have a Christmas party with coworkers or friends before this 12 day period, generally Christmas and its decorations and hoopla don't ooze too much out of it. This period is almost immediately followed by the start of Carnevale celebrations, which we in the US are completely lacking or think of as a single Tuesday. Perhaps that's why we like to make Christmas a month long.

Italian Epiphany traditions are largely aimed at children, and having grown up in the US I can't describe them first hand. What I have gathered is there is a type of witch named La Befana who is neither good nor bad. She enters children's homes from the chimney and leaves them candy or small toys in their stockings; bad children get coal.

A few days later we happened to be in Saint Peter's Cathedral and we saw they had a Nativity set up inside besides the one set up out in the piazza. It was so crowded and the photo can't do it justice, it was the most beautiful we saw.

The complete album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5836296191021293377

Update on the ground, Sandy edition

Note, I wrote the following on 11/2 but was unable to get internet to post until 11/4, there is an update at the bottom

I flew back to NJ on the red-eye from San Francisco last night. Things here are about as I expected, wide spread power outages, but people getting by alright. Many people have generators after last years storm.

Personally, my parents have been without power since the storm hit on Monday. They had my grandmother over then since they have a generator and brought her back home once she had power again. Still no power here, but the generator runs everything, including the water pump. We just don't have TV/Internet. My dad was pretty excited I was bringing the internet home with me via my smartphone. Rest of the family either is back on power or also running a generator as far as I've heard.

LBI is almost definitely flooded, they say the ocean met the bay, but the island is still closed off, so haven't been down to check on the house yet. By a miracle my Aunt Linda, who always floods, hasn't so far so hopefully won't.

My mom is back at work, as Flemington is back on power. My dad is hanging out at home with me (and picked me up this morning) as the port is still closed. Note, port Newark has been closed without power for days. Be cautious buying refrigerated goods in your supermarkets for the next week or so-- everybody, not just NJ (your food/everything comes from here). The stuff should all be thrown out, but who knows.

The only thing that caught me off guard was that NJ seems to be going through a gas crisis. I had seen photos of people lining up with their gas cans at stations, but didn't really internalize the extent of it until this morning.

This morning my dad drove me to several bagel places before we found one open with power, a Dunken Donuts with a line out the door. Some people were getting breakfast for their whole families. Everyone was talking about gas. The guy in front of me had driven from two counties over, without finding an open gas station until the one across the street, where he waited two-hours for gas. Another waited an hour and a half yesterday, only to have them go dry before he got any. My dad drove far out west into PA until there were no lines, but he only has two gas cans so could only buy 10 gallons after that drive. He drove eight hours looking for more cans, can't find them.

Many gas stations are just closed with the power out. You need electric to pump gas. Some are using generators to pump, but running dry with the demand.

The guy at Dunks was apologizing for not having ice for iced coffee, or cup holders, or various other things. He hasn't had any deliveries. I would guess no deliveries would have to do with a lot of issues.

Update from 11/4
This morning my mom and I went out to do some errands, rather than sit at home and stare at each other all day. We found Clinton had partial power back but most places did not and were still closed. So not only is there no TV/Internet at home, there is nothing open outside. With nothing else to do we were forced to do yard work. We made about an SUV-sized pile of branches that had fallen in the yard, not counting larger ones that went into our firewood pile. There are still many more out there, we were just tired and it was getting dark. Plus a few trees that my dad will need to cut up before we can clear.

About an hour ago the electricity came back on here. So we are back to normal. We were able to do most things with the generator, but you hate to waste gas running non-necessary things and my dad has to turn it on in the morning. So tomorrow morning I'll be able to wash my face and brush my teeth without boiling water on the wood stove.

The gas shortage is a real thing and the governor, Chris Christie, has mandated an odd/even gas purchasing rule that started today/Saturday. Basically the last digit in your license plate number determines if can get gas on odd or even days; even plates can go on even days, and vice versa. Personally we are about 10 minutes from the PA boarder so it will not effect us, even if we need gas on an off day, which now that we have power should not be an issue.

I checked on LBI and they are still evacuating and not letting anyone on the island. They hope sometime this week to let homeowners in for a few hours to get some essentials. No word yet on when it will be open for people to do cleaning and repairs.

Eggplant Preserving

I was recently having a conversation about preserving and prompted to write about how we preserve eggplant. There are two ways to do it, under oil and under vinegar.

I prefer the under oil version (Melanzane Sott'olio), as the vinegar version is a bit harsh for me. Daniele and I made this one together and it's super simple.

Ingredients:

• Eggplant
• Oil
• Vinegar
• Garlic (cut fine)
• Herb (Parsley or Mint, not both)
• Peperoncino (red pepper)
• Salt
• Jar

Slice eggplant 1/4 inch slices
Grill until dried out, pretty grilled, some black stripes

Layer into the jar:

• 2 or 3 grilled eggplant
• salt
• garlic
• peperoncino
• herb
• vineger (every other layer)
• oil
• Start a new layer until finish eggplant or reach top or jar

Oil has to cover the top layer, top off the jar the next day, as the eggplant may absorb some oil, shift, or expand up. It seals it and prevents mold. At least that is what Italians say, I'm not an expert on the matter.

Wait a day or two to try them, they need to absorb the oil and flavors. Then they just get stronger and better over time.

The oil when the eggplant is finished can be used over salad.

The second method, the under vinegar version (Melanzane Sottaceto) is very similar. The main difference is the eggplant is not grilled, rather it is boiled in half-vinegar half-water. I have never made this one myself (as I'm not enough of a fan to eat a whole jar, but Daniele actually prefers it).

It was explained to me that you boil the eggplant in the vinegar-water, dry them out, and layer them like the under oil version. This online recipe seems right on target:
http://flavorsofitaly.blogspot.com/2009/07/nonnas-pickled-eggplant-melanzane.html

We normally make a meal of “fresh things” for lunch about every day in the summer, and these jars of eggplant are awesome cause they are always there and delicious. It takes the pressure off having to cook veggies when it is really hot out. We also made several big jars in August that should get us through the winter no problem. And they just get better over time, they absorb more and more of the flavor.

Changing Device Timezones

I spend months at a time in different timezones. However, I often won't change my clocks. Sometimes someone will see my computer clock is wrong and point it out as if I don't know how easy it is to change. The problem is it totally messes up my calendar.

I view my calendar on my Android phones, tablet, and laptop. My phones change their clock on their own. I also have cameras and a wrist watch with clocks-- but those I always change since there is no calendar issue.

I use Google Calendar, here is how they handle timezones:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2367918

The meat and potatoes of that link:
“Whenever you create an event, Calendar converts it from your time zone to UTC time, using currently known conversion rules. By using one universal time for all events, Calendar can keep all of your guests’ calendars consistent regardless of which time zones they're in. When we display the event on your calendar, it is converted from UTC to appear in your own time zone.

If you have a recurring meeting that spans across different time zones, then its time always remains constant for the organizer, and will shift for guests whenever their time difference with the organizer changes. That’s why if you’re in London and attending a weekly meeting that was created by your New York colleagues at 10am NY time, it will always be at 10am for NY, almost always at 3pm for you, but at 2pm during that particular week in early November.” [“particular week”, reference to US and GB change their clocks for Daylight Savings Time on different dates]

Indeed, Google is trying to solve a complex problem here. That's cool for the people who work at Google, who use Google Calendar a bit different from people like me. Personally, I don't have many recurring international meetings. Actually, pretty much all my events are just for myself. But hey, that's me.

Here is the type of use case I run into. I have a Nexus 7 tablet. This device currently is what plays my morning alarm, because unlike my phone which can get forgotten in a purse on the other side of the room, he lives by my bed so I can read him in the morning. I actually was getting a bit annoyed looking at the time three hours off (I just came from NJ to San Francisco) so I changed his clock from EST to PST. The next morning, I woke up before my alarm and was reading news in bed waiting for my alarm to go off before I got up to get breakfast. I wanted to dismiss it and not wake anyone else up. It never went off, but I had forgotten about changing the clock the day before so just wrote it off and moved on with my day. About three hours later I started hearing chimes. My tablet had changed the time of my alarm from 8:30 to 11:30 (or rather to 8:30 EST, 11:30 PST the same UTC time). Does this seem like it should be the default behavior? Do most people set alarms to notify themselves of some world-wide event (perhaps an space-shuttle launch), so they would need that time to adjust to their local time? Or are most people just looking to wake up around the same time every morning?

Those are alarms, it behaves the same for calendar events. So, if while in Italy, I make a doctors appointment for 3 PM on a Wednesday for when I'm going to be in NJ, I can put it in my calendar while still in Italy and my computer clock is set to Italian time. Then when I come to NJ and change my clock, that 3 PM appointment will jump to 9 AM on my calendar. Confusing, no?

I could have put the event in at 9PM when I was in Italy, as 9PM in Italy is 3PM in NJ, my target time for this event. The problem with this work around is I have to look at it on my calendar with that weird time up until I change the computer clock. That is really confusing for scheduling other events around it.

Fear of this behavior (and that I will not see something scrolled down on my smaller laptop screen) encourages me to put important events in my Calendar as all day events, with the time in the details. But unless this has been fixed since I last saw it, and this behavior I definitely consider a bug, an all day event I create in one time zone will actually change to a 3 AM to 3 AM (for example) event when I change timezones. If an event is July 8th all day, then it is July 8th all day in any timezone, IMHO.

I wish there was a way to opt-out of the time-zone syncing behavior, for my whole calendar, or for non-shared events, or for anything. As far as I can see, it's not an option. Until then, I just keep everything on EST.

UPDATE 10/24/12
The very smart Marc D responded to this post with

Marc Dougherty ‏@muncus
@kait3210 not sure if it is any better, but "use home time zone" in calendar settings that will always show the same time zone. Maybe?

It took me several days to figure what on earth he was talking about because I manage my Calendar 90% from my laptop and use my devices (phone, tablet) to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. I'm not normally playing with Calendar settings on these Android devices. I use Android because it syncs so easily with my calendar and I don't have to work to make it work-- like setting up Exchange in my iPhone days.

But sure enough, In an ANDROID Calendar, you can go to the three-dot-menu-button, Settings, General settings. Once there, I found a little check box to "Use home time zone" as well as one right below it to set your "Home time zone". As soon as I did this on my Nexus 7, all my appointments (remember, I changed this device to PST) jumped back to the correct time. Awesome solution.

This is an Android feature, the web version has no such check box. However, looking closer, I can set my Calendar timezone independently from my laptop time zone. It is in gear-shaped-button, Settings, General-tab, "Your current time zone" setting. Here I can set it to always be EST, or even add both EST and PST and both times display in two columns, but no non-US timezones. I can't believe I missed this feature! I only had to dismiss Google asking me if I wanted it to change my Calendar timezone when I changed my laptop timezone just now-- which I've never seen before, so maybe this is a newer feature.

It's nice to have my laptop clock on the right time. Just in time for me to blow out of town in another week.