We’ve written before about cooking class with Ernesto in Cannara’s best restaurant, Perbacco.  But yesterday, when most people were putting in a 9 to 5 workday our little group of 7 was putting in a 9 to 5 cooking, learning and eating at Ernesto’s magical retreat.  But unlike most 9 to 5ers, our day was anything but work. Continue reading Workin’ 9 to 5 →

Last year we initiated an Italian book club at Bella Italia.  Once a month a group of us gets together to discuss an Italian-related book of our choosing, enjoying a bite to eat, a glass of wine and the camaraderie of our like minded group.  And over that period we have enjoyed some very interesting reads – The Leopard, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis and Cleopatra, Italian detective novels including Inspector Montalbano and the offerings of Donna Leone, books on wine and travel reflections.  Our club even spawned a new monthly movie day at Bella Italia, growing out of our book club’s discussion of the documentary movie Valentino: The Last Emperor.

With such a high minded group, then, it was a slightly pinch yourself, surreal experience discussing last month’s book, An Irreverent Curiosity, a non-fiction account by American author David Farley about his year in Calcata, a town less than an hour from Rome, in search of a missing religious relic.  The relic in question is nearly as weird as the town Farley describes, il santo prepuzio, or the holy foreskin. Continue reading Oh, Calcata →