TestaRossa

Have fun in Florence! Are you just travelling over for the day and then going straight back to Gallipoli or heading elsewhere?

pugliese

Dear Pat,
Thank you so much for replying. Well actually I have been coming here for the past 22 years because OH is from Taviano. We have our holiday home at Mancaversa where we had been living for the past 3 years when we returned from Milan, but I couldn't take another winter on my own in the marina (hubby works long hours and travels a lot and son goes to school at Lecce, today he's on strike!) so we bought the flat in Gallipoli.

Hope you have a lovely time visiting your son (my daughter is at Uni in Milan and my other son works there). I went to Perugia and found it gorgeous, just a bit steep - I must be getting lazy. I am all right going down Corso Roma but the thought of coming back, phew! Florence is breathtaking especially the cathedral. Another wonderful town nearby is Lucca with its amazing outer walls.

I can understand about missing family and even more, dear old England! In fact I am going back on Tuesday until the end of the month to visit mum who is very ill and see dad and my two sisters and their families. They moved from
Tilbury to Felixstowe and Ipswich in Surrey which is obviously much nicer.

Will definitely keep in touch and if you like, I can give you a lift to Lidl's, of course only Mondays or Thursdays when the offers start!

Lovely to speak to you, take care

Joan

PAT M

Thanks TestaRossa, yes we plan to spend a day in Florence to take in the wonders of the Uffizi, we didn't get a chance last time. We are planning to spend some time up here, it's nice to have our son around, and in return for cooking and cleaning for him , we have the use of a wonderful room with a view over the hills around Spoleto, fantastic. We are going foraging for mushrooms tomorrow, I'll post here if we find any. We'd also like to see Rome again while we are here.

PAT M

Hi Joan,

Well it certainly is a small world, I know Mancaversa and Torre Suda! I am sure that you find Gallipoli more lively in the winter though. When you're back from England, and we are back down in Puglia, it would be lovely to meet up for an icecream in Martinucci's and swap stories. I loved the story about the drunken english sailors bringing the leather football to Gallipoli. I hope your visit to see your Mum and family goes well and I of course wish your Mum a speedy recovery. Take care.

Kindest regards,

Pat

pugliese

Dear Pat,
Thank you for your kind words and it would be great to meet you. What brought you here to the Salento? In the meantime we can stay in touch via this forum or feel free to PM me.

Kindest regards
Joan

Kindest regards

Isakat

OH went to Campo de'Fiori market in Rome today and amongst many products found parsnips.
Only they were selling them at 12 euro a kg.!!!
I think I will wait for OH to get them from Tesco in 2 weeks time.The kids love them roasted with potatoes.

linseed oil

here in abruzzo i grow my own but at 600 mts sm its not easy i find the best way is to grow from seed in peat pots and tranplant out when big enugh , i think if i took my labour into count 12es would not be far out . o but the taste out of this world

Isakat

We are at 400 m. and OH has sucessfully grown parsnips.They take ages to come through. I have frozen a few bags to make soup as the kids love them. As OH goes to the UK often, I am happy with some organic parsnips from the UK supermarkets.

pugliese

something that I really miss here are the lovely English biscuits. My favourites are Garibaldis (did you know they were actually named in honour of the famous Italian general who loved them during his stay in England?). I even bought a packet of currants back from the UK and tried to make them but it was a disaster. Another bikky I love are fig biscuits. Mulino Bianco used to make "Settembrini" which were quite similar but no longer make them. I tried to find a recipe and came up with "cucciddati" which are a Sicilian speciality but seem a lot of work. I was wondering if anybody had made them because I don't want another disaster. When you think about it, it is strange that fig biscuits are so popular in the UK because they don't grow there. Anyone have any answers?

Joan

TestaRossa

There is another brand of Fig biscuits available here....I think they are in the Pennymarket if you have one down there? Also for a Garabaldi like biscuit try Vitasnella crackers (their name!) with fruits of the forest in. My kids love them and they are basically garibaldi biccies but with more than currants in.

pugliese

Thanks for the info, Testarossa. We do have a Pennymarket here and I will see if I can find the figgy biscuits. I have never tried the Vitasnella ones.

TestaRossa

I like most of the Vitasnella range - in fact they do fig like biccies too, which I'd forgotten, but with orange or prune!! They are very tasty though! They are a good brand alternative to the ubiquitous Mulino....I can remember coming here in the late '90's and Mulino was quite a small range and never heard of in the Uk except in deli's, we used to bring bags of their fig and apple filled biccies back - neither of which they seem to do now like you say. I find most of their offerings, now, really dry and tasteless in the biccie ranges anyway...I'm wondering if Barilla bought them out - it was a bad move if they did..

PAT M

Tomorrow I am going to try out a lovely recipe I saw on This Morning, ITV, a Gino D'Campo recipe, Agnello in Vino Rosso, Lamb shanks in red wine , served on Italian mash. We scoured around for the ingredients, and found lamb shanks in Auchan, near Taranto (lucky we were in the area at the time, it's a 3 hours round trip or more). Look up the recipe, it's sounds wonderful. ITV.com/this morning.

dina1965

mcvities fruit crackers are great as well (apple and chocolate are my favourites) ...

Patty

I love watching Gino He's really funny. I know he probably plays on the fact that he's italian but the other morning he said to Holly that she had been 'pregnatised' Some morning her and Philip Schofield cant go on cos they are laughing so much.