Panettone

Chiostro Panettone

Heard on a train to Milano…
Antonio: Maybe I’ll try making panettone this Christmas.
Ferruccio: Bravo! It can be tricky. There are secrets, you know.
Antonio: Secrets?
Ferruccio: The yeast is special. It's a closely guarded secret among bakers.
Antonio: I heard it’s not made with yeast but a sourdough starter.
Ferruccio: Which is a wild yeast. Gives panettone its unique texture and flavor. And the process is long and requires patience. You need to let the dough rise multiple times. And hang it upside down after baking.
Antonio: Sounds like a lot of work. But the taste, right? 
Ferruccio: Oh, it also helps to soak the fruit some days before baking, it plumps up the fruit. Use the best ingredients and don’t rush the rising.
Antonio: Maybe I’ll buy one this year and start earlier next year.
Ferruccio: Buona fortuna!
_________
Voice-over
The history dates back to the Roman Empire, is mentioned as being in Milan in the 15th century, but the modern Christmassy version comes from the 20th century.

Giovanni: A shop/writing den in Tokyo

Nakamichi Street in Tokyo. A quaint shop filled with Italian posters, papers, calligraphy pens...

Giovanni: Buongiorno.

Masa: Buongiorno. I'm quite interested in traditional Italian papers, especially those from Fabriano.

Giovanni: Ah, Fabriano. You have good taste. 

Masa: I've used Fabriano papers for my watercolor paintings. Nice texture.

Giovanni: Aha. An artist, you are then. Most people just come in and take a look at the posters and wander off. But I like it this way. It gives me plenty of time to work on a novel I'm writing.

Masa: A novel?

Giovanni: Set in Italy during the Renaissance.

Masa: I've always found novels to be a wonderful way to learn about other cultures and times.

Giovanni: Novels paint us into different worlds and eras. But my novel is a labor of love, and this shop serves as my writing den. It's quiet, and I can immerse myself in the world of Renaissance Italy while minding the shop.

Masa: Nice. Writing a novel set in Renaissance Italy while running a shop, great. What’s the plot of the novel?

Giovanni: It's a tale of intrigue, art, and love set in Florence during the height of the Renaissance. Character-heavy. It's my way of bringing a piece of Italy here to Tokyo.

_________

Voice-over

And the conversation ends with an exchange of names and contacts. Scribed on a slips of Fabriano paper with a quill pen.

The bicycle as a cultural horse

a caffè della bicycletta...

a Fabriano

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Paolo:  Un caffè amico mio?

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Akira: Grazie. Caffetteria interessante.

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Paolo: Coffee sellers used to sell from bicycles. In the poor times. After the war.

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Akira: And I hear all kinds of trades were carried on from the back of bicycles.

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Paolo: It was a kind of cultural horse.

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a Koganei

Akira: Did you name the bicycles?

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Paolo: Famous bicycle names are Bianchi, Colnago and Pinarello. But these are racing brands.

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Akira: Japanese bicycles carry names that are often puzzling. Stylish Space, Ocean Kara.

___________

Voice-over

A random walk through a bicycle park near a Japanese station reveals the following names on bicycles in a row. Perhaps they are chosen to evoke a feeling.

Stylish Space, Athletic Works, Bobby Town, StepCruz, Anyone, Ocean Kara, OffTime…

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Niccolò Codazzi

Art Gallery Front Desk...

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Receptionist: Shall I renew your annual subscription?

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Octavia: No thanks. Only came once the past year. The Corsini collection. Loved the Codazzi pieces. Nostalgic architectural ruins. Fusion of reality and fantasy.

Niccolò Codazzi:
Figures, architecture, an ominous Vesuvius

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Receptionist: That was a good collection. Nothing since I’m afraid. We hope to get more collections from overseas. Sometime.

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Octavia: So it’s hardly worthwhile getting an annual.

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Receptionist: I know what you mean. New Zealand has a hard job getting funding and arranging exhibitions from overseas art museums.

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Octavia: Catch 22. Can’t get the numbers, hard to get funding.

___________

Voice-over

A receptionist who agrees. Paintings from long ago and faraway can be inspiring. Good PR or honest opinion? Anyway, Niccolò Codazzi (Napoli 1642 – Genoa 1693), an Italian painter of architectural paintings, capricci and vedute, that was well curated exhibition. More please, Auckland.

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The Appeal of Falconer's Olivia

A paean but is it lit crit...

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Kylie (6): I want to visit Venice.

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Elderberry (70): Olivia wrote a guide on what to do there.

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Kylie (6): Read it already. I’m going to follow her footsteps.

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Olivia Goes to Venice

Elderberry (70): Sighing bridges to San Marco?

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Kylie (6): Zack same route.

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Elderberry (70): What’s the attraction of Olivia?

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Kylie (6): I like all her books. She likes to bargain. Play tricks. She’s funny.

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Elderberry (70): Pulling a brick out of San Marco was a bit of extreme mischief.

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Kylie (6): Olivia’s extreme.

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Elderberry (70): Hmm, maybe she appeals to the extreme in all of us.

__________

Voice-over

I’m an Olivia fan. Who wouldn’t be, whether you were six or seventy.

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Umbrian Language: Iguvine Tablets

See the little towns... Gubbio

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Leah: What a climb. But we made it. In here.

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Gubbio Civical Museum:
Tablets III to VII

Aria: We came here to see these?

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Leah: Discovered by a farmer in a field in 1444.

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Aria: What’s the writing mean?

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Leah: Part Umbrian, written before Christ, a dead language now, and part in Latin.

Translate that!

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Aria: Another dead one.

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Leah: But these are linguistic and cultural gems. The largest complete Umbrian text in existence. And all about sacrificial customs carried out in Gubbio here, two thousand years ago.

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Aria: Sacrifices? Who did they kill?

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Leah: Not people, but oxen, sheep, goats, pigs, puppies. To protect the mountain, to protect the city. All carried out by a religious brotherhood according to strict protocols. Bird flights determine auspicious timing, some animals are sacrificed outside the city gates, some inside, how the officiator is to be dressed, and how to conduct the ceremony.

________

Voice-over

A community which protects itself through sacrificial rites is not so far back in the past. David Wootton writes in “The Invention of Science” that in the 1600s, even educated Englishmen, who might own as many as a dozen books, believed in the power of witches, werewolves, magicians, unicorns, alchemy, astrology and a flat earth. A few still do. Fascinating to see how we thought before reason and science helped us make better sense of the world.

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