Love Thursday: The Piaggio Love Ape 50
For the uninitiated, the “Ape 50” is a three-wheeled truck made by Piaggio that you can find on just about any rural road in Italy at any time of day.
Pronounced “AH-peh,” rumor has it that it’s named as such because the sound it makes very much resembles the buzz of a bee as it winds around twists and turns carrying hay, olives, lemons, or whatever its driver needs to get from Punto A to Punto B.
“Ape,” you see, means “bee” in Italian. Incidentally, the famous Vespa scooter? “Vespa” means “wasp.” Clever, eh?
So by now you may be wondering where exactly the “Love” comes in.
Right here baby:
Meet our newest toy, The Looooove Ape 50, which just so happens to have a heart spray-painted on the front.
I didn’t choose this treasure, so obviously I’m not the only one in the house who enjoys finding hearts out and about and bringing them home.
I know it’s bit gaudy and a lot ghetto, but I’m thinking I might like to keep it on there.
What do you think (besides that you’re *so* jealous, admit it!)?
Happy Love Thursday!
Badolato Hosts Tarantella Power 2009
From 22-26 August, our normally sleepy medieval village was absolutely overrun with people eager to celebrate Tarantella Power,* a yearly Calabrian celebration held somewhere in the toe of the boot depending on which town has won the contract.
Well, Badolato Superiore got it this year and for the next few years as well, so if you didn’t make it in 2009, get out your travel planners!
You may think it’s all about the tarantella, but it’s really a celebration of Calabrian culture in general–music, dance, food, wine, art, crafts, and more. So much more. So. Many. People. I’m told over 10,000 showed up for the Piero Pelù concert on the final night!
By the by, in this video, Pelù is singing a song with Marasà, who I’ve discussed before–the song also happens to be on the CD over there in my sidebar.
So, indeed, Tarantella Power began early on the morning of 22 August for P and me as we noticed an artist setting up next to our house, ready to paint the arch of the never-finished palazzo across the street.
As the morning wore on, I offered the artist some coffee (I know, shocking that I was making some), but he preferred water.
So I kept him in steady supply. It was *very* hot that day even though he was painting in the shade and even though some of the younguns from the group that organized the artists’ visits stopped in every now and again to check on him.
Sadly, I didn’t get a glimpse of the finished painting as I only happened to look down from the balcony just as he was packing up and walking away, so no photos of it either. We said our good-byes after exchanging business cards, then a few days later, our doorbell rang.
I looked down at the front door from the balcony (our equivalent of the peep hole, although admittedly, there’s very little peeping involved), and there was our new friend, Gregorio Cosentino, with a “pensierino” (small gift, although to me this isn’t so small!) for us.
Just for offering a little water to a thirsty man on a hot day.
I love Calabria.
*For more photos (with much better coloring), see my Tarantella Power set on Flickr.
Coming Back Soon…
Are you getting ready for more Bleeding Espresso? I sure hope so, because I’ll be back very shortly with new posts, new contests, interviews, an exciting foodie event, and more!
Which, I suppose, means no more of this:
Oh well. Just to be clear, I will *not* be sorry to see August go. Stinking heat and a village full of tourists gets old pretty fast to this peace-and-quiet-loving gal.
In the meantime, since Bleeding Espresso will be going through some changes (including design!), please take a moment to let me know what you’d like to see more and less of here at the blog.
For those who have already done so via Twitter and Facebook, your input is *molto* appreciated! And to everyone else, please do add your two beans!
Blog Closed for Vacation
Or, in italiano:
Yes, Bleeding Espresso is ready for a break, although I personally am not going on vacation. I’ll still be here in Badolato, still working full-time, and still making appearances on Facebook and Twitter, but without writing blog posts, I’ll have more time to spend with P’s family (many of whom are visiting from around Europe) and enjoy all the fun stuff going on here in the village throughout August:
(Click to see larger image, and then click that image for even larger print.)
Come join in if you need a ferie too!
Buon agosto!
Calabrian Olive Oil: Cossari Extravergine Olio di Oliva Biologico
Did you know Calabria, one of the poorest of Italy’s 20 regions, is actually the source of 25% of the country’s olive oil?
And that in the 2009 Guida ai Migliori Oli del Mondo di Qualità Accertata (Guide to the Best Olive Oils in the World, Quality Assured), among the top six, three were Italian–and *two* of those were Calabrian?
Yes, down here in the toe of the boot, we have some excellent olive oil or olio d’oliva — that glorious provider of monounsaturated fats, which can naturally lower your cholesterol and risk of heart disease. FYI, extra-virgin quality aka EVOO is the healthiest as it is the least processed, keeping intact all those fabulous antioxidants that also keep your heart healthy.
Now you probably don’t think of Calabria as a main source of olive oil because producers here are often families with small groves who get their olives pressed at local mills; they use the oil for themselves and their families, give some away, sell some locally, and then perhaps sell the rest to wholesalers who take our dense, robust Calabrian olive oil and mix it with that of other regions and smack a label on it as being from *that* region–probably famous for its, ahem, olive oil.
I’m not naming names, but rest assured that even some the largest olive oil companies engage in this practice–and nobody’s complaining. Hey, everyone has access to great olive oil, gets paid, and us here in Calabria? We still have some of the best olive oil in the country right in our backyards, only we get it fresh from the press. Win, win, win, right Joe of Italyville?
Well, for those of you who aren’t lucky enough to have neighbors who gift you their Calabrian olive oil, how would you like to get some of the good stuff straight from the source delivered right to your door?
Recently through Facebook, I met Vincenzo Cossari, who was born here in Badolato but has been living and working in Milan for years; after we exchanged the usual “to which family do you belong” info (and we figured out he went to school with one of P’s sisters), he sent me a link to his family’s website through which they sell organically produced Calabrian extra-virgin olive oil right here in Badolato:
Cossari Extravergine Olio di Oliva Biologico
Especially for you foodies out there, I highly suggest trying out true Calabrian olive oil at least once in your life (trust me, you’ll want more). Not only is it great for preserving fish, eggplant, mushrooms, and any number of vegetables, it’s the absolute best for preserving our beloved peperoncino.
Use this year’s oil fresh on salads and last year’s oil for frying, and you’ll soon find out why, if given the choice, most Calabrians avoid the stores and go straight to the presses for their olive oil.
If you like what you see at the Cossari website, be sure to contact Vincenzo, who speaks perfect English, at vcossari(at)hotmail(dot)it or through the contact form on the site, and let him know I sent you.
And soon you, too, can be enjoying this wonderful sapore di Calabria in the comfort of your own home.
P.S. Yes, the first photo shows olive oil in a vinegar bottle (aceto means vinegar in Italian for those who don’t know). This is because we often receive olive oil in large five liter bidoni so we transfer it to smaller, emptied out bottles for ease of pouring. Reduce, reuse, recycle baby!
What’s your favorite way to enjoy olive oil?
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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