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Newsletters
News From Italy About Wine and Food
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January, 1996
Gambero Rosso, one of Italy's leading monthly magazines about wine and food, has produced a CD-Rom in both Italian and English called Wine Games. It was presented at a three-day wine and food fair open to the public held in late November at Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni which aspires to be the Italian Beaubourg but is a very watered-down version. We haven't seen the CD-Rom but understand it's quite interesting and gives a lot of examples of which wines go with which foods. Gambero Rosso dedicatated its November issue to sites on the Web devoted to wine and food and is currently developing its own site at http://www.vol.it.
Il Gambero Rosso also publishes a quarterly version of its Italian magazine in English which is available in the United States. For information about subscribing call 800-969-1258 or write Gambero Rosso, Speedimpex, 32-08 48thAve, Long Island City, NY 11101, phone: 718-392-5218, fax: 718-361-0815. A year's subscription costs $15.85. The magazine and other Gambero Rosso publications including their yearly wine guide, "Vini d'Italia" are available at the Rizzoli Bookstores (1-800-52BOOKS). as well as their restaurant guide "Ristoranti d'Italia 1996 which reviews 2500 restaurants and has 271 city maps showing their exact location.
Still on the subject of Gambero Rosso, the editorial publishing house also has a series of guidebooks which claim to be among the most objective in Italy. When their book rating restaurants came out in November there was a lot of coverage in the Italian newspapers as some of the classics sites were either missing or demoted and a number of new places given precedence.
We all know about factory outlet shops for clothes and shoes but did you know you can also buy some of Italy's famous packaged baked goods for almost half-price? Here are some names and phone numbers: Le Tre Marie, Milan, Tel: 39-2-21791 Bauli, Verona, Tel: 39-45-8288311 Paluani, Dossobuono (VR), Tel: 39-45-8600044 di Maina, Fossano (CN), Tel: 39-172-695204 Melegatti, San Giovanni Lupatoto (VR), Tel: 39-45-548777 Galbusera, Cosio Valtellina (SO), Tel: 39-342-609111
Mondadori, one of Italy's largest publishing houses, has just presented a book about Sicilian cooking, "La Sicilia in cucina" by Anna Tasca Lanza which costs 32,000 lire in Italian bookstores.
The monthly magazine Cucina Naturale in an article discussing the eating habits of Italians today says that Italians in the north eat lunch at 12:30 (those in the country at noon) and dinner at 7:45pm whereas southerners eat lunch at 2pm and dinner at 10pm. Southerners eat an average of 150-200 grams of pasta a day; northerners eat an average of 70 grams a day.
Turin's daily newspaper La Stampa published an interesting article by Paolo Guzzanti on December 5, 1995 about Italians and their eating and drinking habits. According to the article 12.5% don't drink at all, 28% drink regularly and 7% drink occasionally. When they do drink 30% consume wine, 22% beer, 14% aperitivi and 9.6% liquor with a higher alcoholic content such as whiskey and vodka.
84% of Italians eat regularly in restaurants, but of those 44% don't eat out more often than every six months. 19% eat out every three months, 19% eat out at least once a month, 9% every 15 days, and 9% eat out at least once a week.
Consumption of meat has increased to 25.8 kilos per person from 25.2 kilos in 1980, citrus fruit consumption has increased considerably, from 35.8 kilos per person in 1980 to 50.8 kilos per person in 1993, the last year available for statistics. Italians eat less sugar, from 30.6 kilos per person in 1980 to 22.7 kilos per person in 1993. Consumption of wine has declined drastically, from 94.1 litres per person in 1980 to 57.9 litres in 1993, a decline of 36.2%.
"Le Donne del Vino" is an organization of some two hundred women who are either producers of wine in Italy or journalists who write about wine. Founded in 1988, the organization regularly holds events to promote the knowledge of wine such as tastings, round tables, courses about wine and simple encounters throughout Italy.
One hundred eighteen of the members produce wine, and they are creating "Le Donne d'Europa del Vino" (European Women of Wine). Improving the quality of their wine and letting more people know about it are the principal aims of "Le Donne del Vino". A note in Gambero Rosso's "Berebene 1996" says that according to a survey by the National Institute of Rural Sociology taken a few years ago women were in charge of 52% of the country's farms, and they earned 982,000 lire per acre against the 840,000 lire per acre of their male colleagues.
Those interested in the history of farming and old farm implements might want to visit the Museo della Civilta` Contadina del Friuli Imperiale (Museum of the Culture of Peasants of the Imperial Friuli) which has one of the largest collections of farm implements in Italy, some 11,000 pieces. It also has other artisinal instruments as well as those used to make wine. Created and directed by Michele Formentini, the collections cover the period from the 14th century to 1918. Located on the premises of an old farm, the museum occupies 10,000 square meters and evenhas a reproduction of an old wine cellar. Open on saturday and sunday (weekdays by appointment), tickets cost 5,000 lire ($3), Via Petrarca, Ajello del Friuli, telephone 29-431-00507.
How many times have friends sent gifts of wine in rough wooden boxes that you hate to throw away but fear getting splinters in your hands if you recycle them? Producer and enologist Gaspare Buscemi had a wonderful idea: he packs his Pinot Vigno produced in Cormons (Gorizia) in wooden boxes that hold six bottles and can be stacked in a cellar to eventually hold twelve bottles of wine. Great idea! Gaspare Guscemi, Localita` Zegla 1 bis, 34071 Cormons, Italy Tel: 39-6-60798, Fax: 630258
Visitors to Rome won't want to miss the exhibit of some seventy paintings called "La Natura Morta al Tempo di Caravaggio" (The Still Life in the Time of Caravaggio) being held until April 15 at the Musei Capitolini, Piazza del Campidoglio, tel: 6710-3069, open every day except Monday from 9 to 7pm, catalog published by Electa.
Martini & Rossi, the Italian maker of wines and liquers, had an enormous success with a series of three ads for TV in black and white inspired by the jet-set of the fifties and sixties. Now for the holidays they have a new ad for their spumante featuring supermodel Naomi Campbell. This time over 13,680 meters of color film were shot for the ad which shows model Cameron Alborzian, whose father is Persian and mother English and who has modeled for Valentino and Karl Lagerfeld, opening a bottle of spumante at a party in Rome to the music of C.J. Lewis' "Sweets for my Sweet". The cork flies through the air and comes to rest in New York, exactly above the navel of a Versace-dressed Naomi Campbell.
It takes about five kilos of healthy olives to make one kilo of olive oil because each only 20% of each olive is made up of oil. Vegetable and olive oil have exactly the same number of calories, nine per gram. (Pasta, autumn 1995)
Visitors to Rome have often wondered about the charge on the menu, anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 lire, "Pane e coperta" (Bread and tablecloth) which can add up quickly when a large group dines out together. In small, less-expensive restaurants menus were seldom available in English, and tourists often got a surprise when the bill arrived, especially during the last few years when prices rose astronomically. An agreement has finally been reached between city hall and the restaurant association and the automatic charge for bread, whether you eat it or not, has been eliminated, the menu must be translated in at least one foreign language, and must be posted in a visible position at the entrance of the restaurant. Be careful during truffle season, however, because even a simple dish like Risotto with truffles can cost more than a filet mignon. Always ask the price first if it's not specified on the menu.
Sexologist Willy Pasini of the University of Geneva recently presented what he called the "Love Menu" that according to him was scientifically compounded in order to "reawaken the senses of the partner." The national assembly of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Italian Cooking Academy) was told that laboratory rats confirmed the aphrodisiac qualities of the menu: Fresh seafood (according to Pasini this gives energy), polenta (a type of corn bread), frogmeat, and chocolate which contains feniletilamine, the substance produced by persons in love.
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