Beer Flavored Gelato

The weather lately has been cool and spring-like, yet the urge to go for gelato every afternoon is still there.  To my surprise, somebody finally thought of mixing those two favorite summer past times together: ice cream and a drink al fuori.  I was too tired to go nuts with the selection, so I went for the traditional panna cotta, but maybe next time I will find out why an ice cream flavored with birra rosa turned out white.

Villas of the Veneto: Villa Gazzotti (Vicenza)

Largely forgotten and allowed to rot and crumble, Villa Gazzotti is definitely not one of Palladio's greatest achievement.  It looks more like a barn than a villa, its modest size dwarfed by the modern buildings around it.  It is definitely assertive, and it is clearly apparent as something other than just a regular ancient abode built simply to satisfy that need.  However, although left unrestored in the middle of a field somewhere in the northeastern part of Vicenza, the villa is an important milestone in Palladio's evolving use of decorations to mold the shape and look of a building, and a great display of the use of cheap materials (sadly, only apparent due to the building's state of disrepair) that made Palladio the Reniassance version of a McMansion designer.    

Graffitti Fridays: Talking Heads, Dijon

New UNESCO World Hertiage Sites near Vicenza

This is kind of late news, but it is good news nonetheless.  Two new "sites" (both were really for a string of sites tied together by a singular theme or "significance") were added by UNESCO to the World Heritage Site List, both within driving distance from Vicenza.  One is hailed by the Italian press as more significant due to it being completely housed within the country's borders, the other scattered across six countries but no less significant nonetheless.  

Los Angeles Chinatown

 On a cloudy day, I avoided weekday traffic going downtown by driving in mid-day, away from the crush of cars that happen before 9, after five, and any time between eleven and one when the lunch-time diners head out to the great eateries in Chinatown, Little Tokyo, or Olveira Street.  It's a weird of way of thinking about one's day, in terms of peak times for traffic, but this is LA, and one is licensed to exist between worlds that don't normally exist anywhere else. 

Farmer's Market, Southern California

Although I enjoy food in Italy and the Italian relationship with food, my visit to a farmer's market in California (where I'm from) this weekend was a reminder that in terms of food, California still holds a very special place in my heart (or stomach).

Meknes, Morocco

Apologies for the lack of updates folks, but unfortunately this month I find myself staying very little in Italy.  I will still be updating, but I will be posting about the things I found or will find myself within the next few weeks.  First, Morocco.  I went to Fez, but its tendency to harass its tourists into submission (not merely by having no tourist infrastructure, which would be great, but for having a rampant cottage tourist industry with all that the term "cottage" implies) makes me not have much interest in talking about it.  But only 40 kilometers away is Meknes, another imperial city whose shorter time in the limelight compared to Fez made it have much less name recognition and thus more latitude for enjoyment...