Italy!

I’ve got the dependance to myself this afternoon–wooopie!!! I put on Pink Martini and discovered that these stone walls make for some seriously sweet acoustics. Ding! I wish you could all meet Bepe, the 76 year old mason who does five times the work of everyone else put together (well, excepting Gigi the furniture guy and his wife Giga, who do an awful lot of work as well). Bepe, who retired 15 years ago but still works full-time, speaks only Piemontese (well, as far as I can tell. If he does speak Italian it’s with such an accent that I can’t understand a thing he says). But, I’m glad he doesn’t speak Italian. More people need to learn Piemontese. I mean, how many people do you know who speak that language?

Exactly.

If any of you run across Berlitz: Learn Piemontese The Fast and Easy Way, please send it my way!! There aren’t exactly an abundance of resources in this area for Americans. Or for Italians. Convenience is not a part of life here like it is in the States. In fact, I’m not even sure if there’s an Italian word that translates to “convenient”.

There certainly aren’t convenient stores. That’s part of the charm of Italian food–you have to go to six different stores to get the ingredients for one meal. The macelleria has only meat. The pasticceria has only bread and sweets, and on and on. Denise and I have concluded that this is because of the strong family connection most Italians have. I would say at least 85% of the people in Piemonte live with their extended families–sisters, brothers, Nonnas, Papas…when they run out of room in one house they build another one adjacent to the first, and then another when it becomes necessary. In America, there are houses; In Italy there are compounds. Everyone has a garden and most people have at least a few chickens and a dog.

This is why there aren’t convenient stores–they have most of the raw ingredients in their own cortille (courtyard in the center of the family compound). If there’s no butcher in their family maybe they’ll go to the macelleria for some salumi, or if they’re having company for dinner they’ll stop by the pasticceria for a cake (probably a dry nut cake with only a trace of sugar).

I’m not saying that the Piemontese don’t go grocery shopping, I’m just saying they do it in a very different way than Americans. From my first day here I noticed how active the older generations are in this society. You ALWAYS see 80 and 90 year olds walking around downtown, or pedaling their bicycle through the hills. I think this may be because the grandparents are usually in charge of meals; they’re retired and have all day to get things ready. They’re the ones doing the grocery shopping.