d crochet. When I stay with her during holidays, Ina has her days off. I feel lucky that my mum is so well though sometimes she might be grumpy and forgetful.
At Christmas the weather was mild though wintry. Some days I didn’t need a coat so when I went around Rome on public transport, underground and buses, it was not too bad. However, there are no timetables available, so you never know how long you are going to have to wait. Eventually you have to take it easy, slow down, give up fixed plans as there is no way to change the situation. It is relaxing in a way.
As soon as I arrived in Rome, my mum and I were busy phoning relatives and friends for Christmas wishes and to arrange meetings. The days were packed with happy gatherings with relatives and relaxed conversations with friends and neighbours. I had prepared little presents for them in advance with my crochet things and English chocolate and sweets I usually buy at Gatwick airport where there is a Harrods’ shop.
My mum has her routines which are limited now to a few outings in the area where she lives, some shopping nearby and visiting neighbours, who are about her age or older. We managed to visit a museum, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea at Viale delle Belle Arti (https://lagallerianazionale.com/ ) where we met a friend of mine too. When we arrived my mum was so tired that she waited for me sitting on a sofa in the hall at the entrance of the museum while I visited the different exhibitions on display. Afterwards, she told me that she had a long chat with the lady at the bar, a young woman who was happy to listen to her old stories about the time of the war and her large family.
The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea is an important museum that I visited for the first time in my middle school years during a school trip. The art teacher introduced us to Giuseppe Capogrossi’s patterns and Alberto Burri’s innovating work, which I have never forgotten. There are several important artworks on display, such as pieces by Giulio Turcato, Lucio Fontana, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, Van Gogh, Medardo Rosso, Giorgio Morandi, Umberto Boccioni and many others. It is a huge display that gives the viewer a clear and comprehensive idea of Italian modern art as well as contemporary Italian and international art. The Gallery also featured some impressive and thought-provoking exhibitions such as ‘Hot Spot: Caring for a Burning World’ about global warming, ‘Quanto Bentivoglio’, about Mirella Bentivoglio a poet and performance artist who produced astonishing pieces, ‘You are mine’ by Daniela Comani on the issue of feminicide, and a room dedicated to one of my favourite Italian painters, Renato Guttuso.
Not far from my mum’s place, in Piazza Sempione, I discovered a beautiful private art gallery, Atelier (https://www.stefaniapinci.it/ artesempione@gmail.com ), in which one of my mum’s neighbours was exhibiting her ceramics. The artworks on display were very interesting, colourful, diverse and personal. The ‘mosaici pittorici’ by Stefania Pinci, that is, paintings that look like mosaics, are riveting and so radiant; they are a true expression of Mediterranean art. It was an inspiring visit that helped me develop new ideas for my future work.
I received good presents for Christmas, mainly books by Joy Hario and Patti Smith and two pretty scarves I added to my collection. And here are two new poems about Italian Christmas food and an attempt to new year’s resolutions:
Italian Christmas dinner
When we gather around the table dressed in red and gold
we give up to the beauty of the half-moon ravioli
kissed by tomato sauce and parmigiano
relaxing on the plate like our tensions and grudges.
The menu repeats year after year
and makes us think that everything is going well
despite occasional misunderstandings
and past harsh rows.
The tender rabbit meat is soaked in velvet sauce,
string beans and fresh salad from the vegetable garden,
grissini and thin sliced homemade bread on graceful display.
We end with panettone and golden pandoro
as precious as gifts,
prosecco in high chalices, bubbles of hard-earned harmony.
When we toast my heart is soaring.
New year’s resolutions
No schedules to stick to
No therapies to start
No diets or new look
No clearing out
No saying ‘I don’t care’ or
‘you are not supposed to be’
I will procrastinate my duties
Take it easy
Live loosely
Indulge time with others
Be open to tomorrow
Give up to life
When we came back to England, we went straight north to see my sons and their families and celebrate New Year’s Eve with them. It was a marvellous time. My granddaughter Violetta is learning more and more words both in English and in Italian. She is so cute when she speaks mixing the two languages. She also made a drawing of sorts with felt pens which looks wondrous.
I had some deadlines too. I prepared the Stanza meeting on zoom, completed some commissioned reviews and commissioned paintings and sent my first entry as Resident Artist for The High Window’s Spring issue 2023. My work will be focused on textiles, that is, textile patterns, crochet installations, patchwork and embroidery. I am also working on textile patterns in a broader perspective connecting forms from all over the world and developing ideas. I am preparing a new crochet installation inspired by winter, my love for nature and the approaching St Valentine celebration. To add more fun to my everyday busy life, I am also selecting poems for a poetry competition and will have the zoom launch of my latest collection Workwear on the 10th of February at 7.30 pm. I invited all my friends from the Stanza, the yoga group, Woking Writers Circle and FB friends too. There will be people from Italy, the UK, US, Canada and Australia with twenty readers and my friends and fellow poets Greg Freeman and Rodney Wood will introduce me. Maybe my granddaughter Violetta, to whom the collection is dedicated, will make a brief apparition at the beginning of the meeting though it is bedtime for her. I will also read my poems from Workwear at The Lightbox in Woking for the Write Out Loud open mic on the 23rd of February at 8 pm. More information about my publications is on my website: http://www.carlascaranod.co.uk/
I was flabbergasted by the T.S Eliot shortlist and the readings at the Southbank centre that I followed online. The winner, Anthony Joseph, is a great poet but my favourite was Yomi Ṣode. His poetry is a punch to the stomach, so true and well-crafted that I felt mesmerised by his voice. Here are some links to his work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7mAf_TwHdw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvI-PHjMt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLKPh0Qqs3w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D45H_0ifBUU
The death of Charles Simic was sad. I remember I read one of his collections of prose poems years ago while I was attending the Master in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster. His clever pieces are impressive and surprising but never shocking. Here are some links to his work:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/aizenman-simic
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charles-simic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFp39lk3J7Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjE1nDxJ0ys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zKahTbzUwc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsdCU6D3J3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XODm-0K9TK4
Apparently, things are getting better both in Italy and in the UK. The economic crisis is easing a bit, there are hopes of recovery and decrease of inflation. Energy prices seem to have dropped as well compared to predictions and even house prices are falling. Italy is buying gas from Algeria at reasonable prices which is helpful for the economy. Reading the papers, it seems that both Sunak and Starmer are doing their best but are not impressing voters.
Things are carrying on with grey cold day after grey cold day this winter, in an apparent stagnation which was a bit shaken by Prince Harry’s Spare that haunted the media for a few days. In Italy instead the new PM Giorgia Meloni looks busy. The left blames her for giving money to the rich taking from the poor. Furthermore, some dangerous criminals have been arrested by the police, the prolific rapist David Carrick, who unbelievably was a policeman, and the dangerous and tragically notorious Mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro. Messina Denaro was caught in his territory, Castelvetrano, in Sicily. The carabinieri found his name on the database of cancer patients as he was receiving treatment for colon cancer. The police had been looking for him for thirty years. He is accused of several killings and criminal acts against ordinary as well as prominent people. In his house they found a poster of Joker and Marlon Brando’s picture in the role of the Godfather, and books about Hitler and Putin.
He will spend the rest of his life in a high security prison. It has been now 12 months since Russia invaded the Ukraine. Italy will send more weapons. Germany eventually decided to send the Leopard tanks and the US will send tanks too. The war is not over and it will probably last for a while longer, but we all hope that these powerful armaments will give some advantage to Kiev.
Finally, here are links to images and articles about the fabulous Couture week 2023:
 |
| Armani Privé |
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/haute-couture-week-2023-key-trends-paris-rome-czmxdc57t
https://www.elle.com/fashion/trend-reports/g41768863/best-fashion-campaigns-resort-2023/
https://pagesix.com/2023/01/24/all-the-celebrities-at-paris-haute-couture-fashion-week-2023/#7
And here is the final treat, a cake with dark chocolate and orange zest filled with cream. It was so successful that I think I will repeat it for the upcoming birthdays in February.
For the cake you need: 250 of self-raising flour, two eggs, 150 g of golden caster sugar, 100 g of melted butter, the grated zest and juice of an orange, 100 g of dark chocolate, half a tsp of cinnamon, one tsp of baking powder, half a tsp of bicarbonate of soda and some liquor.
For the filling you need: 50 g of icing sugar, 300 ml of whipping cream, some dark chocolate to shave and some grated zest of orange.
Prepare the cake beating the eggs and the sugar. Microwave the butter with the chocolate until melted and add it to the mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients and when the mixture is soft and moist pour it in a greased spring cake tin and bake at 180 C for 30-45 minutes or until ready.
When the cake is cool prepare the filling by whipping the cream with the icing sugar. Cut the cake in half and wet both sides with milk and water. Spread half of the cream on the bottom half then shave some dark chocolate on it as well as some grated orange zest. Put the other half on top of it and decorate with the rest of the cream, maybe using a piping bag. Finally shave more dark chocolate and some orange zest on top and enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment