A crazy beginning to March this year. Yesterday, Civitella was covered in 20cm of snow. Pisa was freezing and windy, and it sleeted all day.

While going back home from work, in the strong wind, something my grandfather used to say when I was a child came to my mind. He used to talk about the best time for his pigeons’ brooding. He always said that even when spring seemed to have arrived and the last days of February are warm, the beginning of March is generally very cold. Apparently, age old wisdom works better than any present-day weather forecast!

This morning Pisa was very quiet. I walked through Piazza dei Miracoli at 9 am and there was nobody around. I guess many people got the day off because of the terrible condition of the roads between Florence and Pisa, where most commuters live.

The monuments in the square had funny colours against the low, dark sky. But the thing that caught my attention was a practically deserted Piazza dei Miracoli. Nobody climbing up the Tower, or looking at the merchandise in the many stalls. No street vendors by the city gate, no groups wandering around the cathedral.

I looked up, and I saw the two guardians of the Tower sitting at the top, chatting and watching the few people walking around in the square. It seemed a funny image.

In the end, if you have to kill time and you are so lucky as to to work in such a beautiful place, you might as well take advantage of a slow day and enjoy it! Quite a privilege, though!!

March 8 is Women’s Day in Italy, here called “Festa della Donna” even if the official name would be “Giornata internazionale della Donna”. This “holiday” is controversial: according to some people there should be no reason to have a special day dedicated just to women as if they were “endangered” creatures; others believe that women’s achievements should be celebrated and the difficult conditions in which many women still live throughout the world should never be forgotten.

Personally, I think it’s a nice thing to remember the important women in our lives and that it is also important to be aware that, for women, things are not always as easy as they are for men, not even in societies in which there is apparent sexual equality. However, I do not think that women should have any special celebration just for being women, and they should find the time to go out and have fun with their girlfriends more than just one day a year, as if that was the only time when their “lords and masters” let them out for their prison-yard time. If they can babysit/iron/take care of them on March 8, well, they can certainly do it any other day of the year.

Here is a Wikipedia article about International Women’s Day.

In Italy, the symbol of Women’s Day are mimosa flowers, which are in bloom in this period. I would therefore like to take advantage of this occasion to “celebrate” some of my favourite women on the web (and some in real life too!) with a virtual branch of mimosa!

Over the year, I have met many incredible women who, besides being interesting, funny and smart, are also great professionals and share more than one passion with me. Over time, they have encouraged me, supported me, entertained me, inspired me and, I have to say, in some cases, fed me too!

My virtual bunch of mimosa goes to:

Letizia (@MadonnaDP), the owner and great hostess of the beautiful Agriturismo Alla Madonna del Piatto near Assisi, in Umbria. She is the person who manages to bring friends together in the warmth of her home and puts up with the crazy stuff! She is an excellent cook, renowned for her authentic cooking lessons and for her great food blog.

Giulia (@vallenuova), the most ecological inn-keeper you will find in the Marches and beyond (believe me!!!)! She has a great agritourism on a working farm near Urbino, Valle Nuova,  and she is working really hard to make tourism greener and more sustainable and authentic.

Rebecca (@brigolante) has three lovely guest apartments in her agriturismo Brigolante near Assisi, in Umbria. She is a funny, witty, beautiful woman. As soon as her webmaster finisher her blog, you’ll see what she can do! LOL In the meanwhile, enjoy Rebecca’s Ruminations!

Monica (@monicacesarato), THE multitask woman! She lives in the city of the world famous “Ponte dei Sospiri”, where she runs the Faronhof B&B, she teaches Italian as a Foreign Language in Venice and traditional Italian and Venetian cooking! We are real wonderwomen, so now we have better find a way to meet in person!!!

Diana (@DianaBaur) who runs a fine B&B in Aqui Terme in Pedmont,  She is also a creative lady, a real artist, and a graceful host, but most importantly, a graceful woman.

Megan (@bellavitaitalia), another beautiful, smart and resourceful women I have trouble to keep up with! She lives in pretty Lerici, in Liguria, not far from the Cinque Terre and has something new on her plate every time we speak!!! You can read about the stuff she does on her Bella Vita Italia website!

Eleanor and Maureen, the creators and managers of an independent publishing house based in Tuscany called Pari Publishing, in a small medieval village called Pari. Small communities survive because there are resourceful women like them. One of their latest books, would be the perfect gift for Women’s Day: Unveiling the Breath: One Woman’s Journey into Understanding Islam and Gender Equality.

Lorella (@boutique_events) is a gifted flower designer based in Tuscany, Fiori e Dintorni, and my partner in our wedding and event planning business, Boutique Events. She is a real artist and a great friends!

Kim (@kimmer999) and Pauline (@PaulineK): they are the heart and soul of the Slow Travel great website and of its community Slow Talk. Without them, I wouldn’t have probably met most of the great people mentioned in this post, so thank you ladies!

Donna (@MaremmaGuide) is the publisher of a great website about my home area, the Maremma. Incredibly enough, we haven’t found the perfect time to meet yet, but we absolutely have to. It’s a great thing that there is finally someone else in the area as passionate as me about it and certainly determined to make people see how beautiful and pleasant the Maremma is.

Robin (@MyMelange) is a talented photographer and publisher of a great blog about travelling to France and Italy. She has recently started her own travel consulting business and she is already very appreciated!

“Girasoli“  – I know she doesn’t like having her name published online – (@girasoli), whom I had the pleasure of meeting for lunch in Pisa, after many years of chatting online on forums and twitter! She has an interesting blog called Shave Ice and Gelato.

Sheila (@italytutto) has a great website that gathers all the major blogs about Italy. A great resource. I’ve recently had the pleasure of meeting her in Pisa over lunch and I think this might be the beginning of a friendship! She divides her time between England and the Lunigiana, in Tuscany.

Judy (@divinacucina): one of the most renowned and appreciated teachers of traditional Tuscan cuisine and a real prodigy in the kitchen! She has recently published a fabulous book and she has a very interesting website called Divina Cucina.

Evelyn (@Journeywoman) is the woman traveler par excellence. She is the CEO of Journeywoman, the largest online travel resource for women.

Alexandra (@arttrav) is an art history professor living in Florence and she publishes an incredible online magazine called ArtTrav. She is also the mind behind @tuscanyart and @TuscanyActive, of the Voglio Vivere Così social media team of the Regione Toscana (Tuscany).

Other incredible ladies I’ve met online are Kathy (@dreamofitaly, editor of the award-winning subscription travel newsletter Dream of Italy), Nancy (@ItalyTravelista, owner of a tour company and publisher of the great ItalyTravelista Blog), Julie (@TravelwithJulie, publisher of a fabulous blog about travelling in Italy), Jessica (@italylogue, a BootsnAll’s resident Italophile with a lovely blog and website – Why go Italy), Laura (@FacingTheStreet, a freelance travel writer specializing in ways travellers can live like locals on the road – you can read it all on her Facing the Street blog), Melanie (@italofileblog, publisher of the interesting Italophile blog), Roz (@miabellavita, an Italian from a long lineage of fine cooks now living in the States – check her La Bella Vita), Robbin (@robbin_g, how do you get from being a recording engineer to being an international wine expert? She did it! Check her Vineyard Adventures! I haven’t forgot we had decided to meet while you are in Tuscany lady!!!), Lisa (@wanderlustwomen – a spirited travel journalist who publishes on this interesting website Wanderlust Women Travel), Molly (@amalari – freelance journalist and owner of these beautiful vacation rentals in Lucca), Catalina (@catascraft – a very talented artist creating beautiful illustrations and taking great photos, check her blog), Nazzarena (@NazzarenaArman – we have an agreement that I will not talk about pizza with her… ooops, I’ve done it again! She’s a talented wedding coordinator living in the UK), Erica, Barbara and Oriana (@TuscanyNova, @TuscanyTunes, @TuscanyTrends, @TuscanyTips, @ShopInTuscany, @tuscanyfit… yes, essentially the Voglio Vivere Così Social Media Team!), Karen (@toptraveleurope, editor of the great sites Europe Top Travel Content and Europe à la Carte), Laura (@lauradebe – a tech girl and social media addict, she says. I suspect she’s the mastermind behind @ToscanaIN – I haven’t forgotten about our lunch in Florence, don’t worry!), Kathy (@kathygori, an eclectic, interesting woman: screenwriter and a lover of Indian cooking with a blog that I adore, The Colors of Indian Cooking), Lulu (@Calabrisella - not sure why she wants to leave Toronto to go to Calabria, but we will find out by following her great blog Calabrisella Mia! LOL), Franca (@FrancaPorter, owner of my next dream holiday destination, the beautiful Au Belle Fleur B&B in France) and Janice (@solotraveler – the most adventurous woman out there, who’s not afraid of flying alone! Check her blog Solo Traveler!)

Who did I forget? If you want to add some virtual mimosa love below, please go ahead!

Yesterday I did something I hadn’t done in a long, long time: I went to the Botanic Garden in Pisa. Founded in 1544 by Luca Ghini, it was originally on the river bank by the Medicean shipyard, and was moved to its present location in 1591. It was the first university botanic garden in the world, and the oldest botanic garden to still be part of a university.

The oldest part of the botanic garden

Up until 10 years ago, you didn’t have to pay to go in. I used to go there for lunch or to read in between classes, or to study. I graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature and the main faculty building backs onto the garden.

Now there is a small entrance fee of 2,50 euros, and it’s open Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, and on Saturday from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm.

I have always loved the botanic garden: being inside its walls is like being in the countryside rather than being just a few steps away from Piazza dei Miracoli. No street noise: only the the rustling of leaves and the whisper of the wind through the branches of the trees and through the tall canes.

My favourite part is the Orto del Cedro, which is right opposite to my office. There is a 22o year old magnolia tree (the tag says it was planted in 1787) and a Renaissance fountain.

Orto del Cedro

The old magnolia

Yesterday I was a bit disappointed to see that the bench under the pergola of wisteria I used to sit on all the time is gone, and the water in the fountain is covered in some green stuff. It seemed a bit abandoned, but it might be that it’s still early in the year, and they haven’t started the spring work yet.

The spot where the bench used to be and my office in the background

I took a walk in the “arboretum“, the section of the garden dedicated to trees typical of mild climates. There is also an old fountain and a small artificial lake with aquatic plants. And I noticed that you can see the Leaning Tower and the roof of the Cathedral from there. Very pretty!

There were also a lot of black birds which I love!

Today I had a very stressful morning so, when I went out to go to work, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a sunny spring-like day.

I don’t think I totally realized it until I arrived in Piazza dei Miracoli. In Pisa, the unmistakable sign that the spring has finally arrived are the students having lunch and relaxing on the lawn by the Baptistery. Today there was even a group of school kids playing football in a corner of the square, by the city walls.

As usual these days, I felt a bit jealous of all the people on holiday, so I started looking at things around me trying to focus on things I might take for granted and leave unnoticed.

I loved the contrast of the white marble of the monuments of the Piazza and the blue sky.

I also loved the distinctive  medieval features of the back of the buildings on Via Santa Maria. Their façades are less interesting in my opinion. They have been renovated, polished and often covered in signs, shop windows, gadgets on display and restaurant tables and menus.

Seen from behind though, they are “more real”, and I like to guess what sort of people live or used to live in there.

My favourite building looks really old. You can see the bricks under the crumbling plaster. It has a small backyard hidden behind a high wall. From the street, I can see a very tall pine tree, and through a small, rusty gate, a semi-abandoned garden, with some junk and an old swing. I guess a family with children once lived there, and that a long, long time ago they planted a Christmas tree in their garden, next to the swing. Now the swing is covered in rust and weeds and the tree is at least 5 meters tall.

I loved coming out of the office after dark and walking in semi-deserted Piazza dei Cavalieri and Piazza dei Miracoli. I have always loved the square after dark: so peaceful, so quiet.

What I didn’t like though, is the fact that it was much darker than usual. I think they are trying to save a few euros by reducing the lights.

I grew up in a small village in Tuscany with corner stores and family-run grocery stores. My grandfather was a farmer, and my father has always helped out in the countryside, even though, until recently, that was not his real job. When I am in Civitella I know where my food comes from. I know where the meat sold at the butcher’s is produced and butchered. I know the person who makes the bread and the person who makes the flour. I know the people who provide vegetables and fruit to the greengrocer’s shop. My father has hens and chickens, lots of fruit trees, a large vegetable garden, vineyards and olive trees, so I know where our meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables, wine and olive oil come from. We really buy very little.

When we are in Pisa, on the other hand, we buy meat at the supermarket, and I am never very impressed. I still remember the first time I bought chicken… I was 19 and with one bite I was left with a bare bone in my hand. I promise real chicken is not supposed to be like that. And it definitely doesn’t taste like that. I am always shocked when chicken meat or pork releases water when you put it in the pan… That tells me that those animals were fed very unhealthy stuff, and now we are eating it.

I think more and more people are starting to notice these things are becoming more and more aware of what they eat. I have recently come across a “new old habit“: “la latteria“, the milk shop.

Up to the late ’80s, the village had a milk shop. A lady would sell you fresh milk delivered to the shop that very morning by local producers. You had to bring your own bottle. Over time, the milk shops closed, fresh milk was sold in milk cartons, and long-life milk became more and more popular. I always use it, but it’s nothing like the milk I used to drink when I was a kid.

The good news is that the “latteria“ is coming back, even though it has a much more “industrial” face. Milk producers throughout Italy have created an association which has opened shops throughout the country where you can go with your own glass bottle and get your raw milk from large taps. From the cow to the table, they say. This is known as “filiera corta”, literally the “short spinneret”, or as prodotti a km 0, literally products that are produced less than 1km away, all catch phrases for local products, what was once known as dal produttore al consumatore (from producer to consumer). You might find this phrase in restaurant menus more and more often.

Here is the website where you can find the closest latteria: buy milk from the producer in Italy.

The advantages? Well, the milk is 40% cheaper (you can save 40 to 60 cents per liter) and it’s fresh. The milk that is not sold on the day it is delivered goes back to the dairy and is used to make ricotta and other types of cheese. The milk is not treated, so it contains more vitamins and proteins than pasteurized milk, and it tastes better.You know who the producer is, and if you want, you can go check how the cows are kept, what they eat, how they live, etc.

The disadvantages? The milk is raw, and even if it is scrupulously controlled to ensure that it’s healthy and that none of the major pathogens are present, it might still be more difficult to digest than pasteurized milk for some people. What’s more, it has a very short life: it should not be kept for more than 24 hours, unless you boil it of course.

Another huge advantage of bringing latterie back to life is that buying milk directly from the producer with your own glass bottle is an environmentally wise choice. Every family uses an average of 365 milk cartons or plastic bottles per year. By using your own glass bottle, you have a double advantage: you help your wallet and the environment.

On February 24th, I turned 35. I was in Pisa, as it was a Wednesday, and I really wanted to celebrate in style. If I think of the way I used to see 35 year old people when I was younger, well… they all seemed really “grown-up people“… so this birthday came with a whole lot of funny feelings about it, if you see what I mean.

If you add the fact that I am really ready for a vacation somewhere, well, I decided that the best way to celebrate my 35th birthday was to go out and “live the city”.

I started with a lazy morning and a lovely breakfast with a capuccino and a croissant. Perfect to start the day! I had to go to work, but I didn’t need to be in the office before 11 a.m. so I took it easy and asked my husband to drop me off in Piazza Garibaldi. I took a stroll in Borgo Stretto and looked at the stores where I knew I would drag my husband and his credit card in the afternoon! I wandered around in the area of Piazza delle Vettovaglie for a while, trying to decide where I wanted to go for lunch with my friends from the Department.

I adore Piazza delle Vettovaglie. It’s the “real Pisa“, and also the oldest part of the city. The square with its porticoes, the many bars and small restaurants with tables outside, the market in the courtyard with people laughing and making fun of each other, the lovely smell of the bakeries, the ethnic kiosks with Kebabs and spices, and some stores selling second hand clothes. And just a few steps away, the beautiful vegetable market, the few family-run shops still surviving the onslaught of hyper-stores (a butcher’s shop, a store selling only freshly-toasted coffee grains, a couple of fish shops, a shop selling shoes, etc.). More great restaurants here too.

I continued through the medieval heart of Pisa, passing by the old tower called Il Campano, a bell tower which used to mark the end of the lessons in the ancient days of the University of Pisa, whose original seat was only a few steps away, in the Medicean Palazzo della Sapienza in Piazza Dante, now home to the Faculty of Law.

I crossed the gardens in the Piazza, walking through the bars full of students taking a break, and finally got to Via Santa Maria, where the Department of English Studies is located. I saw a couple of students and then I was free again. I looked out of my office window: I’m so lucky as to have an office which overlooks the garden of the Department and the Botanic Garden on the other side of the garden walls. It’s so beautiful and peaceful. Most old buildings in Pisa have these “secret gardens”: you would never guess that behind the large renaissance portals there are smaller or larger courtyards with exotic trees, magnolias and bushes of roses and camellias. The building which houses the department even used to have a small door covered in some sort of ivy which must once have allowed the people living in the building to access the Botanic Garden directly from their garden. A serious privilege, I guess.

I decided to go to the Botanic Garden, like I used to do when I was a student. It’s really peaceful in there and there are benches under the tall trees where you can seat, read and relax. It feels like it is outside the city center, far from  busy Via Santa Maria (the street leads to Piazza dei Miracoli and the Leaning Tower of Pisa and also the center of university life, so the area is quite busy). I didn’t know, though, that now you have to pay to get in, and that the garden is only open in the morning. The admission fee is really low, around 2 euros I guess, but I got there too late. I would have had to leave the garden after less than 20 minutes, not worth it.

So I went back to my office where my friends had just arrived. We decided to go back to Piazza delle Vettovaglie to choose a new restaurant to try, some place where we had never had lunch before (we eat out at least twice a week, and when we have something special to celebrate we always try to find a different place). We chose a nice restaurant called La Vineria di Piazza. I wanted to go there because I liked the decor, I’ll confess it. It is furnished in the old traditional Tuscan style, with marble tables, marble on the walls, and  colourful chairs with straw bottoms! All that was missing were the old style flasks of wine with straw on the side!

When my husband and the other friends joined us, we had a lovely meal with pasta with a sauce of gorgonzola cheese and walnuts, shrimp in a cacciucco type of sauce, and we all had a dessert. I had a lovely apple and lavender cake, and I also tried my husband’s lime and strawberry pannacotta. I did not try the pear and chocolate cake that some of my friends had but it looked delicious. We all had coffee too. So for two courses each, wine and coffee we only spent 10 euros per person. No service charges and free mineral water. A nice find, we’ll definitely go back!

After this meal, my husband took me shopping in the stores of the center. I bought a new computer backpack in a store in Borgo Stretto, and  two brown leather bags and a green wallet in my favourite leather store near the Campano, called Max Il Cuoiaio. They have beautiful hand-made items. For two bags in real leather, and the wallet, also in coloured leather, we spent 140 euros. Not bad at all. Well, not for me! I didn’t pay!!

We took a stroll through the center and then we went back home to feed our dog and take her out. She must know I am writing about her because she’s trying to type something in her sleep…

At 7:30 pm we went out again for my birthday night out: I was determined to experience Pisa like I was there on holiday rather than as the city where I’ve worked and lived for 15 years! We met a couple of friends in Piazza Garibaldi and we went to a new wine bar and restaurant that I have recently discovered and fell in love with: Modus Bibendi. It’s in the vegetable market square too (I told you I love the area!).

It is beautiful: the interior design is unique, with stone walls, golden and red furniture, in a tasteful, yet kitsch style (I know the two things don’t go well together, but this place really is tasteful). It’s a great place to go for an aperitivo. You can grab a glass of wine and eat whatever you want. Lots of bottles of wine on the counter and many different types of appetizers. They also have a small room with tables for the people who want to have dinner there. We had always gone for the aperitivo before so when I said I wanted to stay for dinner my friends looked kind of worried because it certainly looks like a pricey place. Quite the opposite. We had delicious antipasti, pasta, tagliata, Morellino DOC wine, and coffee and we spent 23 euros per person. Very reasonably priced for being such a beautiful place. I was so happy to be served that delicious food on golden plates!!!

I had a great birthday, and I found out that Pisa really is a pleasant city to live in and to visit, with lots of beautiful places to see, and many lively bars and restaurants to relax and enjoy the good local cuisine.

I have decided that I want to be a tourist in my own city more often. I’ve seen there is a new exhibit at Palazzo Lanfranchi: that’s my “must-see” for next week’s “tourist-at-home night out“!!!

Sanremo is a city in Liguria that hosts the Festival della Canzone Italiana, also known as Festival di Sanremo (Sanremo Music Festival). People simply call it “Sanremo”.

I am not really sure how to explain what Sanremo is to Italians… It is a such a huge piece of our culture… People love and hate it at the same time. It’s one of those events that keeps national TV busy for a month: the anticipation, the forecasts from polls, the gossip, etc. People start talking about it in January and go on until March.

It’s a music festival, a fashion show, and, sadly or gladly, a showcase of Italian society.

For years people have criticized it by saying that it’s an obsolete kermis, an outdated event revolving around a type of music, Italian melodic music,  that people don’t listen to anymore. But every year it is watched by millions of viewers, and hours of TV are spent talking about it.

Some very famous singers were first brought to the attention of the public thanks to Sanremo. Just to name a few: Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini, Andrea Bocelli, Alex Britti, Giorgia, Elisa, and last but not least Vasco Rossi and Zucchero. It is an important showcase, and it doesn’t really matter who wins: what matters is that people will talk about it and the songs. Rarely the song that wins is the one that will have the biggest success on the radio and in the stores.

Very few famous singers still participate: the big names don’t bother participating in the competition. They might go as special guests, but that’s all. And a whole lot of air time every year is dedicated to this topic.

Since talent shows have become so popular, the most debated topic this year is whether Sanremo is becoming just the ultimate battle between “Amici di Maria de Filippi” and “X-Factor” or whether the “televoto“, the possibility for people to vote from home by sending a text message or by calling a special number, is ruining the festival.

Last year, the winner was Marco Carta, who had won Amici the same year. This year, again, a guy from Amici is the winner, and he beat the winner of X-Factor and the trio Pupo, Emanuele Filiberto and Luca Canonici. Now, the televoto is also responsible for making the trio finish in second place, before Marco Mengoni, and for the victory of Tony (another former X-factor participant) in the category of Young Artists. By the way, Valerio, the winner, is younger than Tony…

Some years the festival doesn’t get many viewers, while other years, like this one, have an enormous amount of viewers. Up to this point, Paolo Bonolis was the host who had had most success, thanks to his witticisms and culture I guess. This year, Antonella Clerici, the” national mum and housewife”, was supposed to do very badly, because of her “everyman’s hosting style“.

Sanremo is generally considered the most difficult event to host, a real ceremony. For decades, the hosts were men, who had a couple of beautiful mute “vallette” (the girls who assist in any Italian TV Show…). This year, Antonella Clerici did everything “wrong” according to this supposed “Sanremo good manners”, and hosted the most viewed festival since 1951. She hosted alone, she wore dresses that made her look fatter than she actually is, she kissed a queen, she danced with a dj all dressed up in leather pants. And she made it. She is the queen of Sanremo. (Watch the video of Antonella Clerici and Bob Sinclar.)

I admit watching at least part of the festival every year. This year I watched it all. Not because I liked her hosting style… actually I find it a bit “Forrest-Gump-like” if you know what I mean… I am not a huge fan of “cute” things and children’s songs.

I loved the songs though. They were not the usual boring stuff. They were quite pop. I also loved the night dedicated to the history of Sanremo. This year, it was the 60th anniversary of the festival and they had a night with famous singers singing some of the most popular songs from the past. I especially liked Elisa singing “Canzone per te” by Endrigo and Elisa and Fiorella Mannoia singing the beautiful “Almeno tu nell’universo” by Mia Martini, three artists that I love.

I found Nilla Pizzi, the first winner of the festival, in 1951, incredibly sweet. She is 90-something years old, she cannot talk, but she still sings like an angel. And Carmen Consoli was amazing too (watch the video).As for the songs in the competition I loved Cristicchi’s song (watch the video), Malika Ayane, who also won the Premio della Critica, (watch the video), Noemi (watch the video) and Marco (watch the video). On the other hand I was absolutely shocked to see Pupo, Emanuele Filiberto and Luca Canonici among the top 3 and even come in 2nd. I couldn’t believe that such a populist song could get voted by so many people. That and Antonella Clerici’s success tell me that Italy is in fact still a very traditional country, that appreciates people who say they love “their culture and their religion“, children, good values and good food. It does make me a bit sad, and it certainly shocked the orchestra too! They threw their scores away when they heard that Malika Ayane had been eliminated!

If Saint Valentine’s Day is rainy and cold as it is the case in Tuscany this year, you might want to spend some time curled up on the sofa with your significant other and watch a romantic movie. If you are an italophile, then, it has to be an Italian movie too! This is my very personal top 10 of romantic Italian movies: a perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s day!

If you are single, this makes for a nice selection for a Valentine’s party with your friends, or a perfect way to spend a relaxing Sunday at home, while those silly couples are being ripped off in restaurants and bars!

1. Le fate ignoranti (2001), directed by Ferzan Ozpetek, Margherita Buy and Stefano Accorsi starring.
   AIDS doctor Antonia’s husband is killed by a car. She gets depressed until she learns he had been cheating on her with a man. Following her newly born curiosity for life, she goes to see her husband’s lover, Michele, and finds a huge apartment that he shares with gay and transgendered friends, including a Turkish immigrant and a prostitute. Antonia is reluctant to tell these people of her relationship to the dead man, but needs prompting to move on to a new phase of her life.
2. Pane, amore e fantasia (1953), directed by Luigi Comincini, Vittorio DeSica and Gina Lollobrigida starring.
   Marshall Antonio Carotenuto is sent to Sagliena, an imaginary little village in the center of Italy in the 50s, to assume his new mandate. In the village he knows Mariella (Frisky) AKAS ‘la Bersagliera’ secretly fallen in love for a policeman (Carabiniere) reporting to Antonio. But also Paolina, the village’s priest nephew, loves him. Things become more complicated when Annarella, the midwife, start demonstrating his love to Antonio. She is hiding a secret and the Marshall soon will be in a restless situation.
3. Pane e tulipani (2000), directed by Silvio Soldini.
   Rosalba is a housewife in Pescara with teenage sons, married since 21 to a plumbing supplier whose mistress is her sister in law. When the tour bus leaves her, and her husband calls to tell her to stay put, she rebels slightly and hitchhikes toward home, deciding on a whim to continue to Venice. She lucks into a room in the flat of Fernando, a diffident, formal Icelander; befriends Grazia, a holistic masseuse; and, gets a job at the flower shop of Fermo, a cranky anarchist. Her husband sends a portly plumber to find her. Will duty and maternal instinct win out, or will Alba stay in Venice, combining Rome’s rationality with Greece’s imagination to find her true Italian self?
4. Il postino (1994), directed by Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi and Mariagrazia Cucinotta starring.
   The life of the fisherman Mario changes dramatically when the famous Chilean writer Pablo Neruda settles on his little Italian island. Living in exile becuase of his political beliefs, Neruda needs a postman to deliver the huge quantities of mail sent to him by his admirers and Mario takes the job since he hates fishing anyway. The two become friends and Neruda helps the shy and clumsy Mario to win the heart of Beatrice, the beautiful waitress at the village’s inn, by showing him the beauty and power of poetry.
5. Ricordati di me (2006), directed by Gabriele Muccino.
   In the dysfunctional Italian middle-class family Ristuccia, the middle-aged executive Carlo has a stalled life without passion, bored in his work and having a monotonous life with his wife Giulia. Giulia is a frustrated and hysterical woman because she gave up of being an actress in her youth to dedicate to the family. Their needy son Paolo feels lost and rejected, trying to find who he is and flirting with a schoolmate. Their seventeen years old daughter Valentina is decided to work in a television show, and is fighting to have an audition. When Carlo meets his former sweetheart Alessia in a class reunion, they confess to each other that their marriages are in crisis and both feel passion arising again. Meanwhile Giulia is invited to an audition in a stage production and to participate of a play. Paolo tries to make friends using marijuana in his birthday party, and Valentina has sex with different guys trying to be a dancer of the famous TV show ‘Ali Babbi’. Their relationships change when Carlo has an accident.
6. Ieri, oggi, domani (1963), directed by Vittorio DeSica, Sofia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni starring.
   Stories about three very different women and the men they attract. Adelina sells black-market cigarettes in Naples, is married to the unemployed Carmine, and faces a jail sentence. She can avoid it as long as she’s pregnant. Several years and seven children later, Carmine is exhausted, so jail looks inescapable as does her contempt for Carmine. In Milan, Anna drives a Rolls, is bored, and picks up a writer. She talks dreamily of running off with him until he dents her car; that gets her emotional attention. Mara, a Roman call girl, turns the head of a naive seminarian, prompting a run-in with his granny and a vow of abstinence. Mara’s fizzy lover from Bologna grows impatient.
7. Casomai (2002), directed by Alessandro D’Alatri, Stefania Rocca and Fabio Volo starring.
   Stefania and Tommaso are to marry and want their wedding to be special. They travel to Stefania’s childhood church and there meet a priest who rises to the challenge. In the ceremony the couple are confronted with not only the beauty of their love but also the darker challenges of marriage; the loss of togetherness, the temptations, the interference of others. Yet, through it all they and their guests learn that love is something that we all must do alone.
8. La ragazza con la valigia (1961), directed by Valerio Zurlini, Claudia Cardinale starring.
   Lorenzo, who’s 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a showgirl, Aida, whom his older brother has mistreated. In extending kindness and standing up for her, he comes of age. But, is there anything he can do that will alter Aida’s situation or her prospects?
9. Anonimo Veneziano (1970), directed by Enrico Maria Salerno.
   Enrico is a Venetian musician and maestro with a terminal disease, who invites his wife, Valeria, to visit him in Venice without disclosing the reason for such invitation. Although still married, they have been living separated from each other for seven years. Valeria lives with their son and with her new partner, a wealthy industrial in Ferrara. When they meet each other, they walk along though Venice and recall their relationship since their first encounter, disclosing their intense love through flashbacks.
10. Maledetto il giorno che t’ho incontrato (1992), directed by Carlo Verdone, Carlo Verdone and Margherita Buy starring.
    Bernardo, a journalist from Roma, lives and works in Milan. He regularly sees a therapist because he has been drepressed and hypochondriac since his girlfriend has left him. He is writing a biography of Jimi Hendrix, trying to show that the guitarist’s cause of death was not an overdose. At his therapist’s office, he meets Camilla, a complex-ridden young woman who is in love with their therapist. Like Bernardo, she also overuses anxiolytics. Bernardo and Camilla become very good friends and after various fights and misadventures they end up in England and… well, you have to watch the movie to find out how it ends! It is really funny!

Every time I go to the UK or North America I come back thinking that, even if they don’t have a fraction of the tourist attractions we have in Italy, the difference is not so evident in the end, because they know how to make the best out of what they have. Tourism promotion and infrastructure in those countries is simply exceptional. The materials, the campaigns, the museums: everything is for the common people, and all the tourism businesses are equally promoted and enhanced.

For a discussion on the more democratic and less élitist attitude towards museums and culture in general, see this article on Tuscany Arts, the blog about art in Tuscany by the region tourism promotion team. Actually, I should say that the Regione Toscana represents a noticeable exception in the sad panorama of Italian tourism promotion: Tuscany is trying to fully exploit the visibility given by social networks through its “Voglio Vivere Così Social Media Team” and All Thing Tuscany.

But since I feel a bit grumpy today, and a brief Twitter exchange with two very interesting people, Andy Hayes (@andrewghayes) and Flip Florence (@FlipFlorence), inspired me, I’ll just list a few things I don’t like about Italian tourism promotion.

1. I don’t like most official websites. I don’t find them attractive at all and they are rarely suitable to perform the function a tourism-related website should perform, i.e. attract the traveler, make him or her dream of the location, convey the spirit of the place. They are often very plain, graphically unappealing, too “crowded“, often old and dated in their look. Often, they work fine in Explorer but not in Firefox or Safari. They are usually not suitable to be browsed on mobile phones.
2. Most recent articles on official tourism websites are only in Italian. Many sites don’t even bother having all the textual content translated. Therefore, it often happens that the most interesting and recent stuff on the home page does not have a corresponding version in the other languages of the website, which makes it impossible to use the information unless you want to take the time to translate it yourself. Some of the translations are really bad, clearly not done by professionals. I’ll never forget the title on the cover of the official Pisa tourism magazine that we distributed to over 200 participants in an important conference we had spent a year planning: it promoted the “51th Regatta” (Bad English 101).
3. I find it upsetting and unacceptable that most official sites, including the national ENIT ITALIA one, do not include regularly-licensed self-catering accommodations: Case Vacanza. We pay the same taxes as hotels and other “strutture turistico-alberghiere”, and we go through the same amount of trouble to comply with all the safety and hospitality regulations and yet, vacation rentals are not even a category in the accommodation search on the website (whose navigation, by the way, is made up of two dreadful buttons named accommodation and accommodation 2).
4. The promotional material is often useless. I remember the book that the Maremma tourism promotion distributed last year and which was full of completely useless stuff for the tourist and it was more suitable as a phone book than as a resource that accommodation facilities could make available to their guests. And it looked expensive too, in glossy paper, with a hard cover binder. Basically wasted money. The publications are often wordy, and boring. Guides to museums and monuments, or cities sound like lectures rather than entertainment, which is what tourism is for most people. The graphics once again are plain. I think the country lacks real communication professionals specifically trained for tourism communication.
5. There is no coordination between the different entities in tourism promotion, and this results in a general confusion in which much energy is wasted to attain very poor results. The regional site and council has nothing (as far as I can see) to do with the local tourism councils (e.g. Terre di Siena – just redesigned, Maremma tourism council, Pisa Unica Terra, etc.), and with the “consorzi” (another Italian mystery… basically associations of private business owners who can get public money…), and the local tourism associations (associazioni turistico-culturali or ricreative) and pro-loco associations (village and town associations). The result is that there is no central database of events. There is no sharing of resources. If you want to know what’s going on in Tuscany you need to check 30 different sites, and most of the time you’ll have no idea of what’s going on, because the page is only in Italian.
6. At the local level, which is what is most relevant for local tourism businesses, events are almost always planned at the very last minute, which is of absolutely no use if you work with foreign guests and want to use the events as a means to promote the area. We need the events planned and published at least 6 months in advance. And we need stuff that is good for both Italians and foreigners.
7. Most of the promotion is always focused on the major “pull factors” of an area, that is on the most popular stuff. The stuff everybody already knows about. Even if I understand that you need the “hot spots” to attract people, you also need to promote the lesser-known destinations that are off-the-beaten-path for no good reason than not having been promoted well before. I remember Montalcino °before Brunello was Brunello”: the town was just as beautiful, the wine was just as good, but the marketing and advertising campaigns had not been nearly as effective. There are many other places that are just as beautiful as Montalcino or Cortona, just as well located, but which have not had that massive amount of money poured into promoting them, or a rich American writer who bought a house there and wrote 2 novels about it, or vampires saving mortal girls in their main squares. It should be the tourism councils’  job to promote the territory, and not the local Castello Banfi’s.
8. Most of the initiatives promoted by local tourism councils involve some larger private business, which in the end is after its own profit. Consorzi are like that most of the time: they usually involve a bunch of desperate accommodation facility owners and a travel agency that manages their promotion and reservations. The larger the consorzio the smaller the visibility of the individual properties, yet the profits of the travel agency remain the same. Every year the local tourism council organizes seminars for the tourism business owners and every year the same large web agency gives a presentation, offers a free evaluation of your website and pours a bunch of professionally sounding words into non-web-savvy people’s ears (web 2.0, viral marketing, social networks, open websites, etc) and then tries to sell their services. Nobody needs to spend money for what they offer. The council should teach people how to do it themselves. Then, if they want, they can choose to pay someone to do it for them, but not without first knowing how easy it is. And ultimately I don’t understand how a public institution selects a private business to give it such overwhelming visibility. It doesn’t seem fair to all the other similar agencies, the local ones, that pour their money into the area and are never contacted to give presentations or offer suggestions. Another Italian mystery.
9. I know that in international fairs some tourism promotion agencies offer free holidays and other free stuff. How do they decide who is to offer the free stuff (and hence to get all that publicity)? I’ve never been contacted once.
10. The Italian government now offers “holiday vouchers” to low-income families. That is a good idea, because it creates opportunities for the tourism businesses and it improves the economy. I admit the first time I took a look at the website I was upset because it was not possible to sign up to be one of the places where you can spend the vouchers, and yet there were so many commercials about it, etc. Now they have reopened the subscriptions again, so that problem is solved. What’s not solved or fair is that if you accept holiday vouchers, in order to cash them you have to go to one of the branches of Banca San Paolo, you get reimbursed 45-60 days later and you have to pay 4% + VAT as a processing fee… Now, why in the world should I pay 4% + IVA for accepting vouchers?! If the State wants to give that money to Banca San Paolo it should come out of their pockets, not ours! Another Italian mystery.

Apparently, today is World Nutella Day 2010. Not that this is a real holiday, but I guess any woman who participates in forums or social networks cannot keep her mind off the fact that some expat chicks decided that Nutella was something that needed official celebrations at least once a year. I have no problems with that… or rather, normally, I wouldn’t have any problem with it. Except that I am on a diet this year, and as everybody knows, Nutella is generally not on diet plans.

Inconceivable and unacceptable, but true. In the end, Nutella is widely acknowledged as the best anti-stress tool ever… (I was tempted to write “universally”…) and you tell me if there is a more stressful time in life than when you have to be on a diet! It makes no sense!

Basically, if you are on a diet, you can pretty much forget about World Nutella Day and go back to your sad veggies. But, all Nutella lovers know that it’s not that easy to get over the thought of that delicious, creamy spoonful of dark, creamy chocolate.

For some reason, Nutella is addictive. I cannot keep a jar of Nutella in my house, or I’ll finish it. Well maybe not if I had a jar the size of Nanni Moretti’s consolatory “barattolone”… A cult favourite in Italy!

Nutella has been my best friend on numerous occasions: after break-ups, before exams and presentations, and not long ago, after my nose surgery, it was the only food I could actually taste. The tricks of fate… maybe it was psychological, but, oh God, it was good!!! And I was sick, so I felt completely entitled to as much Nutella as I wanted! Hence the present diet… As we say in Italian, “goie e dolori“, joys and sorrows.

I won’t be celebrating in style today, but I can still dream of it! And my dream is a Nutella Day on my Diet Plan, something that goes like this:

Breakfast: 30gr of bread + a tablespoon of Nutella (approx. 150 calories), 1 cappuccino with no sugar (approx. 80 calories)

Morning snack: Croissant with Nutella (approx. 259 calories)

Lunch: 100 gr. meat with 200 gr. vegetables (approx. 150 calories), 10 gr. of olive oil (approx. 90 calories), 1 green apple with Nutella dip (approx. 300 calories), 1 coffee no sugar

Afternoon snack: Crepe with Nutella (approx. 360 calories)

Dinner: 100 gr of meat with 200 gr of vegetables (approx.150 calories), 10 gr. of olive oil (approx. 90 calories), 5 tablespoons of nutella in front of the tv.(approx. 220 calories)

Total of 1849 calories. 450 calories more than I should have. Not that bad… maybe if I go for a long walk… but then I would have to bring my Nutella energy jar with me and that would thwart all my efforts…

No Nutella Day celebrations for me this year, but I’d like to thank Sara Rosso, Shelley and Michelle Fabio for providing me with this opportunity to dream about a Nutella diet plan! I might in fact perfect it and try it out!