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The Shock of the Old

The Shock of the Old

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The life of KC, a thirtysomething American expat living in southern Italy.

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Recent Posts Tagged With 'life in italy'

  • Update

    Posted on Wednesday November 25th, 2009 at 09:30 in blogging, sewing, life in italy

    I've been neglecting the blog, and I apologize for that. I haven't felt much like writing because I've been in a funk, and I've been very busy too, working on several winter and holiday sewing projects. I will be posting more regularly, but at a redu...

  • October, Campo di Pere

    Posted on Wednesday October 28th, 2009 at 11:32 in campo di pere, life in italy, sessa aurunca

    Some photos I took at Campo di Pere earlier in the month, when we went up there to check on our olives:Olive treesOlivesPataView towards Gaeta (the promontory at left on the far side of the bay)View of Sessa Aurunca...

  • La Dolce Attesa

    Posted on Thursday October 22nd, 2009 at 09:25 in pregnancy, culture shock, life in italy

    I didn't write very much about the medical care I received while pregnant here, other than a couple of posts about my condescending and inflexible doctor and a particularly absurd episode in obtaining and paying for a ticket (something like a referra...

  • Macchina! Macchina!*

    Posted on Thursday September 10th, 2009 at 03:29 in life in italy, sessa aurunca

    That was Pata's response when we asked her if she wanted to see a classic car show in Sessa (really nothing more than a bunch of old cars driving up the Corso and parking in Piazza Mercato) last Sunday morning.Classic car traffic jam in Piazza Mercat...

  • Parking Lot Garden

    Posted on Monday July 27th, 2009 at 03:03 in pet peeves, culture shock, life in italy

    Because it's not enough that there are already too few parking spots.Parallel parking for cars, motorcycles and plants Note that the way in which the terracotta pots on the right have been placed (in an attempt to claim as much space as possible) has...

  • Sciopero dei Blogger

    Posted on Tuesday July 14th, 2009 at 02:53 in blogging, culture shock, life in italy

    Adesione all’appello di Diritto alle Rete contro il DDl Alfano che imbavaglia la Internet italiana....

  • Not a good year for figs

    Posted on Monday July 13th, 2009 at 03:02 in food, figs, campo di pere, life in italy, pata

    So far this season, I've eaten well over a hundred figs, picked from numerous trees in a few different locations, and I have to say that I'm not impressed. Among them all, perhaps two or three were excellent, about half were passable, and the rest we...

  • Same excrement, different day

    Posted on Thursday July 9th, 2009 at 10:07 in culture shock, life in italy

    I haven't written about this sooner because it makes me so angry that I prefer not to think about it, but sometimes it's hard to avoid, especially in the summer.N and I have some agricultural land right outside the town walls. It's part of a lot that...

  • An Improvement

    Posted on Friday June 26th, 2009 at 04:23 in family, food, life in italy

    Sometimes you open your door to find a hideous pink basket on the landing. Other times, it's a half-dried sausage. And every now and then you find something much better. Much, much better:Basket of figsProps to the aunt....

  • Stambergo Strillante

    Posted on Wednesday June 24th, 2009 at 03:26 in pet peeves, life in italy

    The Shrieking Shack (from Harry Potter) is called "La Stamberga Strillante" in Italian, and the first time I heard it, stamberga seemed to my anglophone mind a rather imposing word for what a shack is. I'd been repeating it in my head, the way I do ...

  • Justice, (or pettiness?)

    Posted on Wednesday June 10th, 2009 at 04:53 in family, life in italy

    I left out an episode from the intercom saga because it was already too long, but something happened last Sunday that, while an amusing anecdote on its own, becomes much funnier (and more satisfying) if you know the earlier story.One hot day last Aug...

  • Sessa Saturday: Cherries

    Posted on Saturday June 6th, 2009 at 00:01 in food, campo di pere, life in italy, pata, sessa aurunca

    Cherries at Campo di PereThis week, I thought I'd do something different for Sessa Saturday because I've spent the last several days eating, baking and preserving cherries, all of which were picked at Campo di Pere.Sessa Aurunca from Campo di Pere, M...

  • Something happened, and hypocrisy

    Posted on Tuesday May 26th, 2009 at 04:22 in parenting, food, life in italy, pata

    On Saturday we went to Roccamonfina, a nearby town I first wrote about here. There's a shady, green park right in the center of town that is perfect for a passeggiata on a hot day. Sessa has a small park, but it isn't nearly as clean or well-kept. Ev...

  • Death of a Sausage

    Posted on Wednesday April 22nd, 2009 at 09:29 in food, life in italy

    "I'm throwing out this sausage," N said, indicating it with the knife he had just used to cut off a slice."Why?" I asked. Even though I could imagine the reason, I wanted the details so I could post them here."It has a strange taste." And with that, ...

  • The Intercom

    Posted on Monday April 20th, 2009 at 01:59 in family, life in italy

    Buzz. Buzz. Someone is at the front door wanting to be let in. It's the tenth time today and it's not even noon. And we already know that it's not for us.Three years ago, N's brother converted the attic story of our house into an apartment that he an...

  • Recycling

    Posted on Wednesday April 15th, 2009 at 04:53 in life in italy, pata

    Some of what I was working on while I was away:This outfit for Pata was once a pair of women's trousers.These trousers were once leftover scraps from a playmat I made for her last year.These jeans were once second-hand overalls I bought planning to m...

  • The Sausage

    Posted on Wednesday March 18th, 2009 at 03:57 in family, food, life in italy

    N's aunt recently gave us a sausage that was in the process of drying. "This sausage is drying," N said as he brought it into the kitchen. "Don't put it in the refrigerator.""Where should we put it?"He paused. It wasn't the first time I'd asked that ...

  • How not to deliver the mail

    Posted on Friday March 6th, 2009 at 01:09 in life in italy

  • Easy

    Posted on Monday February 23rd, 2009 at 05:12 in life in italy

  • Age before beauty?

    Posted on Tuesday December 2nd, 2008 at 10:10 in life in italy

  • Olive Oil Imbroglio

    Posted on Monday November 24th, 2008 at 05:02 in food, campo di pere, life in italy

  • Complimenti

    Posted on Wednesday November 12th, 2008 at 08:08 in baby, life in italy, pata

  • Keep it to yourself

    Posted on Friday October 31st, 2008 at 02:35 in baby, life in italy, pata

  • Salute!

    Posted on Thursday October 16th, 2008 at 07:18 in baby, life in italy

  • Customer service

    Posted on Friday October 10th, 2008 at 11:48 in life in italy

  • Babes at the beach

    Posted on Tuesday September 23rd, 2008 at 01:17 in baby, life in italy

  • Ciak, si mangia!

    Posted on Friday September 5th, 2008 at 07:05 in life in italy

  • Tropea, Calabria

    Posted on Wednesday September 3rd, 2008 at 02:16 in baby, holidays, life in italy

  • Mean streets

    Posted on Monday July 14th, 2008 at 02:15 in baby, life in italy

  • More talk about the weather

    Posted on Thursday December 13th, 2007 at 03:33 in love thursday, life in italy