Category: Any Day in Pontelandolfo

La Torre Mini Market

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Local Businesses

What? Has Midge gone daft? Is she writing a story about a grocery store – a mini market?  You can bet your pjeeeze I am!  La Torre Mini Market is the creation of a young married couple – Luigi Silvestri and Mariavittoria Stringile.

It is energizing to see young people get in touch with their entrepreneurial spirits and take the idea of alimentari to a new level.  Before they opened, they did something I am so impressed with.  They sat down with Pierino Di Angeles who had the Alimentari that I adored and asked her where she used to buy  her out of this world mortadella !  I bet they asked her other well founded questions too.

This little grocery store and deli – with the stress on the deli – not only carries all the stuff you need but ran out of just as you needed it.  But also stocks things that are a wee bit exotic like – truffle oil, goat’s milk, unusual spices and baked goods including real dark  – think those old Brooklyn bakeries – healthy rye bread!


The deli meats never looked dried out and dying in the case.  Salamis, prosciutto crudo or cotto, tacchino, all have been noshed on in our house to great satisfaction.  Even though we enjoy going to the local Caseficio – place that makes cheese – for our cheese quotas,  I’m glad to see that Luigi and Maria Vittoria stock mozzarella di buffalo made a wee bit up the road. l Casolare di Alvignano has won the 2016 “Oscar” for best mozzarella in Italy.

I asked them why they decided to take the plunge and work 24 hours a day building a little mom and pop community store.  Mariavittoria explained that her family moved to Germany and she and Luigi could have gone there to look for work.  Something held them back – their absolute love for Pontelandolfo and Pontelandolfese!   They chose to open a mini-market because they realized that after Pierina retired, there was no place in the historic center to buy what she used to sell.  They wanted to fill that void.

They more than fill the void!  I was super impressed during Pontelandolfo’s August week-long Festa  to see them open almost 24 hours a day.  They put a table in their doorway and sold canned beverages and panini to late night revelers.  Daily, construction workers dash in to pick up sandwiches to carry for lunch.  Frantic Midge runs in – because no one else is open on Sunday – to see what she can route up for Sunday pranza.

The couple have a son and are expecting another member of the family this winter.  Soon two little tykes will be running around and asking if I want some delicious mortadella!

Ci vediamo!

Ponte Simone -Perfetto per Pontelandolfo!

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Local Businesses

I stared at the defrosted fish, poked at the fresh spinach and then sighed, “I don’t feel like cooking – lets go to Ponte Simone.”  Ponte Simone is Pontelandolfo’s latest new happening spot.  The caffè/bar, tavolo caldo, grocery store, lotto parlor, slot machine parlor and more is the creation of a young and talented duo – Nicola D’Addona and Angela  Varricchio.  They took over a shop located at Ponte Sorgenza – just down the street from the center of town.  Closed the old place for a few months and gave it a make-over. They even made the furniture for the new dining room.

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Since I tasted Angela’s cooking, I have found a million reasons not to cook lunch.  My first experience was a fabulous farro seafood salad. Since Jack and I are trying not to eat wheat or rice, finding a place that cooked with farro was wonderful.  We often wander in, look at Angela and ask what we are eating today.  I’ve had roasted meats, grilled vegetables, caprese salads, green salads, soups – no matter what she cooks I’ll eat it because it is always perfect.  The price point is also perfect – I hate to make my USA pals  jealous by telling them that it costs us less to eat at Ponte Simone than it would to buy the stuff and cook it in New Jersey!

Angela also makes the gelato that is sold here.  Please don’t let my doctor know that I sampled some – how can I not eat sugar when there is home made melon gelato!  She experiments with flavors that are unique and scrumptious.

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Nicola is the bar man, grocery man and everything man.  Even though my Italian is sub par, he smiles figures out what I want and it magically appears.  Sadly, for me, every Campari Spritz I order comes with a tray of little noshes.  I beg, I plead, don’t bring me the snacks.  They still arrive and – gulp – I eat them.  I feel like I’m in a little caffè in any Italian city at cocktail time.  Lucky for me I only have to walk down the hill and stumble back.

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The couple works with other local business and I truly applaud them for that.  In the tiny grocery store I can buy meats from our local butcher, Franco Perugini.  Normally, I go to his shop but if I am in a pinch and he is closed…

Normally, Ponte Simone closes at 8:00 PM.  They put in 14 hour days.  Then there are the nights they produce events – when no one sleeps and everyone parties.  Music, a talent show, ethnic nights – the creative pair are turning this little corner of town into the place to be.  Bravi!

Every Sunday night, I take over a table in the dining room for “English Conversation”.  Whoever is interested in practicing their English that night shows up.  We chat, raise a glass and enjoy the home-town atmosphere of Ponte Simone

The wonders of life in a small town is that everyone knows your name. Growing up in Flagtown meant I couldn’t do anything wrong because everyone knew who I was and would either kick my butt or tell my parents.  Walking into Ponte Simone and hearing “Ciao Midge” reminds me of those days, puts a smile on my face and makes me remember how fortunate I am to be able to spend so much time in a little Southern Italian village.

Ci Vediamo!

Americans Living Abroad Need to VOTE!

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Practical Matters - Living Abroad

Those of us who are able to split our time between an adventure in a foreign country and the United States are incredibly fortunate.  Living in another country, we still need to remember our obligations as American citizens.  Every American living abroad needs to vote!  Vote in the primaries.  Vote for the local candidates.  AND especially vote during the presidential elections.  Those of you who know me and have followed me, know that I was born into a family of staunch Democrats and frankly, have never had a reason to become anything else.  That said, I’m not going to use this platform to tell you who to vote for.  I am going to ask you look at the video provided by Democrats Abroad that tells you just how easy it is to get that absentee ballot and VOTE in this presidential election.

AND MAY THE BEST WOMAN WIN!!!

Ci vediamo!

Do You Hear A Bell?

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo

Che sarà sarà – Rant #1

Emergency Preparedness? “Bo?”


My hip isn’t always a happy hip. After a day of sightseeing in Bari, my hip was hurting. Our Pugliese pals, Salvatore and Rosanna, wanted us to see an art exhibit in the village of Conversano’s medieval castle. The artist – Giorgio de Chirico – is famous for “pittura metefisica”.  Think Picasso. Suddenly, we found ourselves living in a metaphysical nightmare. 

Salvatore entered the ancient stone structure, climbed the rock steps to the top and discovered the elevator for folks with disabilities. Actually, it looks more like a floating floor than an elevator. He bravely stood on the sheet of metal and rode it down to pick me up. Bump, click, groan and emergency bells started to bellow.  Frankly, we heard bells and didn’t have a clue what they meant. We were in the courtyard waiting for Salvatore.  Apparently, no one who worked at the castle knew what they meant either.  No one came running. After about 15 minutes we all walked to the elevator and light bulbs started flashing in our brains!!  Salvatore!! 

When the platform got to the ground floor the door wouldn’t open.  I would have been screaming my bloody head off. Salvatore calmly rang the bell. When we got there, he chatted with us through the locked door. 

Let him out!!!

After what seemed like ions of bells ringing, The security guard arrived opened the closet housing  the motor, reset it and nothing happened. He moved to the locked door, bent over and opened-a cleverly disguised by a lump of black rubber – keyhole. “We need the key.” What key? The key that in a nanosecond would open the door. Other castle staff members appeared and didn’t have a clue what to do. The sweet young thing hired for the exhibition leaned over the top of the floating platform and told Salvatore not to worry. 

Salvatore’s view for over one hour.

We were told that help may be coming from the nearby city of Monopoli. Che sarà sarà may make for a nice song but the laid back attitude doesn’t resonate with me. As a matter of fact it sucks. Why hasn’t the management of the public space trained people for this type of incident. Why didn’t they have a copy of the magic key?Is this another example of bureaucracy gone insane – is there a regionally annoited key keeper? What if a pregnant woman was trapped inside with her water breaking all over the vertical tomb?  What if I was inside screaming every curse word I knew in multiple languages and kicking the shit out of the walls?
More folks kept coming and looking. Nothing was happening.  Until, after one very long hour the Man got here from Monopoli. Two seconds and one tiny key later, Salvatore is released. 

Quest’è Italia. Che sarà, sarà…

Beware Duty Taxes

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo

A few weeks ago I recieved a lovely gift from a New Jersey pal.  It was an envelope with six artfully designed dish towels.  Scrawled across the envelope was €15.29.  Since I wasn’t home when the envelope came, the postman couldn’t collect the duty.  Actually, until my pal Nicola explained what the scrawl was I didn’t realize I owed the post office anything or that the number scratched was a tax. Yup, on an envelope with contents valued at $50 it was simply scrawled €15.29. The recipient would know through osmosis that it was a tax.  Note, I said the amount was scrawled across the envelope.  There was not an official stamp, not a receipt, not – well not a thing to indicate why I had to pay someone anything. 


A few weeks went by and I didn’t go to the post office.  I never got a formal notice of owing the duty tax.  I kind of just forgot about it.  Guess who didn’t forget about it?  Il postino, the postman.  Finally, one day I was home when he came. What I didn’t know was that when he got back to the post office from his route he had to pay the €15.29 in duty.  He delivered the envelope and he was responsible.  

Errrrrggggg, I felt like a real creep for not following up and paying.  When I paid him and asked if there was a receipt of any kind from the customs people he looked at me like I was crazy.

Welcome to Italia.  

Ci vediamo

Donation Avenues and Earthquake Thoughts 

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo

Donation Avenues –

No time today for courtesy. I’m going right to the “ask” – reach into your wallet and give what your heart tells you is right, in what ever method you choose to help the victims of the Central Italy, August 24th earthquake that destroyed complete villages, killed 290 people and left thousands living in tent communities.

1. This Sunday, September 3rd, entrance fees from public museums across Italy will be dedicated to rebuilding the earthquake stricken zone.  This is incredibly fitting since many churches and irreplaceable medieval buildings were decimated by the 6.2 magnitude earthquake.

2. Elizabeth Minchilli shared this information on her blog Elizabeth Mincilli in Rome:

Many have asked me on social media how they can help. For now the best way to help from afar is to donate to the Italian Red Cross.

The Croce Rossa Italiana has set up a special account.
The IBAN number is:

IT40F0623003204000030631681

BIC/SWIFT CRPPIT2P086

Beneficiary: Associazione italiana della Croce Rossa

In the description write: Terremoto Centro Italia

You can also make a donation to the Croce Rosso with your credit card or paypal by going to their website.

3. The National Italian American Foundation and their partners in the Italo-Americano community have set up another fundraising vehicle.  You can donate and research them by clicking here.

4. Do your own research to unearth other methods of giving.  Give.  Then share those avenues with us.

THANK YOU!!!!

Earthquake Thoughts –

At about 3:30 AM last Wednesday, an earthquake devastated towns in Lazio, Umbria and Marche.  Now, 290 people are dead. One moment before they were sleeping and a second later they were dead.  After the earthquake, just like after 9/11 – when the twin towers fell – many people used the internet to reach out to their loved ones.  Not feeling a rumble or hearing a sound during the night, I didn’t understand why Thursday morning I had close to 100 FaceBook messages, texts or e-mails.  That is how I learned about the tragedy, from all of you in a different time zones who reached into my heart asking if Jack and I were OK.  I promptly turned on the television and followed the horror.  I cried.  I cried for the terror those people in the earthquake zone were going through and I cried because so many people cared enough about us to reach out.  The similarity to my experience during 9/11 resonated within my soul.  Different tragedy.  Different country.  Same internet connection.

Life is short. Live it without regrets.

Ci vediamo.

Arts Live in Pontelandolfo!

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Stops Along the Journey - Sites Off the Tourist Track

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Streets are being swept, sets are being built, venders are already setting up their stalls.  The jewelry stores in town have stocked Pontelandolfo-esq memorabilia and the back rooms of bars are filled with cases and cases.  As the energy of the arts infuses us all with good cheer, the whole town feels more alive. It is the arts that make this an incredible week for me.

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Kicking off the week is a production of  Dramma Sacro Di Santo Giocondina.  This community production, spearheaded by the multi talented Gabriele Palladino, will be live streamed!  The Pontelandolfo News has a great story – it is in Italian but even I can read it – and a link the live stream.  The play is only on for two nights – tickets are a scant €2 each.  I was impressed with the abilities of the local actors.  Their commitment and pride is contagious.  The saga of Santo Giocondino is performed every four years.  Now that I have seen the process, I can understand why!  This group has been working for over eight months. Yes, in the hills of Southern Italy – THEATRE LIVES!

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Comicron Film Festival is something that I am absolutely looking forward to. This year it is on August 4th and 5th. Initiated by the famous Italian Film/Theatre Director and Producer, Ugo Gregoretti, the festival is dedicated exclusively to comedy shorts. They are in all languages and range from the intellectual to the broad strokes of Commedia dell’ Arte.  My only hope this year is that the audience here learns to be quiet and watch the films – last year I found out more than I wanted to know about a middle aged woman’s love life.  Audience courtesy please.  Jack says he won’t sit with me if I keep turning around  ssssssssssshhhing.

Gregoretti spent his childhood summers in Pontelandolfo and wants to put an arts based spotlight on the village.  According to Gregoretti – (from the Comicron Website.)

“Io sono un crociato della comicità e quindi vorrei svolgere la mia crociata qui a Pontelandolfo facendo di questo paese la Gerusalemme del cortometraggio comico.” Tra le nuove idee e le diverse iniziative culturali programmate, è stato costituito il Centro Studi dedicato all’opera dell’autore romano Ugo Gregoretti, che raccoglierà e valorizzerà il suo immenso archivio, conservato presso l’ottocentesco palazzo Rinaldi, che si compone di scritti inediti del regista, lettere di esimie personalità (da Rossellini a Rodari, passando per Napolitano e Guttuso), articoli e manifesti, libri e riviste, premi e riconoscimenti. Si tratta di una grande raccolta, che ripercorre, attraverso la figura del grande Maestro, la storia del Novecento italiano. Una raccolta che Gregoretti ha donato al Comune di Pontelandolfo. Il progetto prevede anche la creazione della prima Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Comica e sarà, altresì, realizzato un progetto di più ampio respiro teso a rendere Pontelandolfo la “Capitale della risata”. Il “Centro Studi Ugo Gregoretti” è aperto a studiosi e appassionati che vogliono esplorare e indagare l’opera gregorettiana.

“I am a crusader for comedy and  I would like to end my crusade here in Pontelandolfo making this town the Jerusalem of the comic short film.” Among the new ideas and different cultural activities planned, the Ugo Gregoretti Center has been created.  It is dedicated to the work of Ugo Gregoretti and will contain such things as the unpublished writings of the director, correspondence from esteemed personalities(from Rossellini to Rodari,  Napolitano and Guttuso), articles and posters, books and magazines, prizes and awards. This collection traces the professional life of the great master and the history of the 20th Century Italian films. Gregoretti donated the collection to the City of Pontelandolfo. It is housed in the recently restored Rinaldi Palace.  The project also includes the creation of the first National Academy of Comic Art and aims to make Pontelandolfo the “capital of laughter”. The “Ugo Gregoretti Studies Center” is open to scholars and enthusiasts who want to explore and investigate the work gregorettiana.

Pro Loco of Pontelandolfo, the local authority coordinates the annual Festa.  I couldn’t find a web-site, but their Facebook page is full of information.  The other events of the week include on August 3’rd traditional music and dance of Southern Italy and on August 7’th Francesco De Gregori in Concert. The mysogynistic Miss Mondo is an event I will happily miss. The host is – well  – a creep.

We will have a houseful of guests next week.  Two from Holland and one from Massachusetts.  Why are the visiting my home town?  Not to see Midge and Jack but to enjoy the rich culture that can be found in Southern Italy.  The FESTA is just another reason to visit Pontelandolfo.

Ci Vediamo!

Festa Della Trebbiatura 2016

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Stops Along the Journey - Sites Off the Tourist Track

This past Sunday, I had a perfect day.  Jack and I went to an event that I not only loved – but drew me back to my childhood.  Growing up in Somerset County, New Jersey when it was still pretty rural agrarian, I experienced lots of farm life.  4-H introduced me to kids who grew or raised just about anything America ate.  Sunday, I thought of my childhood, how much growing up in a farming community shaped me and the work my grandmother did on her subsistence farm.  Festa Della Trebbiatura in the Contrada Montagna in Morcone harkened back to farm days of old and celebrated the contadini – farmers – of the Matese Mountains.  The type of people my ancestors were.

Did I mention mountains?  Those of you that know me, know I clutch the death grip in our Fiat whenever the wicked Jack drives like an Italian around the S curves sans safety rails on mountain roads.  This trip around those curves was worth it.  The views were incredible.

I need to take a moment to praise my Jack a wee bit.  From the town center of Morcone – which is literally clinging to a mountain – we made a left at the Auto School and drove up.  We didn’t know which way to go when the road split.  We opted for the one that looked steeper on the left.  It was really su, su, up, up.  Shit, I screamed as Jack hit the breaks.  The cobblestone street narrow to begin with had cars parked on both sides and didn’t go anywhere.  Jack backed our large car down the hill and didn’t take the mirror off one single parked car. Hugs to him.

Back to the Festa.  We found out about it from Antonella Lombardi, owner of Bar Mix Fantasy, and a member of the Lombardi family that produced the event.  Thank you Antonella for making sure that I knew about what turned out to be a wonderful day.  When we got to the farm and I saw the rows of seats under the trees and the Priest ready to start mass, I smiled and sat down.  Hearing this great speaker do the mass surrounded by mountains, fields of grain, a clear blue sky and floating cotton clouds started the day beautifully.  After mass children went for “hay” rides on the farm wagon festooned with shafts of wheat.  We walked through the exhibition set up by the Museo del Contadino and I kept pointing at stuff that had been in my grandfather’s barn.  Since we sold the family property and all the relics two years ago, it got a little painful to see  the artifacts.

During the day, people could wander through the World Wildlife Federation Preserve in the mountain, watch demonstrations and eat country fare. One of the featured foods was pecora interrata.  Interrata means underground.  Of course that is what I had!  In the evening there was music and dancing.  Since the zanzare, mosquitoes, and I have a love/hate relationship, they love to eat me and I hate them.  We left before it got dark.

The word trebbiatura  means threshing the grain.  There were glorious fields of wheat in this part of the mountain.  We were celebrating the harvest and the people that make sure we have bread and pasta on the table – the farmers.  The first threshing methods involved beating grain by hand with a flail, or trampling it by animal hooves.  The demonstrations included women doing this.  Women were doing lots of the heavy work – this is still not unusual in our little village of subsistence farms.  What was even more fun to watch was the early threshing machine!

(Uggggg – Jack just told me I have a typo in a caption in the video.  Sorry.)

Ci vediamo!

Midge