Prosciutto

Selection

We like the selection of prosciutto at our favorite deli counter. The top two shelves are filled with different kinds of prosciutto. A few days ago the market was quiet and we watch as a new prosciutto was prepared for slicing and selling.

Trimming

As we learned at the top level were the prosciutto Toscano which are cured in a salty bath with juniper, garlic, and other spices for three to four weeks. The ham takes on a dark color from the black pepper with which they are casted. Curing the prosciutto in a dry, cool atmosphere takes up to 12 months. Typically the meat is cut into thicker slices than we might be accustomed to. It’s perfect served on Tuscan bread which is unsalted; the salty, savory taste of the ham compliments the crusty, saltless bread.

More trimming

Prosciutto di Parma is produced in the Emilia-Romagna area north of Tuscany and takes more aging and the curing is done with similar herbs and spices but less salt. The dry, cool curing takes longer, up to 18 months. Real DOP prosciutto di Parma is not cured with nitrites, only with sea salt. Because the curing takes longer, prosciutto di Parma is more expensive. It can also be cut into paper thin slices.

Slicing

San Daniele prosciutto is produced in the hills and mountains north of Venice. This prosciutto has a different shape since the trotter (oops, the pig’s foot) is not removed. The process is similar to prosciutto di Parma but the additional length of bone in this prosciutto makes the cost of the thin slices a little more expensive than prosciutto di Parma. To see a photo of a whole prosciutto di San Daniele, got to Prosciutto di San Daniele with trotter attached. There are lengthy explanations why it so much better to leave the trotter attached but the explanations are beyond my understanding.

A similar prosciutto

Happiness

A note on terms. Prosciutto in Italy is described as dolce or dolcissimo. While this sounds as if it means “sweet” or “sweetest”, it actually refers to the amount of salt that comes along with the prosciutto. Prosciutto Toscano is not dolce since it is rather salty. Good prosciutto di Parma or San Daniele is dolce if the amount of salt that you taste is restrained. If you taste very little salt, then the prosciutto is dolcissimo. 

We brought home slices of prosciutto dolcissimo

Humor

We enjoy our time in Italy. The country is beautiful, the cities and the countryside are full of history, and the art is impressive. But the people are the most interesting part of this country.

We enjoy the humor of the Italian people. A few days ago on the last day before Ash Wednesday we had lunch at Trattoria Sabatino, a well known spot on the edge of the center of Florence. Normally the food is straightforward and delicious, the service is brisk and efficient, and the prices reasonable. On Grasso Martedi (Fat Tuesday) the servers were dressed in elaborate pirate outfits. Service was still brisk and efficient but there were more smiles than usual from our servers dressed as pirates. (Sadly, because of the threat of rain, we hadn’t brought our cameras.)

There is a restaurant in a major piazza near our apartment that is serving meals inside but their outside tables are still wrapped up because of the early March chill. The outside tables are in the shade of one of Florence’s great cathedrals; lunches and dinners outside would be very uncomfortable.

The outside tables are in a small area defined on three sides by low, clear glass panels. Now the area is not being used but the glass partitions have food-related tag lines have been painted that stop your eye. The partitions say, “I’m sorry for what I said when I was hungry”, “Life is a combination of magic and pasta”, and “Everything you see I own to spaghetti.” The most photo worthy, however, is shown below.

Advertising for English-speakers, of course, but done in good humor. One assumes these markings go away when the outside eating area reopens in warmer weather.

A favorite restaurant of ours is very, very traditional and for some things in this restaurant the management must say, “Vietato chiedere ...” which means “It is forbidden to ask for ...” This is how they maintain their high standards with mock seriousness.

The policy has been in effect since March 1, 1953.
No, you may not put ketchup on your steak.

Street artists also show humor though they don’t sign their real names. On such artist glues his works to metal electrical panels that are on the outsides of buildings. Each panel is about the size of a smallish portrait. On these panels the artists named Blub glues a likeness of someone with a scuba mask and bubbles rising around the subject. Sometimes it is an homage to familiar work of art. Sometimes, if there is a reference, it’s obscure. Here are two such works.

Lady with an ermine painted by Leonardo da Vinci
Lady with an Ermine - Wikipedia

Any idea who this might be?

Another artist with an interest in wildlife, created this scene from nature.

Well, not actually from nature

The most amusing thing that we’ve seen, however, speaks for itself. Parked in highly visible spot near our apartment we saw this red Fiat:

The Great Cathedral Mystery

The most imposing building in Florence is the city’s main cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore (Saint Mary of the Flower where the “flower” was Christ.) In a city of three, four, and five story buildings, the cathedral at 375 feet of height casts its shadow over the other buildings. The church dominates every painting and every photo of the Florence cityscape.

Work on the cathedral began in the late 1200s as Florence was gaining economic importance, first with the production and export of fabrics of wool and satin and later as a banking and financial service center for European merchants and princes. To make tangible the success of their city, the Florentines determined to erect a cathedral whose dome would be “vast enough to cover the entire Tuscan population with its shadow." (Source)

The walls of the church left an enormous area above the main altar to be covered by a dome. The designers of the Florence cathedral left the problem of constructing such a dome to future generations to solve. No city and no civilization had ever built a dome so large. The person who solved the problem and oversaw the building of the enormous dome over the course of 16 years was a goldsmith named Filippo Brunelleschi. He was a secretive genius who burned all his papers and left behind only the structure of the dome itself to suggest how he solved the problem of constructing the great dome.

We’re interested in the story because we visit Florence often. A few years ago NOVA, the PBS science show, did a show on Brunelleschi’s dome. The show is available on Youtube and we recommend that you view it at:  Great Cathedral Mystery • NatGeo TVG Special - YouTube. It’s a fascinating story.

Professor of Architecture Massimo Ricci of Florence has spent many years examining how Brunelleschi built the dome of the Florence cathedral. Ricci tested his theories for how the dome might have been erected in a park a few miles to the east of the center of Florence. Brunelleschi’s plan was to lay brick upon brick 300 feet in the air with nothing to support the accumulating weight of thousands and thousands of bricks! Ricci learned that Brunelleschi devised many innovations, things that had never been done before.

Yesterday we visited the park where Ricci constructed a miniature dome to test his thinking. It sits in a park with a small pond, a skate board installation, playground equipment for young children, and Ricci’s dome. We’ll share some of the photos we took on a sunny afternoon along the banks of the Arno River.

Professor Ricci's theories tested

The herringbone pattern of vertically laid bricks
continues though the arches

The park is called Parco dell’Anconella. Curiously there are no signs in the park explaining the nature of the brick structure is nor why it is there. When we asked for directions, a neighborhood person called it “il cupola minatura”, the miniature cupola, so some people must have a sense for what it is.

What is inside the partly finished model of the dome of the Florence cathedral? 

We looked through the metal grates and saw a soccer ball sitting alone inside the miniature dome. In a future year, when we visit again Ricci’s miniature dome again, it will probably still be there.

What's inside the "cupola miniatura?"

Again, the NOVA program is available on Youtube at this link:  Great Cathedral Mystery • NatGeo TVG Special - YouTube.