The Life of H. Ernest Chen

Monday, November 16, 2009

Olive Oil

Each grower brings their olives to a press to be turned into olive oil. Here they are stacked up and ready to go. The return is 14% of the total mass will be returned as olive oil.

First the olives are dumped into a huge blower, to remove twigs and leaves.

Olives are then put underneath the granite rollers to be turned into a paste.

The paste is spit out and spread in a thin layer onto one of the "rope disks."

The disks are then stacked up between metal disks ready to be pressed.

The liquid seeps out from the paste as the machine compresses the disks.

The liquid is then sent to a centrifuge which separates the olive oil from the other liquid, water.

The final product! The smell in the press is so sharp, it's almost a spicy sensation on your nose.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Tuscania

It's Saturday and time for another local Viterbo adventure. I find out most of my information from my colleagues in my office. I say where should I go and I get suggestions and then off I am. This time, the town of Tuscania, a 20 minute bus ride away. As usual, it's beautiful views from scenic lookouts and religious sites. But, well, I love it anyway.

This is the view from the edge of town. It takes my breath away every time I come upon a sight like this. How can anyone ever get bored of moments like thins?

The great thing in Tuscania is that you can walk on top of about a quarter of the city wall. It's also perfectly manicured.

The church from the first picture is San Pietro. Here it is from the front.

Where there's a walled city, there are towers.

Maybe the front of this years Christmas card?

Inside Chiesa San Pietro

Chiesa San Pietro has a crypt. Notice that all the columns are different. It's as if the builders went to the scrap heap and picked out any columns they could find and stuck them here.

Another candidate for the cover of the Christmas card!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Parent Conferences -- Italian Style

Last night, the host parent's of 12 of my 13 advisees came into school for a parent conference. I was asked to speak about each of the students for a minute or two and then my colleague translated into Italian for me. Most of the time my assessment of the student matched the host parent experience at home. All except for one. After I went around, the host parents just starting going on and on in Italian and I understood nothing. They just wanted to vent. The most common issue is lack of tidiness. For all you students out there reading, CLEAN YOUR ROOMS. Pick things up off the floor. Your Italian mothers are beside themselves at not being able to walk into your room and clean it up for you, or even to change your sheets!

Here are the names of the families: Ciucciarelli, Agostini, Guitarrini, Delre, Berti, Ciprini, Oliveri, Colonna, Corinti, Anselmi, Giannini, Raponi and Salino. Might I be working in Italy?

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Viterbo City Hall

Rain quashed plans to go olive picking with Gigi this day. So, I got the motivation to spend a couple hours finishing off the recommendations for students back at HRS and then head out during a break in the rain to walk around town.

I saw people heading towards church so I went in and observed services. I lasted 15 minutes.

I wandered around (went into a wedding expo, lasted 5 minutes) and then as I'm headed home wander into an open door, up some stairs and land in what is the municipal building of Viterbo and it's open. Here is a 16th century original painting of the province of Viterbo and the surrounding towns.

The city council room

The ceiling is filled with paintings of each of the cities in the province of Viterbo. Notice S.P.Q.V, just like S.P.Q.R in Rome.

Vetralla painting

The marble of the floors is from Venice (as told to me by the docent). Notice the fossilized seashell in the marble.

Why this man is painted as coming out of the door on the wall? Who knows.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Castello Odescalchi in Bracciano

Why is this beautiful castle in the town of Bracciano (a 40 minute train ride from Viterbo) famous to Americans? It's where Tom and Katie got married. Yes, THAT Tom and Katie. Suri's Mom and Dad. The 15th century castle is built high of a ridge that overlooks Lago Bracciano, the largest lake in central Italy.

Lago Bracciano, placid.

The light kept changing in the afternoon.

Evan P. of Massachusetts and Ben U. of Oklahoma doing the Italian thing. Going to the market, buying mozzarella, tomatoes, bread and jam and turning into a picnic.

Bracciano's claim to fame, the Castello Odescalchi

Here is the entrance to the Castello, the red ivy was stunning.

As we entered, we saw that there was a wedding to be held that night. The fact that ANYONE who has the cash can hold their wedding at this castello makes the TomKat wedding lose a little luster. It's not like they were THAT special to get a castello to hold just THEIR wedding.

This bed was where King Umberto I came to stay during the "malaria" epidemic in the 1500's. The rooms all along the first floor were set up with wedding banquet tables. All the student and I agreed that the lucite plastic chairs (sorry didn't get the picture) were tacky.

Isabella's Room. One of the royal women who lived here would bring her one night stands to this room and then send them out down a well, supposedly to their deaths. Nice!

So, the tour led upstairs (tour entirely in Italian by the way) to the weapons room and the science room, but what do we come across, the dresses of a famous Italian designer of the 1980's. Umm, what? Not what we came for.

I came to see cannons and gallows and cool stuff, not this. The students and I started just to make fun of it. I mean, LOOK at those things. Hilarious.

Good sports Nicole S. of Pennsylvania, Morgan B. of Connecticut and Jessica F. of California here on the top of the castle.

Sunset over Lago Bracciano

Monday, November 02, 2009

Cinque Terre

3-Day Weekend means getting on a train and going somewhere. This past weekend, I chose to visit the 5 towns on the Ligurian Sea called the Cinque Terre, translated as the "5 Lands". As you'll see from pictures, these towns were until the late 1800's only connected to the world by ship. Today, there is train service to all towns (takes only a few minutes between each one), but more impressively, the Italian government has turned the area into a National Park in which there are many hiking trails. One can hike the entire length of the park along the sea.

I started my hike by staying the night in Riomaggiore and hiking to Vernazza.

Sunrise over Riomaggiore

You see how Riomaggiore (and all the other Cinque Terre towns are built in the ravine valleys, which have been paved over.

The harbor at Riomaggiore

I didn't make reservations, I simply got into town, found one of the outfits advertising rooms. Riomaggiore has a well-organized set of middlemen that rent rooms throughout the community. Here's where I stayed.

Have you ever found your towels like this?

The paved, short walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola is known as the "Via dell Amore". Legend has it that when this path was built the number of couples that married between the two villages was large and they would meet each other on this path.

The Via dell Amore was closed often due to rockslides. However, we have rock climbers to thank for putting up netting and keeping it open.

It is all the rage in Italy right now to put a lock symbolizing your love for another.

The park is also a marine sanctuary and so the water is protected. Amazing how after all these centuries, the water is still so clear.

Looking down towards the harbor in Manarola. Notice the woman in the left hand corner hanging her laundry. These are still towns that are alive, but their economy is based primarily on tourism.

Manarola really has no harbor to speak of. To get boats in and out of the water, they use this I-Beam to haul boats in an out of the water.

I found it great that the cemetery is part of the 21st century with solar panels.

She lived to 101. I wonder how often she left Manarola.

Man on left has something to say.

Man on right has a response.

The hike from Manarola to Corniglia is a short one (I hiked back in reverse on the 2nd day) so I took a shuttle to the middle of the ridge to a town called Volastra and hiked from there down to the third town, Corniglia.

The trail wound through the terraced vineyards. The smells were amazing.

Well, they've mechanized moving grapes up the mountain.

Corniglia is the only one of the Cinque Terre towns without a harbor, therefore it sits high on the bluff with no water access.

The trail from Corniglia to Vernazza has lots of ups and downs. Here are some twisting stairs. I can't imagine how annoying it must be to hike during the high tourist season. I was here and I met about 30 people along the way and was kind of annoyed at even having to share the trail with them.

The red bulbous part of this "Fici d'India" is sweet and a delicacy. I had some gelato made out of it.

The town of Vernazza coming into town from the trail.

Vernazza has the closest to a natural harbor.

Who's that? Taken from the top of the tower in Vernazza.

Again, I dropped into town and found a sign advertising rooms. I managed to negotiate everything with the woman who runs it all in Italian. I am particularly proud of this because I left town to read in the Rick Steves' guide that he rates this 4-room house as the "best deal in town!".

The river up here at the top of Vernazza still runs free. I could hear the ducks and babbling stream from my open window all night.

I asked if they brought the boats in every night. The men told me only when the weather was going to turn bad.

It takes the men working together along with a simply pulley system to get the boats into the town square.

All the boats, on shore, safe from the winds and big waves.

The guys certainly know how to read the weather (or weather report) as the next day it was cloudy, windy and raining. The hiking was still beautiful though.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Talking With Your Hands

The Italians are known for their expressive manner, especially, talking with their hands. The wood restoration boys and I have learned a number of them. I got some of the SYA Italy students to demonstrate them for you.