Carnevale

This was the first year we didn't dress up for Carnevale. Usually we are part of a float from Montereale Valcellina. This year they were gangsters.

These pictures are from Maniago's parade last Sunday. Today was the last parade of the season in Anzano Decimo.

???

I was throwing out a bunch of junk and noticed this advertisement I had picked up a while back.

1345th annual city fair!

Cool, and not so...

We went shopping in Pordenone the other day. There's not much to buy right now. The last of the winter inventory is on sale and very little of the spring fashion is out. It always seems to take a bit for people to decide which fashion to choose for the season, although this spring and summer there are lots of silver and gold colors for women, mainly silver. For men spring seems to be cream, sky blue, and light brown. We'll see what catches on.

I did see these awesome coin purses in leather. About $100+ apiece.

And now for what is definitely not cool. Pink briefs for men.

Centrale

We went on a walk the other day and passed the Centrale Antonio Pitter. This hydroelectric plant was built at the turn of the century and provided electricity to Oderzo, Treviso, and Venice. It's now a museum.

Underneath the building in the spillway they have these cool spider sculptures.

Going home I saw this door with a beautiful patina.

Chair capital of Italy

We've been looking around in the local furniture stores for a rocking chair or preferably a glider, to no real avail. Yesterday we decided to to go on a road trip to Manzano, the chairmaking capital of Italy. Surely they would have rocking chairs and maybe even a few gliders to choose from, right?

Wrong. Numerous factories and showrooms, all of whom said there is no demand for rocking chairs. They do make about every other type of chair imaginable.

One of the neat things there was the world's largest chair. It was too foggy to take a picture, so here's one I pulled off the net.

New blog

Ian now has his own blog.

http://ianloicholm.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Macelleria

During the pregnancy, Marie really missed prosciutto, salami, and other cured meats. One of her favorites is pitina, a cured and smoked sausage patty of game meats dusted with cornmeal. A traditional food of the mountain valleys of the Pordenone region, it originated as a way to store excess meat from the annual hunt. It's only smoked over oak and juniper wood.

One of the best places around to buy petina is at Macelleria Salumeria Polesel in Maniago. The have a great selection of all types, plus lots of other great meats. Plus, they're nice people.

Check out their poultry selection (except for the rabbit in the back right).

Daniele Polesel (on the left), is a third generation butcher at the family shop.