THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING

note: Italian version under the post: IL GIORNO PRIMA DEL MATRIMONIO

OK FOLKS! We are getting close... In only a week Antonia and Marco will be heading off to Italy to start preparing in real time for the event. So far the chef of the venue has denied any access to the organization of the menu arguing that: " I don't know what I am gonna eat tomorrow, you wanna now 20 days in advance? We need to see what is fresh on the market and try it out ourself first! capish???" ... say no more.

Nonetheless, we can start making plans for what we are going to do - besides eating - starting with the day before the wedding, December 28th. Notes on the wedding day are coming in the next post, followed by what to do together on the 30th and the 31st (including New Year's Eve) for those who decide to stay with us a little longer, yes!!

All these things by the way, will be printed and left in your hotel room for you, so don't bother taking any notes. On your arrival, you'll find a map with lists of addresses, contacts and dates on a printed note on your hotel room desk, promise! Just in case you need to reach us in advance, yes, take our cell numbers along:

(from the US the prefix is: 011-39)
Antonia Italian cell: I am trying to remember!!! stay tuned!
Antonia's home: 080-574-5502
Marco's cell: 335-67-87-288
Marco's home: 080-556-9067

Don't forget to send us via email your air and train ticket information (arrival time, airport) along with your hotel information, please!
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DECEMBER 28th
We are thinking of meeting all together - 5 continents represented indeed!!! - for a drink and tapas, somewhere in the old district of Bari. Probably the best thing to do is to meet you all in the hall of the Hotel Palace, since as of today, the 99% of you is staying at this hotel. Tentative time is 6pm. For those of you not staying at the Palace, or for the many of you arriving around and past this time, please send us a note offline and we will try to coordinate.

We will probably take a little tour of the old town district (everything is in less than a mile), show you how to get to the Basilica, and probably (still to be confirmed) go to a restaurant bar called "La Uascezz"... where countless hours in the past have been devoted to the celebration of dreams, memories, food and wine (especially wine)...

La Pizzica: a folk dance from Puglia

(picture from wikipedia) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hcgGJQCkFE&feature=related

Tarantella Pizzica - Music and Dance Spun From Myth and Psychic EnergyBy Dominic Ambrose

Most people know the Tarantella as the iconic popular music form of rural Southern Italy, but it is far more than that. It is the manifestation of a tradition that is rich in mythology and social significance, some of which have never been fully explored. It is said that the tarantella originated as a cure for people affected by the bite of the tarantula. Now this historical form, the taranta pizzica (the bite dance) is the subject of Paolo Pisanelli's documentary, Il Sibilo Lungo della Taranta (the long hiss of the spider). Pisanelli goes to the heart of tarantella culture, to Puglia, and looks at the phenomenon in the area of the Salento, the extreme southernmost part of the heel of the Italian boot.
The bite of the local tarantula is not merely a physical event, but a psychic eruption, a mystery wrapped in legend, a secret of the soul. It is not so important if these spiders really did bite women in the past (and then mysteriously stopped), what is far more significant is what role these bites and their ritual cleansings had in the society of Southern Italy. The film begins by investigating the history of tarantism, using film from a 1960s documentary. It explores the cultural legacy that tarantism has left for today's inhabitants. In the old film we see women writhing and gyrating wildly in their humble homes, as village musicians played music and sang. These ritual healings would often last through an entire night and end with the affected women making a pilgrimage to the church of St. Paul "of the Spiders" in Melpignano. The words of the anthropologist Ernesto De Martino are used to explain the psychological power of these rituals to cleanse women of the effects of an oppressive social structure. This fascinating historical study is progressively intercut with images of the people of the region today, who infect the film with their healthy optimism about life in this arid and poor region of Italy. At the same time, the film is moved forward by the prospect of a popular music festival to be held in the town of Melpignano, celebrating the traditions of Pizzica (bite) music.
Eventually, the theme of the upcoming music festival takes over. We see the preparations, the auditions, the instructions given by Maestro Ambrogio Sparagno to the performers, who will become part of a new ensemble, the Orchestra Popolare La Notte della Taranta. We see the townspeople getting excited in spite of themselves about the arrival of 50, 60 or 70, 000 people for this all night musical feast in August. The mayor of the town gives an interview in which he talks about the significance of the preservation of traditional culture for this region, which has been drained by emigration for over a century. For him and for many others, the concert has become a symbol of a healing of this open wound in the rural society. That it is also an economic shot in the arm for this isolated province is not bad, either.
The auditions are wonderful to watch, the clear, brilliant voices of the singers, mostly women, who show up to sing the age old melismatic, entrancing sounds of pizzica, add a glorious new dimension to the story. The beauty of their dark Mediterranean faces, the grace of their movements and the quicksilver flow of their singing is magical. Finally, the night of the concert arrives, "La Notte della Taranta." Tens of thousands of people have materialized, mostly young people who are filled with enthusiasm, dancing on the grass at the outdoor concert, and jumping up and down in a sea of tarantism. The elderly townspeople, who had been seen earlier in the film debating dubiously about the coming festival, are shown watching on their huge living room TVs. At first they sit skeptically on the edge of their upholstery, then they begin to clap softly, then eventually rising to their feet to dance around the room with the uncontainable joy of seeing their lifelong culture finally justified by the television cameras. For a people who have lived their culture for decades laboring under obscurity and prejudice, it is liberating moment.
Il Sibilo Lungo della Taranta is a multilayered and complex documentary that brings to life a world that is significant as a repository of ancient culture and knowledge which has been almost forgotten in our mad rush toward modernity. It is a joy to watch for any lovers of Mediterranean culture, and especially for those interested in the culture of Magna Grecia, the lands of Southern Italy that were a major part of the Greek civilization before the rise of Rome. These are the lands where the synthesis of Greek and Roman culture first came about, forming the basis for our Western world. For those of us who are the children of the great Southern Italian diaspora in Europe and the Americas, it can also have another great significance, as an opportunity to see how our ancestral lands can continue to develop and be relevant to our lives. We have forgotten too much because our grandparents spoke with a voice that we could never understand. Finally we have an opportunity to hear them speak with the voices of our contemporaries and it is a glorious revelation.
The Documentary is a production of Big Sur in collaboration with local entities of the Province of Lecce. Paolo Pisanelli is a filmmaker with several well received documentaries to his credit, including films about Don Vitaliano, the activist priest, and another about Enrico Berlinguer, the late leader of the PCI.

Dominic Ambrose is a writer and script developer for an independent film company in Paris.
(text from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tarantella-pizzica-music-and-dance-of-myth-and-psychic-energy.html

Il Nostro Matrimonio Caraibico/Our Caribbean Wedding

Gli Sposi / The Newly Weds

Con il nostro ufficiale matrimoniale in maglietta hawaiana e occhiali da sole

With our Minister in hawaiian shirt and sunglasses

La nostra testimone spiaggiante / Our sunbathing witness

Brindisi nuziale al rum / Rum wedding toast

La torta nuziale / Our wedding cake

No comment

No comment

Un cuore di palma per noi

I Compromessi Sposi/Just married

Prima in Italiano:
Quando la burocrazia italiana ti rende la vita impossibile per registrare il tuo nuovo stato civile all'estero... cosa fai? Facile, ti sposi all'estero e trasferisci il tuo stato civile in Italia! E quando l'estero significa gli Stati Uniti allora hai la liberta' di sposarti ovunque, sulla cima di una montagna, in bagno e persino su una spiaggia tropicale circondata dal cielo piu' blu e dalle nuvole piu' bianche sull'isola di St Thomas nell'arcipelago delle US Vergin Islands!!

Ma come ha tenuto ha precisare il padre della sposa, il matrimonio vero si terra' a Bari (in chiesa) il giorno 29 Dicembre, quindi ci vediamo tutti li'!!!
Baci, I coniugi Zambotti

And now in English:
When the Italian bureaucracy makes it impossible to transfer your new civil status abroad, what do you do? You get married abroad and transfer your new civil status to Italy! And when abroad means the US, you have the freedom to get married anywhere, on the top of a mountain, in the bathroom or on a tropical beach surrounded by the bluest sky and the whitest puffy clouds on St Thomas Insland in th US Vergin Islands!!!

BUT, as the father of the bride stated, the real wedding will be in the church of Bari, on December 29th! See you there!!!

Mr and Mrs Zambotti

LA LISTA NOZZE

Finalmente ciò che tutti stavate aspettando:
LA LISTA COZZE!!!

Opzione numero uno:
Abbiamo selezionato alcune cose che ci piacciono molto, oggetti che vorremmo avere con noi negli anni a venire e che ci ricordino il giorno del nostro matrimonio, tutti gli amici e i familiari che condividono con noi la nostra grandissima gioia. Collegatevi ai seguenti siti web e scegliete qualsiasi cosa vi piaccia:
http://thegoodchina.com/. Qui troverete la nostra scelta di piatti, posate e bicchieri, oggetti preziosi che ci godremo assieme ad ognuno di voi, appena verrete a trovarci per cena. Dalla barra del menu principale, cliccate su ‘Registry’, inserite il nome di uno degli sposi e fate la vostra scelta.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/. Qui troverete la nostra selezione di oggetti da cucina indispensabili, cose semplici che ci accompagneranno nella vita di ogni giorno. Dalla barra del menu principale, cliccate su ‘Registry’, poi ‘Find Registry’, inserite il nome di uno degli sposi e fate la vostra scelta. PURTROPPO ci e' stato appena segnalato dall'amico Enzo che questa lista funziona solo con carte di credito americane... :(

Opzione numero due:
Una delle nostre passioni nella vita è la musica e pensiamo che una casa non possa essere realmente definita tale se non c’è un pianoforte che suona la nostra musica preferita. Di conseguenza ci piacerebbe comprare un pianoforte per la nostra nuova casa di Washington. Se desiderate aiutarci a realizzare questo sogno, contribuite con qualunque somma desiderate. Vi terremo informati sul pianoforte che decideremo di acquistare e vi aspettiamo presto per fare un po’ di musica insieme.

Grazie di cuore!
Antonia e Marco

THE REGISTRY

Finally what you all have been waiting for:
THE WEDDING REGISTRY!!!

Option One:
We have selected a few things we really like, items that we would like to have with us for the years to come as a memory of our wedding day, of all the friends and family who share our greatest joy.
Please, log on one of the following websites and choose whatever you like, if you wish to do so:
http://thegoodchina.com. Here you’ll find our selection of dinnerware, flatware and stemware, precious items that we’ll enjoy together when we’ll be treating each of you to a nice dinner. Select ‘Registry’ from the main menu bar, type in the name of either of the spouses and make your purchase.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com. Here you’ll find our selection of indispensable kitchenware, simple things that will be with us every day. Select ‘Registry’ from the main menu bar, then ‘Find Registry,’ type in the name of either of the spouses and make your purchase.

Option Two:
One of our passions in life is music and we feel that no place can be really called home unless there’s a piano there playing our favorite music. Accordingly, we’ve been dreaming about having a piano in our new home in Washington, DC. If you wish to help us fulfill this dream of ours, please just contribute whatever amount you wish. We’ll let you know about our final purchase and will be happy to make music together some time soon.

Grazie di cuore!
Antonia & Marco

Bari on you tube

Look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOlORDcrbvo

Cuisine and gastronomy of Bari

A dish of orecchiette.

Bari's cuisine, one of Italy's most traditional and noteworthy, is based on three typical agricultural products found within the surrounding Puglia region, namely wheat, olive oil and wine. Bari cuisine is also enriched by the wide variety of fruit and vegetables produced locally. Local flour is used in homemade bread and pasta production including, most notably, the famous orecchiette hat-shaped pasta, recchietelle or strascinate, chiancarelle (orecchiette of different sizes) and cavatelli.

Homemade dough is also used for baked calzoni stuffed with onions, anchovies, capers and olives; fried panzerotti with mozzarella, simple focaccia alla barese with tomatoes, little savoury taralli, friselle and sgagliozze, fried slices of polenta all make up the Bari culinary reportoire.

Olive oil and garlic are widely in use. Vegetable minestrone, chick peas, broad beans, chickory, celery and fennel are also often served as first courses or side dishes.

Meat dishes and the local Barese ragù often include lamb, pork and often horse meat, considered something of a local delicacy.

Pasta al forno, a baked pasta dish, is very popular in Bari and was historically a Sunday dish, or a dish used at the start of Lent when all the rich ingredients such as eggs and pork had to be used for religious reasons. The recipe commonly consists of penne or similar tubular pasta shapes, a tomato sauce, small beef and pork meatballs and halved hard boiled eggs; but different families have variations. The pasta is then topped with mozzarella or similar cheese and then baked in the oven to make the dish have its trademark crispy texture.

Bari, being the capital of an important fishing area, offers a range of fresh fish and seafood, often eaten raw. Octopus, sea urchins and mussels feature heavily. Indeed, perhaps Bari's most famous dish is the oven-baked Riso, patate e cozze (rice, with potatoes and mussels).