Ciao from Italy

[Luciano]

Ciao,
I'm Luciano, I'm Italian, atheis, buddhist, pinko commie (not really, I'm a socialist :wink: ) and I like to know better people from different cultures and countries and discuss our differences and similarities.
In RealLife™ I'm a graphic designer and I live in Milano with my lovely Texan wife and two kitten.
I'm mainly a lurker, as writing in English requires a little bit more time and concentration than Italian :P

I know many of you from other forums: IIDB, Rapture Ready, Christian Forum, JREF Forum.
Reading these boards helped me to have a better understanding of the American culture (and that helped me when I knew my wife).

My wife (Zoe), considers herself a follower of Christ (she had too many bad experieces with Christians to like to be called one), we knew each other in 2003 (on a forum) and we married 21 October 2005.
She's trying to start a career as a writer (she has MS and she can't work outside home) and, even if I know I'm not completely objective, I think she's really good.
On her site (http://www.zoewhitten.com)you can see some of our pics (and of her stories).

What else? I'm a good cook and when I will be out of the diet Zoe imposed me, I will be again a good eater and drinker :D

Ciao
Luciano

[ravenscape]

Welcome Luciano!

What's your favorite cheese?

(hah! Toesie's gonna be vexed with me for asking that question first!)

[Luciano]

Welcome Luciano!

What's your favorite cheese?

(hah! Toesie's gonna be vexed with me for asking that question first!)

:P Well, here we have lots of choices, but I can say Gorgonzola, dolce (literallt sweet, but it's better translated as mild) or strong, with Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano and any kind of Pecorino (sheep cheese).
I like eating gorgonzola with pickled chili pepper, or the other kind of cheeses with black olives.

Hope you like it :D

Luciano

[Captain Yesterday]

Heya Luciano! Italy is one of many countries that I have an interest in so it'll be real nice getting a viewpoint of things there from you (particularly as regards us here in the US).

Any chance you are a football fan? If so, what are your thoughts on the sanctions from the scandal? It's nice to see Juventus at the top of Serie B, but I would have thought they would be running away with it rather than just a 6 point lead on Napoli. And AC Milan is making a poor showing in my opinion. A team with Ronaldo should be doing much better.

Oh, and grats to the Azzuri on their World Cup Championship. A very boring team to watch, but effective. One less headbutt and I would have been congratulating Les Bleus I think ;)

[BigToe]

I've been to Italy but didn't make it to Milano. I would love to go back one of these days.

Since Raven asked the cheese question, I have to think of another.

What is the best flavor gelato?

[stumpjumper]

Welcome Luciano!

[gomichan]

Hey, it's Luciano! I remember you from IIDB (I'm Chartreuse over there). It's nice to see you here!

[Luciano]

Thanks to everyone.

To BigToe: I love many different kind of gelato, it depends, obviously on the gelateria, but usually most of them are quite good if not outstanding.
We have at least 3 very good ones near us, and for near I mean we need a walk of less than 15 minutes.
But, usually, I like yogurt, bacio (kiss: chocolate with hazelnuts), frutti di bosco (berries), watermelon, rice, green apple, cassata (a kind of Sicilian cake), biscotto (cookies) or gianduia (a kind of chocolate, very good).

My wife loves Italian ice cream and she says it's lot less sweet than the USA one, she also told me she can't choose wich taste is better :P

To Captain Yesterday: I'm not a true football fan, I'm more or less a Milan fan (and yes, this year Milan sucks!).
If you want to watch great Italian footbal, watch Italy-Argentina, Italy-Brasil or Italy-Germany from the 1984 World Championship in Spain or the GREAT match Italy-Germany from the 1970 one in Mexico.
Being an old fart (I'm 48 years old) I can swear this young kid aren't half ot their forefathers :D
But yes, this team wasn't the best one, but, as always with us, we give our best when we don't have chances, in 1984 I was surprised (and with me all the other Italians) than we passed the first part of the championship.
As for this last world championship, I think we have to thank Zidane ( a great champion, but sometimes he simply lose himself) mainly because he gave us that little anger more that we were needing to overcome our penalty curse.

My personal football heroes are Rivera, Benetti, Gentile, Cudicini, Zoff, Lodetti, Prati, Schnellinger (a German, but he was for most of his career a player of Milan), Baggio, Rossi, and the great Baresi (called gladiator after he played half of a match with a dislocated shoulder).


Ciao
Luciano

PS:wich parts of Italy did you visit?

[Luciano]

Hey, it's Luciano! I remember you from IIDB (I'm Chartreuse over there). It's nice to see you here!
Thanks Chartreuse (or gomichan) :D
and to sturmjumper too.

I hope to be able to convince Zoe (my wife) to post here, even if she doesn't like to post in forums where people talk about religion.
Too many times she read over my shoulders very mean posts on CF, RR or other "Christian" forums and now she tries to avoid this kind of debate.

Ciao
Luciano

[protinus]

Hi Luciano- WELCOME!!

Great pictures of Zoe and you!

[Luciano]

Hi Luciano- WELCOME!!

Great pictures of Zoe and you!
Thanks, she's great looking, isn't she? :D
And she's not only beautiful, she's also 16 years (and half) younger than me! :shock:
Finding her completely changed my life, I was single, searching for a girlfriend, yes, but nothing complicated, someone nice looking, near my age, living in my own city. My plan was to have the kind of relationship where you meet once or twice a week, both continue living in their own homes, etc.
So, obviously, I knew this Texan transexual Christ-follower girl, living with a Texan redneck dad in a small Texan town. We met in real life only after a year and everything clicked perfectly (that means we fight only twice a week :lol: ).
Family and friends accepted her without problems (my mom told me "If you will make her suffer, I will kill you"), with her great surprise as my mom and aunt (almost a second mom for me) are very catholic.
But as many Italian catholic, they are also fiercely indipendent and anticlerical (last time I was with auntie when pope Ratzinger appeared in the TV news, her first words were "Fuck you, Nazynger").
BTW, also her dad in the end accepted her, going from: "I will accept you in my home, my son, but you are wrong" to giving me not only his permission to marry his daughter, but also his blessing :D

Luciano

PS: My two kitten too accepted her, the female one loves her so much we knicknamed her "The lesbian kitten".

[UberLutheran]

Wanna trade recipes?

real Italian!]

And by the way -- one of your country's composers was one of my favorite 20th century composers (Luciano Berio). MAN could that guy write!

[protinus]

But as many Italian catholic, they are also fiercely indipendent and anticlerical (last time I was with auntie when pope Ratzinger appeared in the TV news, her first words were "Fuck you, Nazynger").

I have many problems with my pope. I have many problems with the heirarchy and I pray for forgiveness every day for it. I love my Church...that is why I want to change it so.
JP

[BigToe]

Where did I visit? Pompeii, Naples, Capri, Sienna, Florence, Rome, Assisi, Amalfi and some small towns in Tuscany that I can't begin to try to spell.

We landed in Rome, drove straight to Vesuvius and climbed up to watch some steam coming out. I remembered being sort of scared at the idea of hiking up a volcano but it was just the start to a great vacation.

[Luciano]

Wanna trade recipes?

real Italian!]

And by the way -- one of your country's composers was one of my favorite 20th century composers (Luciano Berio). MAN could that guy write!
Yep. I have some of them translated in English, I will find them and I will post them in a new thread. I'm not very good with meat, but I can prepare many different kind of pasta or risotto (I think my wife for the first 4 months never eat twice the same recipe) .
For now I have for you the same bad news I had for my wife (then my girlfriend) when she came in Italy for the first time: fettuccine Alfredo doesn't exist in Italy :shock:

Where did I visit? Pompeii, Naples, Capri, Sienna, Florence, Rome, Assisi, Amalfi and some small towns in Tuscany that I can't begin to try to spell.

We landed in Rome, drove straight to Vesuvius and climbed up to watch some steam coming out. I remembered being sort of scared at the idea of hiking up a volcano but it was just the start to a great vacation.
I'm happy you had a good time in Italy, I think you visited some of the better looking parts of it :)

Vesuvius is a sleepy volcano (its last eruption was in 1944) but better being careful. Stromboli and Etna aren't sleepy at all and almost every year some tourists risk (or lose) their lives taking silly risks.

I have many problems with my pope. I have many problems with the heirarchy and I pray for forgiveness every day for it. I love my Church...that is why I want to change it so.
JP
I can understand you very well. What bothers my aunt and mom (and many other catholics) is this lack of "Christian love", it's almost as many of the RCC bosses aren't priests anymore, they became judges, managers and politicians.
But, still, some of the best people I ever knew were priests or nuns and they, usually, weren't in good terms with their superiors.
I didn't stop being a catholic for the behaviour of the RCC (this made me an anticlerical from the age of 10, after a 2 week vacation in a mountain resort managed by nuns), but simply because I stopped believing in God(s).
It's bizzarre as I read the Bible while my faith was diminishing (and I didn't like the feeling) and I realized that I couldn't worship the kind of God described in the OT. In a couple of years (30 years ago!) I was an agnostic and then an atheist (not a strong one).
In my own experience the belief in God requires feeling his presence and when I stopped feeling it I soon stopped believing in him.
Sometimes I miss being a theist, I would like being able to convince myself of the existence of a loving and caring God, I would love sharing with Zoe her faith, praying with her before a meal. But I can't.

Ciao
Luciano

[BigToe]

Tell us about how delicious your fruit is! I've never had fruit that was better than when we were in Italy.

As for gelato, my favorite is Stracciatella. I think the month I was there I loved off fruit and gelato hehe.

[Luciano]

Tell us about how delicious your fruit is! I've never had fruit that was better than when we were in Italy.

As for gelato, my favorite is Stracciatella. I think the month I was there I loved off fruit and gelato hehe.
Almost ten years ago I worked in a gelateria for a few months, making gelati. As the owner was trying to have the best gelato in town I was using only the best ingredients.
For Stracciatella, fresh milk, cream, and liquid chocolate poured on the ice cream. you would have loved it :)

Luciano