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Liberation of Rome – June 4, 1944
Spaghetti Carbonara
Citizens of Rome, this is not the time for demonstrations. Obey these directions and go on with your regular work. Rome is yours! Your job is to save the city, ours is to destroy the enemy.
So read the Allied leaflets that fell from the sky early on the morning of June 4, 1944. D-Day was just hours away. Italy and much of Europe lay in ruins, her great capitals and cities reduced to rubble. Monuments and buildings that still stood were pockmarked by bullets, testament to a continent ravaged by war. In less than a year the Third Reich would fall, consigned forever to history’s dung heap.
The Allied communique sent later in the day to Washington and London was considerably shorter – The Allies are in Rome. The Italian campaign had begun ten months earlier with the landing at Salerno. After brutal fighting, the American Fifth Army under General Mark Clark advanced to Rome, and entered unopposed. Read the remainder of this entry »
Punch Abruzzo
Punch Abruzzo – The secret ingredient in my Caffe, Cioccolata and Tiramisu
una bevanda che fa cambà cent’anni e cente mise – a drink that will let you live a hundred years and a hundred months
OK. Mayors do lots of wonderful things for towns. Chief administrators, they look out for the well being of their citizens, perform good works – everything from planting trees to visiting the needy and serving Thanksgiving meals. But one Mayor, Sig. Antonio Evangelista of the small town of Borrello in the province of Chieti (in southeastern Abruzzo) performed magic. To stave off the winter cold he decocted spirits, herbs and spices to come up with Punch Abruzzo, a most magnificent liquore. The mayor made it in his home fireplace, and apparently it caused quite a stir in the town, inciting all kinds of curiosity in the townsfolk.
Over time he refined his creation, making it for friends and fellow citizens, and in 1907 he named it Punch Abruzzo. Closely guarded, the formula has been handed down from father to son, and now the third generation of Evangelista produces Punch Abruzzo according to his grandfather’s proprietary formula, having moved the firm to Sambuceto (CH).
Punch Abruzzo has won much acclaim, and now on little cat feet it has quietly made its way to us. Expect to hear much more about this masterly infusion over the coming year as the importer rolls it out across America. Today’s enterprising mixologists will no doubt make hay with this one in long drinks and cocktails. I can’t wait. Read the remainder of this entry »