Ingredients
1 egg
1 tbsp wheat flour
80 g powdered sugar
3 oranges – juice and peel

Preparation
Mix flour and sugar with egg in a steel casserole and heat the mixture over low heat while stirring continuously until it starts to thicken
Grate the zest of the oranges and squeeze out the juice
Stir the orange juice in the cream gradually
Remove from heat, mix with grated orange zest and leave the orange custard cream to cool before serving.

                          

The city of Venice is divided into six sestieri which apart from San Marco are Cannaregio, Santa Croce, San Polo, Dorsoduro, and Castello and in most of these areas it is quite easy to escape the crowds.

Cannaregio is packed with tourists along the main thoroughfare running from the train station to the Rialto Bridge. Still, you don’t have to cross many canals to find peaceful residential areas, ordinary cafés and morning markets as well as what used to be the Venetian Ghetto where Jews were locked in at night. There are also some really nice churches in the area with works of Tintoretto and Tiepolo.

Santa Croce is the only part of Venice open for cars, but if you look beyond the port and the artificial parking island Tronchetto you will find a inconspicuous medieval core with narrow, covered alleys and generous decay. The area is a little messy but very charming. And there are also a few palazzos and museums like the natural history museum in Fontego dei Turchi, Ca’ Pesaro with its collection of modern art by Gustav Klimt, Vasilij Kandinskij and Matisse and Ca’Corner della Regina where Fondazione Prada opened a new exhibition space for contemporary art last year.

San Polo is the smallest and one of the oldest parts of Venice as can be seen from the amazing churches in the area. Main attractions are the Rialto Bridge, the lively fish and produce markets that have been part of the district for more than 1000 years and the Gothic Frari church with art treasures by Titian, Bellini and Donatello. Art aficionados will also appreciate Scuola Grande di San Rocco with more than 50 fabulous paintings by Tintoretto. And travelling children like the open spaces and playground on Campo San Polo.

Dorsoduro is a perfect place to explore the quiet beauty of Venice. Stroll along the Zattere waterfront and enjoy the inimitable gelati, unspoiled cafes, shops and the view over the Giudecca island or go to the right bank of the Rio San Trovaso to see one of the last remaining gondola workshops in the city. Most tourists come here to see the collection of Venetian art in Galleria dell’ Accademia, Peggy Guggenheims Collection of modern art or the Ca’Rezzonico museum house.

Castello behind Riva degli Schiavoni has its own faded beauty with narrow canals, welcoming residential areas and open squares. Part of the old Arsenale where the ships of the Republic were built is still a military area closed, but behind it in Sant’Elena you’ll find public gardens where the biannual Biennale is held.

Visitors who book an apartment with Oh-Venice.com will have plenty of opportunity to discover sides of Venice that are mostly under the tourist radar.

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Ingredients
250 g wild salads and herbs like cicoria, rocket, barba di frate, bruscandoli, goutweed, nettles, spinach or more cultivated herbs and lettuce from the garden (or supermarket).
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Preparation
Wash all the herbs, salads and peppers thoroughly
Chop and sprinkle with olive oil and vinegar before serving.

                          

Ingredients
2 slices of white bread
4 eggs
250 g spinach
4 tbsp grated parmesan
Salt, pepper and grated nutmeg

Preparation
Remove the crust and soak the bread in a little water
Blanch the chopped spinach in boiling water for 30 seconds
Squeeze excess water from the bread and mix with spinach, parmesan, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg
Fill the mixture in 4 greased cupcake pans and bake at 180 C / 360 F for 20 minutes
Serve the spinach and herb timbales while they are still a little warm

                          

Judging from the open spaces, insistingly optimistic orange colours and peaceful coexistence of several architectural styles side by side on the Piazza dei Martiri, I thought of Carpi in Emilia-Romagna as the result of years’ harmonious, sequential development. But the impression was shattered when I passed the inconspicuous former synagogue in Via Rovighi and became aware of Carpi’s role as the last stop before Auschwitz – Birkenau for 5000 Italian Jews.

If you are facing the Cathedral, in the central square of Carpi you’ve got Castello Pio on your right and a columned arcade on your left. Behind the columns you’ll find the usual array of shops, banks and cafés along with a couple of gates leading into the former Jewish ghetto.

There has been Jews in Emilia-Romagna as long as any one remembers, but their numbers increased significantly in the 1400s due to the Spanish expulsion. The Christians were not allowed to lend money so they welcomed Jews with banking experience, and for years Jewish bankers and printers were a successful and integrated part of society. In the 16th century, however, Pope Paul IV decreed that Jews had to live in ghettos and abide by a curfew. The prohibitions were lifted in the late 19th century when many Jews left Emilia-Romagna for the more profitable regions of Milan, Turin and Rome. Today there are only about 400 Jews living in the entire Emilia-Romagna region.

Yet during WWII Fossoli north of Carpi was chosen as the ideal location for a fascist concentration camp. At the beginning “War Prison Camp no. 73” received soldiers, prisoners of war and allied non-commissioned officers, but it was later enlarged to house Jews and political opponents on their way to the extermination camps in Germany and Poland. One of the detainees was Italian chemist and writer Primo Levi, who in ‘Se questo è un uomo’ (If this is a Man) recalls the last night in Fossoli before ‘L’alba ci colse come un tradimento’ and the prisoners were deported to Germany.

It is possible to visit Fossoli though most of the barracks have deteriorated over the years, and there is also a museum in Palazzo dei Pio in Carpi with the names of Italians who died in the Nazi extermination camps and other memorabilia. Along with the more pleasant attractions of a pocket-sized Modena.

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Ingredients
500 g chicken breast or veal
1 lemon – juice and zest
1 tbsp capers
1-2 slices of white bread without the crust
fresh rosemary
fresh parsley
Olive oil, salt, pepper

Preparation
Soak the bread in water
Fry cubed chicken in olive oil until golden brown
Add rosemary, lemon juice and a little water.
Squeeze excess water from the bread and mix with the sauce.
Chop capers and parsley finely and mix it with the sauce along with grated lemon zest.
Let the dish simmer for 10 minutes until the meat is tender
Adjust the taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper before serving.

                          

Enjoy the park life
Turin is one of the greenest cities of Italy in terms of gardens, parks and tree-lined avenues. It also holds the record in children’s playgrounds with a total of 240 playgrounds spread across the city. My favourite park for laid back relaxation and people watching is the Parco del Valentino with its phony Medieval castle, classic concrete fountain, packs of families and students under shady trees and a view of the Po where rowers in slim racing boats keep fit.

Market pleasures
Turin’s Porta Palazzo market is considered one of the largest in Europe with more than a thousand mobile stalls spread out over an area of 50 000 m2. Here you can find every kind of food and vegetables from pigs feet to acacia flowers, and get lost in clothes, household appliances and a friendly multiethnic atmosphere. The market is open all days except Sundays.

Watch out for the bulls
In Italian Torino means little bull, and therefore the bull has become the emblem of the city. As such it can be found everywhere – in sculptures, walkways and roof supporting friezes. Look for the bull’s head fountains if you are thirsty and would like a free drink of water, or grind the bull’s private parts with your right heel for luck when you see it in the pavement.

Shopping in the rain
Turin has 18 km of arcades many of which are interconnected so you can walk around window shopping without being bothered by rain, sun or motorized traffic. The arcades vary a great deal in design and the first of them were built from the royal palace to Piazza Vittorio Veneto so that King Vittorio Emanuele I and his court and courtiers could promenade to the Po without being subject to the capriciousness of the weather.

Public living rooms
All around Turin there’s a series of stunningly beautiful piazzas where you can sit down on a bench and breathe the atmosphere. Take a walk from Piazza Castello to Piazza Vittorio Veneto, Piazza Carlo Alberto and Piazza San Carlo with suitable breaks along the way. Or seek out the historic galleries in case of rain. Galleria Subalpina houses one of Turin’s oldest and best known cafés under a magnificent cast iron and glass roof. Galleria San Federico is reminiscent of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan and home to some expensive brands and stores. And Galleria Umberto I in Porta Palazzo serves as the inner city’s largest “shopping mall”.

                          

My rhubarb jam turned very runny which increased the moistness of the roll. If you bake the rhubarb sticks with sugar instead the marmelate gets more texture.

Ingredients
For the filling
500 g rhubarb sticks
350 g sugar
1 vanilla pod with the seeds saved for the roll

For the roll
160 g sugar
4 eggs
100 peeled almonds
1 vanilla pod seeds
100 g melted butter
150 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation
Clean and chop the rhubarb sticks and boil them with sugar to make a runny jam.
Beat eggs and sugar until white
Grind the almonds and mix with eggs and sugar
Add seeds from the vanilla pod, melted butter, flour and baking powder and stir to an even batter
Spread the batter in a square on a piece of parchment paper
Bake at 180 C/350 F for 15 minutes until the sponge is light brown
Leave it to cool then cover the top in cling wrap to facilitate rolling
Turn the sponge around to rest on the cling wrap, remove parchment paper and spread rhubarb jam over the surface.
Use the cling wrap to roll the sponge up tightly
Dust the rhubarb almond roll with powdered sugar before serving.

                          

The pronunciation of the name alone with a deep back tongue vowel at the end brings back memories of sharp sunshine, shimmering heat, narrow labyrinthine streets, decorously peeling paint, decaying palaces and secret backyards where lemons drop from the trees.

There are several legends pertaining to the origins of the city which dates back to the seventh century BC. One says the town was founded by colonialists from the Greek island Lefkada. Another legend based on the representation of the Sun god in the city’s coat of arms claims the Egyptians came here first. And finally there’s a story about a bull indicating the location for settlement by scraping its hoof in the ground and finding a well of water. Whatever is true, history adds multiple layers to the fabric of modern life for the 32 000 inhabitants, and I make believe I can spot some of these layers when walking around the city.

Nardò offers a few, slightly obscure (in the sense mostly closed) museums but the main attractions are the religious buildings and monuments in the ingenious Baroque Leccese style and the captivating rural sophisticated atmosphere found eg. around the beautiful Piazza Salandra, where the fountain of the bull can be found.

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Even before the present economic crisis Italy’s level of support for its cultural heritage was extraordinarily low. According to 2006 figures from OECD, Italy devoted only 0.8% of public spending on culture and leisure, making it 22^nd on a list of 27 countries for which statistics are available.

Yet Italy has more heritage than any other nation around the world. The country tops UNESCO’s list of World Heritage with 47 sites, followed by Spain (43), China (41) and France (37). Italy has 400 national museums, while France has only 20. And there are between 350 000-400 000 protected buildings in Italy against 25 000 in France. In other words, there’s not enough money to go around.

Almost all old farms in south Italy have their own chapels with decaying frescos

In consequence you come by crumbling and neglected heritage all over the country. Frescos and Roman walls that are not preserved. Unexplained, helter skelter museum collections. And half excavated archeological sites. And how should a country that can’t afford maintenance on Colosseum, Venice and Pompei shoulder the cost of restoration of all the treasures that keep popping up every time a piazza needs new paving?

The abundance does not just cause indifference in the sense that Italians take their national heritage for granted. It also makes it virtually impossible to keep up with the need for cultural funding without a clear list of priorities.

Cover photo: Massapian walls in Manduria dating back to the 8th century BC.