Frankie and Benny's

So, off we went to Frankie & Benny’s new outlet in Cambridge Retail Park, Aylesbury. Now at this stage I need to explain myself, as after a visit to Frankie & Benny’s in some god forsaken retail park outside Coventry a couple of years ago I made a vow to myself of NEVER AGAIN!! And at the Sage’s great age he knows that NEVER is a very BIG word indeed. So, why was I off to sup at the forbidden trough? Well the Sagette had been nominated by her sister as a warm wonderful human being, or some such nonsense, and next thing you know there is a DJ from MIX 96 Radio (“MIX 96, The Voice of the Vale!”) at the door with a Frankie & Benny’s £40 plus a bottle of Champagne voucher with the Sagette’s gasping unbelieving tones broadcast live to the awe inspired denizens of Aylesbury Vale. Very nice too, and thank you to MIX 96 which is an excellent local radio station.







So rather than be a fully paid up member of the Grumpies I found myself in the company of the Sagette and her delectable sister going to have “Italian” food whilst being watched over by the pictures of dead Italians which line the walls of F & B. All this points to an American influence for if you look into the freezer displays at American supermarkets huge trays of frozen Lasagne with black and white pictures of at least one dead Italian on the front will alarmingly stare back at you. But as we approach this vision of Italy dreamt up by a marketing manager from Croydon the nagging thought occurred to me “Would FREE be too expensive a price at Frankie and Benny’s?”



This new branch of Frankie & Benny's New York Italian Restaurant and Bar is one in a chain of over 100 restaurants throughout the UK, run by the Restaurant Group PLC. The chain is styled as a fun 1950's American restaurant; it has a number of booths with red seats, old black and white photography and a bottle-lined bar in each restaurant. The food is marketed as authentic American / Italian cuisine. A story of the origins of the chain is given on its website: This outlines a 10 year old Sicilian boy Frankie Giuliani landing at Ellis Island, New York in 1924. They opened a restaurant and it prospered due to Mamma's home-style cooking. Frankie became lifetime friends with Benny and in 1953 Poppa retired. Frankie and Benny took over the business and the rest, as they say, is history. Well that’s just what it is; a made up story or the “Brand Story” as it is entitled on their website and it is as authentic as some of the stories I’ve read on made up Irish Whiskey, cider or Liquor brands, that is not true at all.







In fact, the first branch in Leicester was opened in 1995. There are also an additional three branches in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.



However, according to a report in the Daily Mirror on 5th June 2008 the benevolent, paternalistic Italian image is bogus in more ways than one;



“Staff at the Restaurant Group, owner of Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito, Garfunkel's and Blubeckers, are being ordered to encourage credit card rather than cash tips - or face the sack. Why? Because the group pays below the £5.52 adult minimum wage and uses credit card tips to top up salaries. It's legal thanks to a loophole in the minimum wage rules. But it's not moral.



Restaurant Group staff keep cash tips, but a notice recently circulated to them makes clear it would prefer customers to leave credit card tips. "It is essential that the customer is offered the opportunity to leave gratuity via chip-and-pin," says the notice. "Not offering this facility means you could be encouraging the customer to leave a cash tip." The notice goes on to state this could "contravene" company policy and "is likely to lead to disciplinary action and possible dismissal". The Restaurant Group made pre-tax profits of £43.5million last year with boss Andrew Page trousering more than a million.” The fact that staff don't actually get the tips left is a lose / lose for customers - why make an effort if all you are going to get is the minimum wage anyway?







The menu sounds great. Some classic Italian dishes and some classic New York dishes and then some funky twists added in here and there. You've got your typical pasta dishes, lasagne, Bolognese, Alfredo and there are the typical burgers and chips and Pizza / Calzones. There is also a brunch and a lunch menu for smaller meals. Prices aren't fast food cheap but they're not overly expensive at first glance either. Most main meals cost around £8.95 or £5.95 off a lunch menu. However if a family is going in for a 3 course meal plus drinks then you could end up spending a small fortune.



Some thought has gone into the setting although it is all very derivative - An old style American diner feel but with a self conscious “lay it on with a trowel” Italian overlay. The toilets are usually papered with old New York papers and they talk to you in Italian in them (apparently quite confusing if you've had too much to drink). You can see where the chefs are cooking as its an open style kitchen, as a consequence you do get a lot of the kitchen noise but the 50's music will drown this out. Lighting is always quite dim, even during the day as the furnishings are rather dark.







There is a good selection of alcoholic beverages, a good cocktail menu and a sophisticated looking bar. However a word of caution – many of the Cocktails use “pre-mix” concoctions and the Strawberry Daiquiri uses tinned strawberries so they taste very plastic, also the bar staff are not really up to speed or well trained. Drinks are uniformly expensive, particularly given the lack of quality in the contents of the cocktails. They do a children’s pack, with crayons and a colouring book for parents that would like a quiet chat that is free for every child. Some idea of the target C and D demographics of the customers they are aiming at can be gained from this advert from a local (horror of horrors!) stretch limo company.



“A Frankie & Benny's VIP Limo Party starts from £225 plus VAT (party of eight). Price includes a chauffeured limo transfer from school or home to the restaurant with a formal introduction to the restaurant manager. A two-course party tea (including drinks) is served at your decorated VIP party table. Finally, you enjoy the limo journey home again. Just watch the proud faces on mums and dads as their VIP's arrive home by limo.” Proud Chav faces indeed as they hand over £225 plus VAT to “entertain” the spoilt monsters!





Chav VIP's?



When we arrived the Sagette announced to the waiter that we had booked (to let them know we were the special MIX 96 people!) but that didn’t register with the Polish waiter who showed us to an unsuitable table considering one of the party was walking with crutches after an operation. Where he then showed us to was equally unsuitable as it was a tight booth but we sat down rather than bring him over again. We were left with menus and it took 15 minutes for him to come back to take our order and a further 15 minutes for the champagne to be served and 35 minutes for the starter to arrive. This left plenty of time to look at the workings of the 2 chef kitchen whose inhabitants seem to have signed up here because they could express their creative flair better than at Little Chef!



They seemed to spend most of their time arguing with the waiters who obviously had meals going out incomplete, in the wrong order or too slowly. In fact kitchen is a bit of a misnomer for while steaks, burgers, fish etc; are cooked on a charcoal grill the food offer obviously comes in pre-prepared and is mostly heated in ovens or kept in bains Marie. So for instance, if you didn’t want mushrooms with your pasta sauce this wasn’t possible as “that’s the way it comes.” So we played safe and ordered the “Sharing Platter” and then respectively a Rack of Ribs, a burger and “herby potatoes” and a Quarter Chicken on Mash.





The sharing platter



The sharing platter is described on the menu (for £11.95) as “a giant feast of our house favourites; chicken strips, BBQ chicken wings, fully loaded potato skins, spicy onion rings, bread sticks and garlic ciabatta. Served with a selection of delicious dips and crunchy celery sticks. Four of everything, ideal for families!” Well it is as described but everything on it could have been bought in the freezer section of Tesco’s except for the 4 grissini and the small celery sticks. It comes with 4 small cardboard tubs of sauces. These tubs are popular because my rack of ribs came with coleslaw in one of these small tubs. It is served with fries and half a corn cob but didn’t come with the butter for the corn and the extra barbeque sauce shown on the menu. For £12.95 I kept imagining the “chef” taking the plastic vacuum packing off it shortly beforehand, it certainly didn’t have the fresh taste you get in America. The herby fries with the somewhat overdone burger covered most of the plate and once again were pure Tesco freezer cabinet. The chicken was dry with that strange colour you get when they paint it with food colour to give that corn fed / nicely roasted look but of course this hadn’t been anywhere near a rotisserie. Cucina Italiano it wasn’t and indeed at £10.95 the chicken worked out at twice what a similar (but tastier) dish would cost in Nando’s.







It took some time for the pleasant but overworked and linguistically challenged Polish waiter to come back to clear, drop down the desert menu and then take our order. I asked for an espresso macchiato (spotted with milk) and was amused when he said that couldn’t be done as all around on a frieze on the walls there are key Italian foodie words and the word “Macchiato” was behind his head. The manager worked out how to do it on the machine which looks like a proper espresso machine but is in fact an automatic machine with pre-sets. The coffee was just OK as they normally taste out of a machine. One of the party ordered (for old time’s sake) a Knickerbocker Glory which was standard enough except it was awkward to eat as the chunks of fruit were too large. The best part of the meal was the perfectly acceptable bottle of Mercier champagne which was very drinkable at £20 a bottle, but was just put on the table without an ice bucket.



For the shared starter, 3 mains, one desert and coffee and the champagne the bill came to £72 against which we offset £60.00 on our voucher. Now it may seem ill tempered to complain about a free meal but the truth is the indifferent service, delays and the fact that the food was supermarket freezer quality and the ambience of Frankie & Benny's very plastic "Little Italy" impersonation did not make for a sense of occasion or an enjoyable evening and if I had paid the full price I would have resented it. But there is more for the next day all three of us were very “gastrically challenged!” So when it comes to Frankie & Benny's there are times when FREE is still too expensive and when NEVER is not too big a word. Ciao and Arrivederci Frankie and Benny for your “Brand Story” is going to continue without me!



If you are in Aylesbury Town and want to check out honest, simple Italian fare then check out Buon' Amici. It is full of noisy live Italians who strangely don’t feel the need to add lustre to their offer by putting pictures of dead Italians on the walls. It also serves the best coffee - La Passione Del Caffe as they say themselves!



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/buon-amici.html





The Antidote

Capri

Few names have as much romantic associations as the “Beautiful Isle of Capri”, a byword for beauty and luxury since Roman Times. Long a hang-out of the rich and famous, who own sumptuous villas with arresting views, or who anchor their purring yachts in the Marina Grande, Capri has fixed itself in the collective imagination as a place where one might set foot for a few hours, but never settle; a place one can see but never really touch; a bit out of reach unless one has money or power. And yet, beneath the glitz, is a charming Island, with a storied history, where one can spend a day (or two or three!) and come away well-sunned, all appetites sated and the soul re-invigorated. But...in summer, Capri is swarmed by tourists, and the locals are in full "tourist" mode - professionally friendly but detached. Visit Capri in the off-season if you can.


The approach by sea whets the sense of anticipation whether you go by ferry or launch from Naples or Sorrento along the Bay of Naples overlooked by the brooding precence of Mount Vesuvius or along the chequered Amalfi Coast. Here, braced by the salt air a wondrous vista unfolds of deep eroded ravines, villages tucked into the clefts for shelter and defence, Saracen watch towers and implausibly steep terraces groaning with the heavy lemon fruits of Amalfi which make the famous Limoncello. Here we can be in awe of the spectacular coast as we head towards Capri and the Isola Gallo Lungo, once the home of Rudolf Nuryevev but in antiquity these were the islands (Sirenum scopuli; three small rocky islands) where, according to the Greek poet Homer, Ulysses was enticed and held captive by the mystical song of the Sirens. Visitors will still be seduced by the Sirens and the Amalfi Coast today.

"You will come first of all to the Sirens, who are enchanters
of all mankind and whoever comes their way; and that man
who unsuspecting approaches them, and listens to the Sirens
singing, has no prospect of coming home and delighting
his wife and little children as they stand about him in greeting,
but the Sirens by the melody of their singing enchant him."

Homer, (Odyssey XII, 39).

Then Capri comes into view, a mysterious prescence in the ocean with a definite sculptural quality which is both enticicing and mysterious, surrounded by Cliffs and sea rocks with the two (originally) fortified towns of Capri and Anacapri on the heights at the centre to protect them from the frequent visitations of Barbary Corsairs and others. And then at the end of the island facing towards the Bay of Naples you can envision the palace from which the Emperor Tiberius Caesar ran the empire which stretched from the atlantic Ocean to the Arabian desert, from the Pillars of Hercules to Judea. Here on this island in the centre of the sea which they named “Mare Mediteranea” – The Middle Sea where one man ruled from a palace named after their greatest deity Jupiter, the “Villa Jovis.” It was 2,000 years ago the largest house in the world and if it was still standing today it would still have that title. But to our modern mindset Capri was a vision of romantic escapism as epitomised by the song made famous in the 30’s by island resident Gracie Fields;

“Twas on the Isle of Capri that I found her,
Beneath the shade of an old walnut tree,
Oh, I can still see the flowers blooming 'round her,
Where we met on the Isle of Capri.”

Not to mention Noël Coward’s jolly ditty about the matronly English widow "who discovered in the nick of time that life was for living".

“Just for fun, three young men
Bowed low to Mrs Wentworth- Brewster
Said "Scusi", and abruptly goosed her,
Then there was quite a scene,
Her family in floods of tears cried, "Leave these men, Mama"
She said, "They're just high-spirited, like all Italians are"
And most of them have a great deal more to offer than Papa
In a bar on the Piccola Marina “


Capri Town

Capri is an island which some people love and some people hate. Those against the island are generally those who arrive for a daytrip, and find an expensive commercialised destination crammed to bursting with other daytrippers. Others, however, love the combination of island simplicity, natural beauty and busy glitz. And if you stay overnight, you'll find a different Capri. After the last daytrippers leave, a kind of exclusive peace settles over the island as those who are privileged to be staying overnight emerge for their evening passeggiata, or to sip drinks on the famous little square, the Piazzetta. The principal Capri tourist attraction is the island itself; its views, its rocky seashores and its scenic charm. There is plenty of good walking - or strolling - to be done as you explore the island.



Top scenic panoramas include views of the Bay of Naples, the Faraglioni Rocks and the Gardens of Augustus. From the mid-19th century onwards, following the “rediscovery” of the Blue Grotto, Italian and foreign visitors flocked to the island, attracted by the climate, the inhabitants’ hospitality and the colours and magnetic atmosphere of the places. Artists, intellectuals, writers, exiles, eccentrics and wealthy visitors chose it as their permanent or seasonal residence, contributing to form the highly varied cosmopolitan international colony that has made the name of Capri famous throughout the world. Capri is a saddle-shaped island that sits about 7.5 kilometres from the tip of the Amalfi peninsula and 17 kilometres due south of Naples. Mount Tiberio rises to 334 meters at the eastern end, and Mount Solaro peaks at 589 meters on the western end. Marina Grande (big marina) sits on the north shore and Marina Piccola on the south, connected by a traversing ridge. The City of Capri clamours up the hillside around and behind the Marina Grande, and the town of Anacapri sits on a verdant plain on the western flank of Mount Solaro.

Marina Grande

There are two towns on Capri; Capri town itself, which is in the centre of the island, and is where most of the hotels are located, and Anacapri. Although the two towns are scarcely three miles apart, the centuries-old antagonism between the two sets of townsfolk endures. The Capresans no longer routinely refer to the Anacapresan women as faticatore e puttane ("drudges and whores") as they did only 50-odd years ago, but they still poke fun at the Anacapresan dialect. The Anacapresans, for their part, cling to the high ground both morally and literally, believing that even their air is superior.


Piazzeta, Capri Town

On either side of Carpri Town there are two ports, the Marina Grande (large port) and the Marina Piccola (little port). Ferries from Naples, Sorrento and Amalfi arrive at Marina Grande from where you have two choices. You can take the special short island buses which twist around the windy road to Anacapri or you can take the Funicula up to Capri Town. If you take the latter option the top station on the funicular is beside the centre of Capri Town, the Piazzetta, the pedestrian square from which all the island routes radiate. From the station on top you can also take the distinctive island buses to Anacapri, they join the route from the Marina Grande about a mile down the road. Now something else you need to know about Capri. In summer these are the only roads where traffic is allowed and then only buses and taxis. Everywhere else is pedestrianied with only electric golf carts and handcarts allowed. This adds greatly to the peace and quiteness of the island but makes intra island transport akward. The small buses are painfully crowded and the taxis are special stretched softops with three rows of seats which take 7 passengers but are eye wateringly expensive. But nothing is cheap on this island, a cappucino will cost 5 euro, a pasta 20 euro and the mainly 5 star and rather luxurious hotels are upwards of 300 euro a night.

Funicular Railway

For shopaholics, Capri town is a dream, with all the big designer names and expensive boutiques. Almost every Capri visitor makes the trip to the Grotta Azzurra, the Blue Grotto. Like the island itself, it tends to split its visitors in two - those who find the blue-lit cave an unforgettable experience, and those who find the jostling boatsmen and extortionate prices a rip-off. A boat trip around the island, though, is a more rewarding experience. You can admire the coastline and the island's other grottoes in a leisurely fashion. In Capri Town, you find the Piazza Umberto I, more a courtyard than the usual expansive "main square". Around it is arrayed the Cathedral, the Bishop's residence which is now a municipal office building, the Torre dell'Orologio (bell tower) and a number of cafes, restaurants and shops.

From the Piazzetta the natural route is to head down the Via Tragara which is the most famous and best liked walking rote in Capri: along it there are many elegant villas. It ends with a panoramic terrace facing the Faraglioni Rocks (“I Faraglioni, the three enigmatic, pale-ochre limestone colossi”), the view of Capri known the world over. From Tragara's terrace you can enjoy also a wide view over island's southern side, featuring Marina Piccola, underneath the steep face of Mount Solaro, in the middle of which is found the enormous cavity of Grotta delle Felci (Grotto of the Ferns). The whole area called Tragara extends from Mount Tuoro's western slope to the plain of Occhio Marino (Sea Eye), situated behind the Charterhouse. Here also, overlooking the old Roman harbour you will find the Punta Tragara, where Churchill & Eisenhower first met. This former private villa, designed by Le Corbusier, stands above rocky cliffs at the southwest tip of the most desirable panorama on Capri. It is now a seriously 5 Star luxury hotel. It was here Eisenhower & Churchill met before the Allied invasion of mainland Italy at Salerno. Visiting Salerno today you may feel they did a fairly comprehensive job on bombarding the town

Faraglioni Rocks


Punta Tragara

On the way down there on the Via Tragara you first come to The Certosa of San Giacomo (Carthusian Monastery). It was founded in 1371 by Count Giacomo Arcucci, secretary to the Queen Giovanna I of Naples. This beautiful building is famous in its own right but the Carthusian Monastery is best known to visitors for the famous perfumes of Capri which are produced there based on the natural flora of the island.

Carthusian Monastery

Here you will also pass where Paolo Neruda lived in the beautiful “Casa di Arturo” belonging to Edwin Cerio, writer and engineer. This episode in his life is imortalised in the film “Il Positano” but obviously his exile was not as frugal or as isolated as depicted in the movie. The Chilean poet took the name of the murdered Czech socialist, Jan Neruda, as his nom de plume and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. At just 19 years of age he published his first book: Crepuscolario. In 1927 he entered the diplomatic service. He lived through the experience of the Spanish civil war of ‘36-’37 which indelibly marked the poet’s soul. Pablo Neruda came to Capri in 1952 with his lover, the Chilean singer Matilde Urrutia. On the island During his period in Capri, Neruda’s collection of love poems “The Captain’s Verses” was published. He was the Chilean ambassador in Paris in 1973 when America engineered the coup which brought down the democraticaly elected government of Chile, killed the President Salvador Allende and installed the brutal dictatorshio of Augusto Pinochet. He died later that same year.


Il Poeta del Poppolo

Heading onwards you then come to the site of the Gardens of Augustus and Via Krupp, which were by the German magnate steel Alfred Krupp. His Villa Krupp is on the height above you and it is joined to the sea and the Marina Piccola by the beautiful winding Via Krupp. The road was built in 1902 and characteristically zig-zags its way to Marina Piccola. According to architect R. Pane, it proves "that even a road can be a work of art". The Gardens of Augustus are built on the site of a villa of the Emperor Ovctavian Augustus on the "Fondo Certosa" (Certosa Estate), which Krupp purchased from the monastery. The provide a relaxing waypoint and a beautiful viewpoint on this spectacular island coastline.

View from Gardens of Augustus


Via Krupp

Anacapri basks on the hill above Capri, and is a quieter, more 'normal' town. Apparently, and despite being inland, Anacapri was hit harder by invaders than Capri Town (another source of competitiveness). The Saracens dragged the menfolk off to sell as slaves, and raped the women, the consequences of which can still be seen today in the faintly Moorish features of many Anacapresans. Their "smouldering looks" and "wild beauty" were certainly appreciated by the visiting German historian Ferdinand Gregorovius in the 1850s, and his enthusiastic, not to say libidinous reports helped to fuel an invasion, this time peaceful, of northern Europeans. Anacapri became a colony of artists and writers, and still has a bohemian vibe, even if mass-produced tourist tat is far more in evidence than original art.

The best art in modern Anacapri is in the Villa San Michele, once the home of the Swedish doctor, philanthropist and ornithologist Axel Munthe, who crammed it with antiquities. The villa San Michele is located on the north-eastern side of 'Anacapri, 327 metres above sea level. Here was an ancient Roman imperial villa, whose ruins were preserved by Axel Munthe and are now to be found in the garden. In the area there were the remains of a medieval chapel later moved to its present position by Munthe himself. San Michele was Munthe's residence between 1896 and 1910. The fanciful architecture was meant as a perfect environment for the collections of its owner, and at the same time, served to enhance the beauty of the landscape. The buildings and the collections reflect a Romantic, Symbolist taste, typical of that century. Accommodation in Anacapri is generally cheaper, although you're still not far from the hub of things, and there is a regular bus service. From Anacapri you can take the chairlift up to the top of Monte Solare and enjoy the views before the trip back down (on foot if you're so inclined).


Blue Grotto

Capri started occupying an important role in the political and military matters of the Roman Empire when Ottaviano, not yet Augustus, landed here in 29 BC and, struck by the incredible beauty of the island, took it from Naples, in exchange for Ischia. After Ottaviano, the Emperor Tiberius resided on the island for a decade and it was from Capri that he managed the interests of the Empire. The presence of the two emperors on Capri notably influenced the island architecture and the development of the urban area. The advanced engineering and building capabilities of the Romans, resulted in the construction of the port, sophisticated drainage and water storage systems, farms, habitations, and the twelve Imperial villas listed in the nineteenth century by the native historian, Rosario Mangoni. Fine examples of the Roman period are Villa Jovis, Villa Palazzo a Mare and Villa Damecuta, whilst, in a much less evident form, one finds traces of the era in Villa Tragara, Villa d’Unghia Marina, Villa del Colle San Michele, Villa del Castiglione, Villa Truglio a Marina Grande, Villa di Aiano, Villa di Capo di Monte (now Villa San Michele), Villa di Timberino and Villa di Monticello in Anacapri. Tiberius built a series of villas at Capri, the most famous of which is the Villa Jovis, one of the best preserved Roman villas in Italy. In 27 CE, Tiberius permanently moved to Capri, running the Empire from there until his death in 37 CE. According to Suetonius, while staying on the island, Tiberius (accompanied by his grand-nephew and heir, Caligula) enjoyed imposing numerous cruelties and sexual perversions upon his slaves.




Villa Jovis

The most important of the island's twelve imperial villas, Villa Jovis was built in the First Century AD and discovered in the Eighteenth Century under the rule of Charles of Bourbon. Dominating the promontory that extends from Grotta Bianca Point to Caterola Point, the villa, which covers an area of 7000 square metres, towers over the valley looking out to Cesina. Originally built as a fortress, the centre of the villa housed a number of cisterns designed to collect rainwater, used both as drinking water and as a reservoir with which to supply the baths located to the south, along with an open portico. These baths were heated by braziers and divided into the traditional frigidarium, tepidarium and calidarium. The eastern side of the villa contained a number of reception rooms, while the northern side accommodated the imperial quarters. These were completely isolated from the rest of the building, but connected by ramps and stairways to the triclinium and loggia. The latter, based on a rectangular design 92 metres in length, was primarily designed for taking the air and admiring the breathtaking vista of the Gulf of Naples, stretching all the way from Ischia to Campanella Point.

In his Aeneid, Virgil states that the island had been populated by the Greek people of Teleboi, coming from the Ionian Islands. Strabo says that "in ancient times in Capri there were two towns, later reduced to one." (Geography, 5, 4, 9, 38). Tacitus records that there were twelve Imperial villas in Capri (or Capreae, as it was spelled in Latin). Ruins of one at Tragara could still be seen in the 19th century.

The etymology of the name “Capri” comes from tle Latin “capraeae” (goats), not from the Greek “kapros” (wild boar), even though numerous fossile remains of this animal have been found on the island. Inhabited since the Palaeolithic era, when it was joined to the mainland, the island was first Greek and later Roman. In the 7th century it was raided by the Saracens and in the centuries thate followed it was dominated by the Longobards, Normans, Anjouins, Aragonese and finally the Spanish. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the island came back into fashion, in unison with Naples’ period of great political and artistic pride, thanks to an active diocese and the privileges conferred on it first by the Spanish and later by the Bourbons.

Romantic Capri!


Grand Hotel Quisisana

Capri, in addition to being blessed with an incredible natural beauty, boasts a history which increases even further the appeal of the island. isitors to Capri are often surprised by the quantity and variety of walking routes on such a small island. Along these pathways, tourists can choose to immerse themselves in the authentic atmosphere of a coastal village, inhabited by fishermen and sailors; explore the marine caves; walk through masses of sheer rock and peer over precipices which drop dramatically into the sea; saunter through the patches of land cultivated by the country dwellers, planted with olive groves and orchards of lemon and orange trees; or stroll through the center of Capri with its otentatiously luxurious boutiques, elegant hotels, artists studios, churches, and the remains of Roman villas. One of the magical things about Capri is that, even in peak season in August, when the roads are crowded with tourists, one can always find a solitary spot in which to rest, or a hidden bay where to take a swim in the crystal clear waters.

The atmosphere here, due to Capri's seductive powers, is sophisticated and cosmopolitan. It has long been a hang-out for writers and artists, a few of the top order, but most, second-raters. Somerset Maugham wrote a short story, The Lotus Eaters, about the island. Today it is still a special place with beautiful hotels filled with the ghosts of famous former guests, superb views over the bewitching Bay of Naples, romantic and perfect Bellinis sipped on terraces by moonlight and an ability to elicit your gratitude as improbable amounts of euros are discretely removed from your wallet! Capri - it's a kind of luxury and it's the kind of luxury you should give yourself at least once in this life.

See also;

Caprese.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/caprese.html

Amalfi Coast.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/02/amalfi-coast.html


Grotta Azzurra, the Blue Grotto

travel

Caprese

The Isle of Capri

In Italian restaurants the description “Caprese” has been rendered somewhat meaningless by being applied as a “catch all” description. Originally it meant simple rustic food from Campania as exemplified by the diet of the fishermen on Capri and particularly the simple salad made from the local ingredients of Buffalo Mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and fresh basil. Well there is very little simple about today’s Capri which has a well deserved reputation as a pit stop for the jet set trying to recapture the Dolce Vita. Not the one from Rome in the early 60’s but the one from the Emperor Tiberius 2000 years earlier. Here are some simple recipes which are typical of Capri.


Insalata Caprese


A delicious salad prepared exclusively with local produce: island grown tomatoes and the freshest Bufala Mozzarella.

Ingredients for 4 people:
Capri tomatoes
Mozzarella di Bufala or Fiordilatte cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
Fresh basil
Oregano, salt

Cut the tomatoes and mozzarella into slices and place them in alternating order on a plate.
Dress with extra virgin olive oil and a little salt.
Add a few leaves of fresh basil and oregano to taste.


Limoncello di Capri


Liqueur made using the lemons of Capri. An Excellent after dinner drink and splendid alternative to the Italian “amaro”. Capri and the Amalfi coast are famous for their lemons which are not like the shapely supermarket lemons we get in the UK. These lemons are left on the tree for two years and are 2 to 3 times the size of lemons we see in the UK. Their skins are rough and gnarled and it is this rind which is used to make the Limoncello.

Ingredients:

10 organically grown lemons
1 liter of alcohol (95°)
1 liter water
1 kg. sugar

Carefully remove the yellow part of the lemon peel. Infuse with the alcohol in a closed glass container for 20 days, shaking now and again. Sieve the infusion. Prepare the syrup with the hot water and sugar, let it cool and add to the infusion. Leave for another 10 days before bottling. Serve ice cold.


Caponata

An easy to prepare, wonderfully fresh dish which is ideal for a summer lunch. There are many types of Caponata, usually an eggplant dish from Sicily reflecting the Arabic influence and liking of the contrast between sweet and sour ingredients. This is the simpler Caprese version.

Ingredients for 4 people:

Loaf of Ciabatta bread
Cherry tomatoes
Mozzarella
Black and Green Olives
Basil, oil, salt
To taste: lettuce, rocket, tuna, and mackerel.

Soak the bread in plenty of water until soft.
Place all the ingredients in a large salad bowl, dress and serve immediately.


Chiummenzana


A quick to prepare pasta dish, using tomato and herbs, typical of the Mediterranean diet.

Ingredients for 4 people:
Cherry tomatoes
400 gr. spaghetti
Garlic, oil, peperoncino
Basil and oregano

In a frying pan, heat the oil and add the garlic and peperoncino. Add the tomatoes, basil, a pinch of oregano, and leave to cook for approximately 15 minutes. In the meantime place the water to boil. Cook the pasta until “al dente”, drain and toss in the pan with the sauce.

Serve immediately

Buon Appetito!

Le Meridien Art + Tech: Turin

Meridien Lingotto Art + Tech Atrium







If you are staying in Bella Torino and want some real swank try the 5 * “hotel” with a racetrack on the roof as featured in the “Italian Job” – The historic FIAT works with the 1 km test track is now the Meridien Lingotto, a showpiece conversion by the architect Renzo Piano which also features a conference centre and the Agnelli Art Collection in a superb “pod” on the roof, and all surprisingly inexpensive thru the weekend deal on the Turismo Torino website.







The motor company Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, otherwise known as FIAT, was founded in 1899 by Giovanni Agnelli in the ancient capital of Piedmont, Turin, south of which still sprawls the extraordinary Lingotto factory, the empire's erstwhile headquarters and at one stage, the world’s largest car factory. The vast five-storey building, designed by Giacomo Matte Trucco, can claim to be one of the first and finest examples of reinforced concrete architecture in Europe. It moved the architect and designer Le Corbusier to proclaim it "one of the most impressive sights in industry".









Lingotto when it was the world's largest car factory



Fiat's Lingotto factory was completed in 1923. Unlike any other automobile factory to date, the factory featured a spiral assembly line that moved up through the building and a concrete banked rooftop test track. In the wake of World War I, when Fiat returned to making cars they held 80% of the automotive market share in Italy. Aside from a brief employee communist uprising in 1921, things were going well at Fiat and the company was ready to expand. The Lingotto factory in Turin is the result of that expansion.







The roof top test track at Lingotto was not a novelty or an afterthought, but an integral part of the manufacturing process. The Lingotto factory featured a unique upward spiral assembly line. As each Fiat was put together it would progress upwards through the building story by story. Each floor was sequentially designated to specialise in a major part of assembly. What would start on the ground floor as raw materials and individual parts became a running driving Fiat by the time it spiralled its way to the top of the building.




Lingotto Frontage

The factory was designed so that production began on the ground floor and went up / down on two spiral ramps at either end of the factory to the roof, where cars were tested on a 1km track. This had a brief moment of fame in the 1969 classic The Italian Job and it has been cleverly recycled by FIAT for its current Punto T.V. campaign. The roof these days also contains a Heli - Pad and glass domed meeting room which often appears in photo shoots, so chances are you have seen it without realising it!

The car plant closed in 1982 and after much debate, the Genoese architect Renzo Piano was briefed to breathe new life into its steel, glass and concrete by adapting it to house a conference centre, auditorium, shopping arcades, restaurants, cinemas, an exhibition space and two hotels. It was reborn in 1994.

Lingotto Ramp to rooftop test track

The last part of the renovation in 2007 was the installation for Giovanni and Marella Agnelli of an Art Gallery "Pod" which hovers atop the historic and enormous former Fiat factory at Lingotto in Turin, overlooking the city of Torino. The building constitutes the third phase of Piano’s 14-year renovation of the factory, into a mixed-use center with a hotel, shops, and conference space. Built in the 1920 by Matte Trucco, the building was the largest and most modern plant in Europe, both architecturally and in terms of mass production capacity. The Lingotto Factory Conversion was the first example of modular construction in reinforced concrete, based on the repetition of three elements: pillars, beams, and floors.





The minis on the rooftop track of Lingotto in "The Italian Job."



When it was closed down in 1982, the building had such a great symbolic importance that it was essential to give it a new lease on life. The project consisted of radically transforming Lingotto without betraying the spirit and intended use of its premises, while preserving the overall architectural character and monumentality. By creating public facilities such as an auditorium, an exhibition center, a branch of the educational activities, meeting rooms, a shopping center, a hotel, a 2,600-seat cinema complex, as well as Fiat’s headquarters, Lingotto Factory Conversion has turned into a piece of city.

Pinacoteca di Giovanni e Marella Agnelli








Heliport & Meeting Dome

The new gallery, a 400-ton structure, dubbed “Scrigno” or “Treasure Chest”, appears to levitate over building’s rooftop track for testing cars. It is a technological marvel, a partly cantilevered, wedge-shaped box, both solid and light with no apparent openings through its steel skin, an oversized flat roof flying above it. Located in the North tower, this section houses the Agnelli’s art collection. Since Fiat mogul Gianni Agnelli and his wife, Marella, were donating the permanent collection to the museum, which is run by the Palazzo Grassi of Venice (supported with Fiat money), they were very much influenced the design. “Gianni wanted to know the diameter of every bolt,” says Renzo Piano. “A good client-architect relationship is not really about money. It’s about understanding.”







The building’s roof, nicknamed the “flying carpet”, is a light filter made of 16,000 glass fins above the gallery’s own translucent roof, creating a cool, even, impalpable light in which the 25 artworks of the gallery can be contemplated, devoid of any distractions within this peaceful and minimalist interior. This canopy is attached by steel struts to the walls of the gallery and sits about 4 feet above the gallery’s own translucent roof. In the lower roof, glass sits atop layers of movable aluminum slats, 3 m white neon tubes, and, finally, a vellum sunscreen made of “Trevira”, a synthetic fiber tissue.



Additional spotlighting reinforces the mix of artificial light and daylight, so that the paintings and statues are bathed in a luminous glow. The 6-m-high gallery, divided by 3-m-high freestanding partitions, is sparely designed with off-white gypsum-board walls and oak floors, and stainless-steel details. Below, in the reinforced-concrete structure of the factory, a suspended stair of painted steel, wood, and glass links the temporary galleries and other spaces. There is no natural top lighting inside the galleries building, daylight is admitted through existing windows and supplemented by spotlighting.

Rooftop Car Track

In the factory building The Art + Tech is Meriden’s 5 star offering on the site and has a central 4 storey atrium with cherry wood panels on either side. In the centre is the restaurant and at either end the lifts, stairs and lounge area as well as a gym. Being Italy it is child friendly with a kid’s play area. The excellent restaurant often has themed events from its sister hotels and when we were there was doing an excellent African evening featuring cuisine and live music from the Ivory Coast. Breakfast was excellent from a self service buffet which included a fresh orange press but the scrambled eggs were an alarming yellow colour.









Bathrooms



Bedrooms are on corridors on either side of the atrium and are reassuringly quiet and restful. They have a roomy atmosphere with double height ceilings fitted into the structural framework of the factory, clean modern lines with high quality fittings and automatically adjusting external sun blinds. Bathrooms are a cappuccino marble with excellent wet room showers.

The area

There's the Baroque splendour of Turin www.turismotorino.com. Or, closer by, you will find the Pinacoteca di Giovanni e Marella Agnelli (00 39 011 006 2713; pinacoteca-agnelli.it), or the "treasure box". Designed by Piano, this is a showcase of 25 works from the Agnelli family collection, including pieces by Canaletto, Picasso and Dali. What it lacks in quantity it more than makes up in the quality of the exquisite artworks.





Eataly



http://www.eataly.it/index.php



Opposite the Lingotto is Eataly a wonderful emporium of Italian food and wine in a converted vermouth distillery. Here you will find a more than 10 dining options but also excellent atmospherics with many of the items (pasta, bread, ice cream, etc) made on the premises and a basement containing wine and beer cellars and a wonderfully odorous cellar full of maturing hams, salamis and chesses. Across from the Lingotto is the Olympic Village built for the 2006 Winter and Para Olympics with its distinctive “Gateway” bridge by Santiago Caltravo.


Lingotto Shopping Centre

Downtown Turin is 2 km away by bus, the tram route is disconnected whilst they extend Turins new state of the art Metro system to Lingotto for 2009.

Best night was surprisingly, having got back late, when we went into the adjoining extensive shopping centre (using the private lift & entrance from our hotel, don't ya know) had a really wonderful meal in a chain restaurant and there was an organised and free salsa dancing evening with a couple of hundred folk - compared well to a UK shopping centre on a Sunday night!!







Quanta Costa?

A double room starts at €150 (£107) per night at weekends and rises to €250 (£178) during the week, including breakfast. Best deal is the “Torino Weekend” deal on the Turismo Torino website which offers 3 nights B & B and a 48 hour Torino Card (Which gives admission to all the attractions and transport for 2 days) for a storming 150 euro a person. Combine it with a cheap air fare from Ryanair or Easyjet and you have a upmarket 4 day / 3 night 5 star break in one of Europe’s finest cities for not too serious money. Nothing wong wit dat, as Michael Caine never said in the “Italian Job.”

The address

Via Nizza, 230, 10126 Turin. Tel: 00 39 011 664 2000;



www.lingottoartandtech.lemeridien.com

See also:

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bella-torino.html

travel