Street Sign Language Lesson XXXV – Cats, Dogs, Chickens and Horses Oh My

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Has the number of lost cats and dogs risen or what during the pandemic? Why isn't mainstream media covering this!? Or, perhaps the simpler answer is that the number hasn't changed and during the pandemic we are spending more time walking around the city and seeing these signs? In this post we provide you with some animal-themed signs spotted around Bergamo in the last few weeks, including two lost cats and one lost dog.

MI SONO PERSO!! MI CHIAMO PANGO. PER FAVORE, SE MI VEDETE CHIAMATE IL MIO PADRONE LUCA.
I’m lost!! My name is Pango. Please, if you see me, call my owner Luca.

Cucciola amorosa. RICOMPENSA. Smarritto gatta di 18 mesi. Grigio chiaro. Occhi blue. Microchip.
Affectionate kitten. Reward. Lost cat (female) 18 months old. Light grey. Blue eyes. Microchipped.

The ending "A" of cucciola and amorosa and gatta means it's a female cat. The only thing bugging us was the "O" of smarritto. Shouldn't that be an "A" as smarritta gatta? We think so, unless the writer intended abbiamo smarritto gatta… - we lost a cat, but that really should be abbiamo smarrito una gatta… Oh, the mystery.

LETTIERA AGGLOMERANTE naturale.
Naturally binding cat litter.

Lettiera derives from letto or "bed".

VAFFANPOLLO
Go do a chicken?

Vaffanculo means "f$#% off" deriving from a contraction, " of va' a fa' 'n culo, where fa' and 'n are dialectal variants for fare "to do" and in "in (preposition)", respectively. Literally 'go do [it] in [the] ass'."  This sign is for a restaurant specializing in chicken and uses this play on words, which perhaps doesn't have a literal translation, but is easily grasped by any Italian speaker.

AZIENDA AGRICOLA E CENTRO IPPICO.
Farm and Equestrian Center.

Ippico derives from the Greek for horse. It always makes us think of the horse chestnut tree Aesculus hippocastanum, where the species epithet means a chestnut for horses as it is/was believed that feeding these nuts to horse could help them with panting or coughing. In Italian, the common name for the tree is ippocastano (dropping the "H" on the species name). For more on the dropping of H going from English to Italian, see our post The Case of the Missing H in the Italian and English Word Cognates.

SE È PERSO PIPPO.  Zona questura, se qualcuno dovesse vederelo contattare al numero.
Pippo is missing.  Questura neighborhood. If anyone should see him, contact the number.

Very nice and polite use of the subjunctive tense, dovesse.  You could say as well se qualcuno lo vede, meaning "if anyone sees him". 

Questura is not the name of the neighborhood but rather means "police headquarters", i.e., the neighborhood around that. (It's odd that living in the US, we didn't know or really need to know where the police headquarters were. Living in Italy, you sort of have to know where they are because you find that you need to go there for certain types of licenses, passport renewal, and other official documentation. The questura in question here – location - is one we have walked by and gone into several times.)

 

AI PROPRIETARI DEI CANI. SI INVITANO I PROPRIETARI DEI CANI AD UNA MAGGIORE EDUCAZIONE E CIVILITA' E AD EVITARE CHE I LORO ANIMALI SPORCHINO IL MARCIAPIEDE DAVANTI AL PORTONE E GLI STIPITI.
To dog owners. Dog owners are kindly requested to show better manners and decency and avoid having their pets soil the sidewalk in front of the door and doorjamb.

All caps…as typical in Italian writing. (It reads like screaming to us but doesn't for Italians.) Why stipite - doorjamb? Because dogs often lift their legs and pee on doorjambs. We we first read it, it looked like la stirpe – ancestry – and the image of dogs soiling sidewalks and descendants rattled around in our heads as we walked up via San Tomaso where this sign was seen.

A Hike to Santuario di Rosciano – Santuario Grotta di Lourdes of Bergamo

Overview | Notes | Flora and Fauna | More Photos

Top left: Chiesetta di San Marco alla Maresana.
Top right: View east from Via alla Zarda across lower Maresana.
Bottom left: The entrance to Grotta di Rosciano.
Bottom center: A statue in the grotto.
Bottom right: The hike tracks.

Overview

Length: ~ 13.5 km

Duration: ~ 5 hours (includes lunch)

Elevation: 533 m elevation gain max

Location: Italy, Lombardy, Bergamo - Ponteranica

Notes

We had two objectives in mind for today's hike: finding a different way up to Maresana and stopping by the La Grotta di Rosciano, also called Santuario Grotta di Lourdes.

Maresana is the hill just north of Bergamo this is easily reacheable on foot from anywhere in Bergamo. Or, with a little help from the #6 bus to take you to the base of the hill. The max elevation in Maresana (Hill) is a respectable 546 m (1,791 feet). Not far from Maresana and completely connected by hiking trails is Canto Alto (Mountain) at 1,146 m (3,759 feet). The exact cutoff between hill and mountain is debatable, but Maresana feels like a hill and Canto Alto a mountain.

We've covered trips to Maresana numerous times, including:

• January 2020 – A Hike to Maresana for Lunch
• November 2020 – Two Hikes in the Hills of Parco dei Colli di Bergamo (passing through Maresana)
• August 2020 – Roundtrip Bergamo to Selvino (passing through Maresana)
• July 2020 – A Classic Bergamo Hike: Canto Alto (passing through Maresana)
• March 2020 – A Sunday Walk to Maresana
• May 2017 – A Short Hike from Bergamo to Monte di Nese (passing through Maresana)
• March 2017 – Walk from Bergamo to Maresana for Lunch
• June 2017 – A Hike from Maresana to Selvino
• December 2016 – A Walk from Bergamo to Ponteranica (passing through Maresana)
• December 2015 – Bergamo to Canto Alto (passing through Maresana)

The question you might be formulating is why don't we just move to Maresana?  And, note the number of hikes in 2020 with Maresana as goal or waypoint. It's indicative of zero travel and a more intense focus on local attractions during the pandemic. Tourism kilometer zero.

We started today's hike by entering in Porta San'Agostino of Città Alta and exiting out Porta Garibaldi (technically named Porta San Lorenzo), and following Val Verde to a point we could cross SS470.

At this point we are in the neighborhoods of Valtesse and Valbona. Open City Maps shows "paths" up the hill, but as we found out, some went over private property or really weren't paths at all. In the end, we walked up part of the way on Via Maresana. We felt a little defeated. (Close inspection of the attached hike tracks shows a point were we back tracked  on Via Richetti – rare for Travelmarx!)

From Via Maresana we walked a short stretch on Via Rosciano to find the grotto. Our spirits lifted immediately upon entering the La Grotta di Rosciano complex. The sanctuary/church is located in Rosciano, a frazione or hamlet of Ponteranica – just north of Bergamo across the valley. Rosciano is more or less the western part of Maresana.

The sanctuary has relatively recent origins. A parish priest named Luigi Ravasio was visiting the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France in 1925 and came up with the idea of recreating a smaller version of the famous pilgrimage sight in his own parish in Bergamo. According to an old brochure explaining the history of the grotto, the village was in need of a good source of drinking water as well. After many studies, consultation of dowsers (rabdomante in Italian) and tests, a source was found and the grotto was dedicated on September 13, 1930. 

In English, we say grotto, while in Italian, it's grotta, feminine.

On our visit to the grotto today, we were the only ones. Perhaps on a gray day with light rain, no one is interested in a going inside a grotto? The church and source of water is excavated from a hillside with a road running over it. At maximum depth, the church penetrates about 75 feet into the hillside, really more of a chasm with light from above.

From the small garden in front of the grotto there is a pleasant view northwest toward Monte Linzone.

As a final word about La Grotta di Rosciano also labeled prominently as Santuario Grotta di Lourdes, it seems our parish priest Ravasio wasn't the only one moved to create a replica of Lourdes. The Wikipedia Lourdes grotto page lists a number of replicas around the world.

After the grotto, we hoofed it up Via Rosciano and then veered off into the woods on a trail to La Maresana (trattoria) for a nice, relaxed lunch. And to return back to Bergamo we followed trails down to end up on Via Col di Lana and Via all Zarda.

Lunch at Maresana, antipasto, primo (onion soup and crepes), and secondo (polenta with eggs and mushrooms).

Flora and Fauna

For flora, there were the usual mid winter suspects: the welcome splash of purple from common hepatica Anemone hepatica and a few gangly Christmas roses Helleborous niger, both in the buttercup (Ranunculaceae) family.

Left: Anemone. Center and right: Helleborous.

An unusual discovery was Pyrrhocoris apteris – commonly called the "firebug" near the Chiesetta di San Marco alla Maresana. To be honest, we went to rip ivy off the tree and noticed these insects.

In Italian, this insect is called la cimice rosso nera for it's resemblance to another insect, cimice. Cimice can mean bug (insect and hidden microphone) as well as specifically refer to Palomena prasina – the European shield bug or green stink bug, which is often just referred to as cimice. The emit a pungent odor when squished.

Photos of firebug under ivy leaves.

More Photos

Left: Altar in the Grotta di Rosciano.
Center: Garden outside the grotto.
Right: Informational sign in the grotto.

Left: Entrance to the grotto of Rosciano.
Right: The entrance to the grotto complex.

Left: The view from the garden northwest.
Right: A roadside altar on the way to Maresana.


Left: One of the many trails up to Maresana.
Center and right: Hike statistics.

Street Sign Language Lesson XXXIV – Fried Dough, Lies, and Gossip

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Chiacchiere at Forno Fassi.

Today's Street Sign Language Lesson ™ is about the fried dough treats we call "angel wings" in English. Soon after Epiphany passes (in Italy a significant holiday), these fried dough treats start appearing stores and bakeries.

Angel wings are fried dough (flour, water, egg, butter), shaped into twisted ribbons or flat strips that are deep-fried or baked, and served sprinkled with powdered sugar. Angel wings are eaten before Lent. The name "angel wings" can be assumed to refer to the lightness of these fried treats?

In Italy, there are many different regional names for angel wings, loosely based on two naming themes in my opinion. Theme one is what they look like, e.g., rags (stracci or cencio), gloves (guanti), bow or ribbon (galano) or lettuce (lattughe). Theme two perhaps refers to carnival or perhaps to that the fact that the final treats are not as heavy as they look? Names in this theme are chitchat (chiacchiere), lies (bugie), and gossip (pettegolezzi).

The company featured in many of these photos is Gecchele and they are based in Treviso. What the company has done is taken a few of the many region names – see here for more – and paired them with and characters from the commedia dell'arte.

Full disclosure: we did not buy any of the packaged examples. Why would we when they are so easy available, reasonably priced and fresh from a local bakery? The photo at the top of this post was taken at the bakery Forno Fassi (Città Alta). In Bergamo, we usually see the word chiacchiere used the most.

The types of chiacchiere you can find in stores is more that what is shown here. This is just a sample from one day we went shopping at PAM.

Bugie di Brighella

Bugia (pl. bugie) is a lie or a candlestick holder. Brighella is a masked character from the Italian theater style of commedia dell'arte. As we see on the packaging, Brighella typically wears a white smock. His character the Harlequin's smarter and vindictive older brother.

The term bugie is typical of Piemonte, Liguria.

Chiacchere di Balanzone

Chiacchiera (pl. chiacchiere) means a regional Italian sweet, but also means chit-chat or gossip. The associated verb is chiacchierare. Balanzone is another commedia dell'arte stock character. He is the old man, acting as an obstacle to young lovers. As seen on the packaging, Balanzone is usually pictured as a robust man.

The term chiacchiere is used all over Italy, but mostly from the middle to the south.

It is odd that the packaging (and the web site – no typo it seems) uses "chiacchere" without the second letter I.

Burlette di Gianduia

Burletta (pl. burlette) is a little joke. Gianduia (or Gianduja) "is one of the masks of the Italian commedia dell'arte, typically representing the town of Turin". Gianduja is also the name of the famous chocolate spread, such as nutella, invented in Turin at the beginning of the 18^th century. Gianduia, the character, is an honest peasant with an penchant for wine, good food, and beautiful woman.

Pettegolezzi di Colombina

Pettegolezzo (pl. pettegolezzi) is gossip.  Colombina – "little dove" is a stock character in the Commedia dell'arte. She is a tricky servant.

Galani dei Dogi

The term galàni is used in the area between Venice, Padua and Verona. Galano is a decorative bow or ribbon. A doge (pl. dogi) where elected heads of some Italian city-states during the medieval and renaissance periods. The word doge is closely associated with Venice, and in fact on the packaging of this product there is the unmistakable Campanile di San Marco in Venice.

I Quadri di Arlecchino

Arelecchino is a famous masked Bergamasco character in the commedia dell'arte. In English, we call him Harlequin and he is the comical servant dressed in a bold checkered (a quadri) outfit.

Mascherina Trevisan

Mascherina means a face mask, which could be a face mask we are using currently during the pandemic, or an eye or half mask used as part of a costume such as used during carnival.  Trevisan is just the name of the company producing these angel wings.

Lattughelle

Lattuga means lettuce. Lattughella (pl. lattughelle) is either the salad green lamb's lettuce or mâche (Valerianella locusta), known for its nutty, mild flavor. It's commonly found in Bergamo as a salad green. The guess here is that the shape of the fried dough resembles lettuce leaves.

Coriandoli Fritti

Corandiolo is confetti or little chads. Fried (fritti) confetti just doesn't have a nice ring to it, does it?

A Hike to Maresana for Lunch

Overview | Notes | Flora

Left: A small waterfall on the Torrente Tremana in Bergamo, Italy.
Right: A primrose, Primula vulgaris along the trail.

Overview

Length:  ~14km

Duration: 3.5 hours (without counting lunch)

Elevation: Max elevation 681 m (2230 ft). Min elevation 262 m (860 ft).

Location: Italy, Lombardy, Bergamo - Ponteranica

Notes

Our first hike of 2021 and it's to Maresana. During lockdown restrictions, a walk to Maresana is not a bad substitute to going deep into the Orobie or the Dolomites like we usually do. From the center of Bergamo, Maresana is a hop, skip, and a jump away. Today being a "yellow" day we could eat inside Trattoria Maresana, one of our favorite places to walk to and eat at.

Today, we walked as far as Villa Pighet and turned around when our stomachs told us it was time for lunch. Not too long ago in 2017, we were headed for Selvino and mistakenly got off of trail 533 and ended up at Villa Pighet. We did make it eventually to Selvino, but lost an hour backtracking because Pighet is in the wrong direction. So for us Villa Pighet invokes images of that day when we realized how far off track we were. There is a beautiful view north into the Val Seriana from Pighet so for that reason alone, it's worth a look. (The restaurant there was closed today.)

For a description of getting from Bergamo to Selvino walking, see our post Roundtrip Bergamo to Selvino on Foot, Cable Car, Bus, and Tram.

One of the many trails climbing Maresana starts at Via Monterosso here. It runs roughly north-south just east of the usual way up, trail 533.  The Via Monterosso trail wasn't one we had taken before and we were pleasantly surprised taking it today because it runs along the charming Tremana stream (torrente Tremana), with small waterfalls of smooth limestone. The stream springs out of the mountain halfway up to Maresana at a point called "il Fontanino di Monterosso".  All considered, a pleasant discovery and path up to Maresana.

Views along the Torrente Tremana trail to Maresana.

Left and center: Hike details and track. Right: View north from Pighet over Monte Zuccone toward Salmezza.

Flora

Left and center: [Liliaceae] Ruscus aculeatus. Common name: Butcher's broom. In Italian: pungitopo.
Right: [Ranunculaceae] Hepatica nobilis. Common name: Liverwort or Common Hepatica.

[Ranunculaceae] Helleborus niger - Christmas rose.