About Jennifer Avventura

Canadian Freelance writer living in Sardinia, Italy. A serial immigrant who has lived in Australia, England, Cayman Islands and Jamaica. When she's not out running 6k you will find her sitting at the computer - writing her novel and searching for worldwide work.

Travel Theme: Symbol from Sardinia

Posted on December 7 by Jennifer Avventura

Sardinia has a beautiful overabundance of symbols dotted throughout the island. There remains very little written data on the history of symbolism in Sardinia; I couldn’t find any information on this symbol, anywhere on the internet!

So, I sent the photo to a trusted friend and this is what he said “The stele was found at the foot of the pyramid or ziggurat – “Monte d’Accoddi,” the north side, in 1979. There is only an interpretation that it could be a female deity but nothing certain as to its purpose. The original is in the museum at Sassari.”

She remains a mystery, this beautiful and interesting deity.

Jennifer Avventura My Sardinian Life (8)

A special thanks to Tharros.info for the trusted explanation of this symbol. 🙂

Front and back of the “deity.” This was on a poster at Monte d’Accoddi where the stele was found.

I wish there was more concrete evidence of the life the islanders lived eons ago. I wish I could step back in time and witness Sardinia’s future in the making. I wish to run with wild horses over the range of Gennargentu.

This is my response to the Weekly Travel Theme: Symbol.

Travel theme – Symbol (jansideas.wordpress.com)
Travel Theme: Symbol (travelicius.wordpress.com)
Travel Theme (Symbol) (mrscarmichael.wordpress.com)

Learning Italian: Studying for the Italian Driving Permit

Posted on December 3 by Jennifer Avventura

Driving in Italy is not for the faint of heart. The curves, the speed, the mountains, the goats, cows, dogs and kids, and the dreaded stick shift. I was crowned queen of the road in nineteen-ninety-two in a small town on the outskirts of Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The first time my father taught me to drive I was thirteen years old, and his blue Ford Bronco had aged significantly despite its young years. We were driving old country roads out by the old Avondale store on Stewart Road, the Rolling Stones sang i can’t get no satisfaction on the dust filled, static speakers. Memories were being made, moments to remember.

Then we hit a ditch and ended up sideways.

It was sensory overload, the happiness, the stones, the ice cream parlour, my first taste of freedom and the large curve in the road.

For some reason, unbeknownst to my thirteen year old self, I had thought the old Bronco would automatically straighten out, I didn’t realize I had to control it with the steering wheel. I was only driving 10 kilometers per hour when we found ourselves tilted sideways in the ditch with the ice cream shop not far in the distance.

We roared with laughter, changed places in the truck and went for ice cream.

Four years after that incident when I was seventeen, I got my license to drive in Canada.

Today, twenty-one years after being honoured with a Canadian driving license, I am not legally able to drive, in any country. My Canadian license expired this past October, and to renew I must visit the DMV in Canada, in person.

Did you know:

If you are planning to move to Italy and have a driving permit from outside of the European Union, you can legally drive in Italy for one year provided you have an international driving permit.
After one year driving with an international driving permit, you are required by law to take the exam for the Italian driving permit.
All tests are in Italian.
Here’s an awesome link which provides exam questions to study for the Italian license.

I’ve been in Italy almost six years and think I’m finally ready to take the official exam. I’ve teamed up with other expats in Italy who are also studying for the Italian driving permit or Foglio Rossa.

Leah from Help! I live with my Italian mother-in-law started a wonderful group on FB called Help! I need my Foglio Rossa where we can support each other in our endeavour to become road warriors.

I finally took the on-line test, in Italian, and did better than I had expected. There are 40 questions, some with diagrams and you have thirty minutes on the clock. Good luck.

11 errors. Not suitable to drive in Italy. FAIL!

Keeps track of how many times you take the test and compares score. Today was my first try.

This one threw me for a loop! I still don’t understand it’s meaning nor what the sentence says.

What in the *$*% is this all about?

Now if only driving stick shift were as easy as studying for the Italian driving permit, I’d be set.

What I learned today:

I need to study a lot more.
Groups like Help! I need my foglio rossa will help me achieve this goal.
Italian driving exams are all sorts of crazy.
I will need the support and guidance from said group in achieving this goal.

Check out expat Elizabeth’s tales of woe in Umbria – My Italian Driver’s License Part 1: House Arrest. For the sake of our sanity – let’s drive! 🙂

Can you offer any tips, whether it’s driving stick shift or taking the exam?

Driver License Clone or Novelty (brandonndip.wordpress.com)

Street art from Sassari, Sardinia

Posted on December 3 by Jennifer Avventura

Simply breathtaking this little side street, and what a wonderful surprise to find such artwork displayed on a wall, outside.

How do you like your street art? Bright and flashy or classic like in the above photo?

Art on the Street (nataliecroxon.wordpress.com)
Epic Street Art in Dublin (vickyflipfloptravels.com)

Brilliant Light Goodnight Sardinia

Posted on December 1 by Jennifer Avventura

The first sunset of December 2013 was a blazing bright pinkish/orange. It lit up our living room like a bright disco light.

This is my response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Light

Buonanotte bella Sardegna.

How to make mouth-watering meatballs from the mountains of Sardinia

Posted on November 30 by Jennifer Avventura

Sardinia is a culinary delight and nothing would please me more than to cook like the grandmothers who have baked and cooked for generations. The times I go walkabout, and it’s generally in the winter, the wafts of delightful delicacies that breeze through the crisp Mediterranean air leaves my mouth-watering and my stomach wanting the recipe.

My Italian language skills are decent enough to ask the women in the shops “Come fa le polpette?” They are more than eager to share the recipe from their grandmother’s kitchen, and I’ve taken their advice into my home and made it my own.

I’ve experimented with my meatballs and have come up with three different methods of cooking: bake, fry or add raw to tomato sauce. I’ve slowly improved and continue to ask the women in town for their advice. It’s a warm fuzzy friendship.

If you’ve followed this blog long enough, you will know that I don’t measure the ingredients, I eye-ball everything, plus, the leftovers always taste better the next day.

How to make mouth-watering meatballs

Ingredients:

400 grams ground beef (this makes about 4 meals for 2 adults in my home)
bread crumbs
1 egg
parsley
salt & pepper
The above ingredients are for your basic meatball, now let’s spice it up a bit.
finely chopped garlic, carrot, onion or zucchini
Adding too many ingredients takes away the intended flavour – keep it simple.

How to make meatballs in the oven:

Throw all ingredients together in a bowl and mix.
Use a tablespoon as measurement; ball together the beef mixture into the palm of your hand until round and slightly firm.
Roll meatball in bread crumbs and set in oven pan.
Set oven at 200.
Bake 25 minutes for medium size meatballs.
This is one of the healthiest options, I’ve made them in the oven several times and they were good, but dry.

How to fry meatballs:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Use a tablespoon as measurement and ball mixture until round and slightly firm.
Roll meatball in bread crumbs and set aside.
Fill frying pan with desired oil and cook until golden brown; heat oil.
If you have tomato sauce you can add the meatballs now. Oh, and here, in the mountains of Sardinia we don’t pare meatballs with pasta, no, never, it’s not even talked about, trust me, I’ve tried.
Not so healthy this option but super delicious, as with all things fried.

How to make meatballs in tomato sauce:

Okay, we get the gist of making meatballs now, right?
Make your meatballs and add it your boiling tomato sauce.
Cook for 35-40 minutes, stir slowly on medium heat.
Want to know how to make tomato sauce like an Italian? That’s the link to my most popular post, be sure to read the comment section for more tips for a great tomato sauce.

I used to think it was gross to add raw meat to cooking tomato sauce, then one day a friend was over and we were chatting meatballs. He asked me how I made mine and I told him I fried them, then put them in tomato sauce. He looked at me quizzically and said “perche non metti direttamente nel sugo?” It was a good question and the following day I just did just that, and the meatballs turned out superb, I’ve made them like this ever since.

Happy Meatball making.

How do you make your meatballs? Share your recipe in the comment section below.

Meatballs on a Stick (posimagine.wordpress.com)
Off To Mama’s Meatballs (aakatzeff.wordpress.com)

The Sardinian Sky

Posted on November 29 by Jennifer Avventura

The sky in Sardinia drastically changes throughout the year from bright blue endless skies to deep black unforgiving skies. I’ve been a sky-watcher my entire life, and I’m sure I spent the entire 5th grade staring out the window, day-dreaming and wishing I could fly.

Follow me on a photographic journey of Sardinia’s ever-changing sky.

Endless blue sky

Contrasting red and blue’s on Sardinia’s west coast

Storm filled rainbow sky

Black Cloud Sky

The Golden Hour Sky

Cloud filled August Sky

Canadair flying the friendly blue sky

This is my response to the weekly travel theme: sky.

How do you like your sky? With wisps of white clouds or an endless blue?

Update: How you can help rebuild Sardinia, Italy in the wake of Cyclone Cleopatra

Posted on November 27 by Jennifer Avventura

On November 18th, 2013 a powerful cyclone crushed Sardinia killing 16 people. Nine days have passed since that dark day and islanders are still coming to terms with the loss of lives and damage to homes, roads, businesses and schools.

Schools are without chalk, paper, pens, books and hope. Makeshift schools have been set-up as the cyclone shattered the dreams and walls of young hopefuls.

Entire communities have stopped daily activities to help in the aftermath of this deadly cyclone. People from all walks of life have given the warm clothes off their back to wet and dreary survivors.

It will take years to rebuild Sardinia. Six months of rain crushed Sardinia in twenty-four hours causing landslides, mudslides and severe flooding. The most affected areas are in the Gallura and Olbia. Sixteen people are dead, including two children, about 2,300 people have lost their homes, forty-three people wounded, including three seriously, and one family is still desperately searching for their missing relative.

Here’s how you can help:

Share this message with your friends and family via the social media buttons at the bottom of this post. I can’t begin to tell you how many people have written me stating they have not even heard of the cyclone that hit Sardinia.
To make a monetary donation to the comune of Olbia follow the banking details: Account: n. 0540 – 070361388
IBAN: IT72U 01015 84980 000070361388
BIC/Swift Code: BPMOIT22XXX
Reference: Comune di Olbia Emergenza Alluvione
Visit the following site SardSOS: Emergenza It’s a fabulous site, complete with map of affected areas, how to help and survivors stories.
60 communites were hit by Cleopatra, to donate to other areas in Sardinia please visit Donazioni Alluvione Sardegna: Ecco come fare, tutti i Numeri e i Conti Correnti utili! here you will find an entire list of bank details.
Visit the Red Cross Italy site for more information on how to donate.

***The above links are all in Italian, if you need help translating please let me know, I’d be more than happy to help.

There has been an abundance of solidarity between the islanders in the wake of this natural disaster, a solidarity so strong it can only be called Sardegna.

Sardinia needs your help, and the children need schools rebuilt.

Please donate.

BREAKING NEWS: A fire ripped though a laundromat in Olbia destroying the donated clothing for those displaced.

It’s time to make a difference, it’s time to make a change. Donate.

Dear Santa Claus: Let Sardinia smile again – In the aftermath of disaster

Posted on November 24 by Jennifer Avventura

Dear Santa Claus,

“Make a great gift to us sisters, that Sardinia will smile again, as always.”

Photo by Debora Deiana

**This photo was circulating Facebook early this morning, and it hit the soft spot we all carry in our hearts. I emailed Debora to get her permission for this photo and she happily obliged.

On November 18th, 2013 Sardinia was hit by a deadly cyclone, killing 17 people and leaving thousands homeless. Islanders have come out in full force in offering beds, clothing and a shoulder to cry on. The solidarity seen between the communities of Sardinia in the aftermath of cyclone Cleopatra just proves how strong, united and committed the islanders are in the wake of disaster.

The following map shows areas which were affected by Cyclone Cleopatra, people offering help, evacuations, emergency services, news, flooding, volunteer help, and stories.

Click to visit site

60 communities were crushed by Cyclone Cleopatra:

11 communites in the Gallura: Arzachena, Berchidda, Budduso’, Golfo Aranci, Loiri Porto San Paolo, Monti, Olbia, Oschiri, Padru, Sant’Antonio di Gallura, Telti.

16 communites in Nuoro: Bitti, Dorgali, Galtelli’, Irgoli, Loculi, Lode’; Lula, Nuoro, Oliena, Onani’, Onifai, Orgosolo, Orosei, Posada, Siniscola, Torpe.

8 communities in Cagliari: Armungia, Ballao, Decimoputzu, Escalaplano, Siliqua, Vallermosa, Villaputzu, Villaspeciosa.

8 communities in Medio Campidano: Gonnosfanadiga, Guspini, Pabillonis, San Gavino Monreale, Sanluri, Sardara, Villacidro, Villanovafranca.

7 communities in Ogliastra: Arzana, Lanusei, Seui, Talana, Tortoli’, Ussassai, Villagrande Strisaili.

Here’s how you can help Sardinia pick up the pieces:

To make a monetary donation to the comune of Olbia please follow the banking details:

Account: n. 0540 – 070361388
IBAN: IT72U 01015 84980 000070361388
BIC/Swift Code: BPMOIT22XXX
Reference: Comune di Olbia Emergenza Alluvione

Alluvione = Flood

‘Apocalyptic’ storm devastates holiday island of Sardinia (the-tap.blogspot.com)

Forza Sardegna. Forza.

Santa is listening.

An Unexpected Accordion Player at Tonara, Sardinia

Posted on November 23 by Jennifer Avventura

An unexpected accordion player greeted me at the cortas apertas in Tonara, Sardinia. He was kind in allowing me to photograph him while he played melodic tunes on his grandfather’s old musical instrument.