LITTLE ITALY NEWS APRIL 2014

www.littleitalytroy.org

troylittleitaly@gmail.com

THE MARKET PLACE

Current Status: Week of March 31, 2014

The Site has been secured with chain link fencing and green privacy fabric
Security guards are working during off hours
Gates are located on Hill Street and Liberty Street (main gate)
Mobilization and Site set-up has been completed
Crack Gages and Settlement Monitoring Points have been installed along the
brick wall near the bocce courts
Sheet pile driving will begin this week in the main parking lot area

ZUCCHERO

Saturday, April 19 8:00pm $34

Italian music superstar Zucchero, whose music is
inspired by gospel, soul and rock music has sold
over 50 million records around the world and has
achieved numerous awards, including two World
Music Awards, six IFPI Europe Platinum Awards
and a Grammy Award nomination.
For a $10.00 discount on each ticket call Rocco DeFazio and
make a reservation. His number is 518-274-8866

Saturday April 26, 2014

There will be no formal Earth Day in our
neighborhood this year due to the work in
the Marketplace. We ask that each of you
clean the front and the alleys behind your
property. If there is any large clean up that
you see contact Marion Field at 518-2661406 and we will have the Pathstone
workers go out and clean the area.

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
Quality of Life
Issues our committee members are working on for the neighborhood
Nuisance Abatement

Absentee Landlords

Vacant Properties

Marketing Real Estate in our Area

Working with the Community Police

Attend the meeting on 4/15 for info

Help Resources
Emergencies
Traffic Safety

911
270-5157

Non-Emergencies

270-4411

Downtown Station

270-4421

North Station

237-2398

South Station

273-1682

Community Police

270-4689

Special Operations
Animal Control

270-4640

Tip Line, Anonymous

Detective Unit

270-5854

270-5004

270-4426

April Meeting
4/15
Neighborhood Watch
6 p.m.
Troy Little Italy
6:30 p.m.
233 Fourth Street Corner of
Washington and Fourth

How Do You Say Roots in Italian?

Part nine of a personal search from Troy to Frosolone.
By Frank LaPosta Visco
It was now hours of travel on trains to the Rome Airport at Fiumicino, where the courtesy bus
from the Hotel Roma in Fiumicino would pick us up. The Roma is a small luxury hotel that we
found online and though expensive, chose it for our last night in Italy, for its nearness to the airport, and because it was probably the last chance for a good nights sleep until we got to our
respective homes. The accommodations did not disappoint in fact, they exceeded our expectations.
We had requested separate beds, and were they ever separated! The room was a duplex two
floors, with a bedroom and balcony overlooking the town (and the water if you leaned a certain
way) on each floor.
We walked through Fiumicino at around 6:30 in the evening, found an internet point and send
our final emails home just before the store closed at 7. Now it was time to find a restaurant
where we would have our last Italian meal at ground level.
The hotel restaurant prices were exorbitant, and we were already spending 195 euros for the
room; so we explored further, and made an unusual decision to have dinner at Miao Peng,
Ristorante Cinese. (Maybe meeting Ching Petrunti in Frosolone pre-ordained this.) And of
course, when we walked in, at a few minutes after seven, the staff was eating. We interrupted so
many waiters dinners at so many restaurants, I almost felt compelled to leave more than the
recommended 10 per cent tip when servicio wasnt included. Almost.
A lovely Asian waitress seated us in the middle of the empty dining room, and while she probably spoke Chinese, I know she spoke Italian and practically no English. I dont know what
youd expect to find in a Chinese restaurant in Rome we imagined a menu in Italian and Chinese. But when we opened it, there was just Italian and English. And it was divided into the
typical Italian menu divisions Antipasti, Primi, Secondi, Dolce, and Formaggi.
Everything was fine, until we noticed that there were no chopsticks on any of the tables. We
both wanted to use them, so Rich consulted the two dictionaries he had brought with him to
help with the few difficult moments he encountered. Of course, the guidebooks did not anticipate that an American tourist in Italy would need to request chopsticks. I remembered the title
of a 1991 Roberto Benigni movie, Johnny Stecchino, which translates as Johnny Toothpick.
Using that bit of knowledge, Rich, with the international gesture for using the implements,
asked for grande stecchini. Giant toothpicks. I thought I saw her stifle a laugh, but she maintained her composure and brought chopsticks, and I have a feeling the staff is still telling the
story in the kitchen and laughing at us. When asked, she told us they were called bacchette in
Italian.

As we ate, the restaurant filled to capacity it was a Saturday night, and there were extended
families with kids sharing huge bottles of Coca-Cola, groups of hyperactive teenagers, beautiful
couples on dates, a cross section of the natives of Fiumicino. We had found one of the locals
favorite weekend restaurants. And they were all using flatrware we were the only ones in the
restaurant eating with giant toothpicks.
After a short nights sleep in our duplex hotel room, we arose at 4 a.m., giving us the time we
needed to get to the airport, check in and go through security for a 7 a.m. flight. The rest of the
trip was just checking in and connecting with flights and being impatient to get home and share
the stories, the pictures, the bread and the scissors with family and friends.
Now, as I write about these experiences, theres a lingering feeling even a yearning to return.
If youve ever been to a special place, one where you merely felt a connection, then you can
imagine the effect of being in a really special place where you have actual connections. As I
clicked on the video of Frosolones outdoor Festa della Forgiatura, which I've done often, I
imagined myself going back up those hills some August and this time, being greeted by familiar faces with familiar names. Ill bet I could even convince the same driver to come along. Ill
just have to find a better navigator.
Next: The surprise of a lifetime.

Coming Soon