Elegant Carthusian Perfume of Capri

The ISLE of CAPRI

CARTHUSIAN PERFUME & COLOGNE

Legend has it that in 1380 the father prior of the Carthusian Monastery of St. Giacomo was taken unaware by the news of the arrival in Capri of Queen Giovanna d’Angiò and so made a flower arrangement with the most beautiful flowers of the island. The water was not changed for three days and, when the flowers were thrown away, the prior noticed that the water had acquired a fragrance unknown to him. He went to the father alchemist who traced the origin of this scent back to the “Garofilum silvestre caprese”. That water became the first perfume of Capri.

History, on the other hand, relates that in 1948 the prior of the Monastery discovered the old formulas of the perfumes and, with by permission from the Pope, revealed them to a chemist from Turin, who created the smallest laboratory in the world and called it “Carthusia”, i.e. Certosa.

The tradition is now being continued and the limited production means being able to use the same methods as the Carthusian monks. All the preparations are made from genuine products of high quality and even the end product is handwrapped. The essence derived from rosemary picked on Monte Solaro is used in men’s products, while the essence of the Capri wild carnation is used in women’s fragrances.

FIORE di CAPRI

CARTHUSIAN PERFUM

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FIORI di CAPRI

The refinement of the floral notes of lily of the valley and wild carnation combined with the mysterious charm of amber, sandalwood, ylang-ylang and oak.

CARTHUSIAN PARUM di CAPRI

A'MARRE Eau de PARFUM

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• Carthusia's A'mmare Eau de Parfum is sunny, bright, and aromatic. Inspired by a lush, flowery, colorful garden where vegetation and water features draw a fragrant perimeter, rich in details that symbolize, as a whole, life and harmony.
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• Imagine an authentic, almost secret garden opens up among the alleys of Capri and intertwines under the veil of the waves, bringing to shore coral branches and vegetable compositions, together with shells and unexpected explosions of a natural heritage highlighted by a sunny day. A lush, flowery, colorful garden where vegetation and water features draw a fragrant perimeter rich in details that symbolize, as a whole, life and harmony. These are the inspirations behind Carthusia's A’mmare.
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• Bergamot, sunny and bright, meets Rosemary, aromatic and occasionally pungent. Salt is on the skin, crystallized. A plunge is refreshing, leaving room for what is new. Mint Leaves, green tender smoothness. Hidden energy. Now the vision is fulfilled, the horizon complete. Cedarwood and Guaiac, a precious forest, protect Patchouli and Musk, incoming gifts from faraway lands. The magic of the tale is complete, all around.
• Fragrance Pyramid Top: Bergamot, Salt Crystals, Rosemary Middle: Water Accord, Mint Leaves Base: Cedar Wood, Patchouli, Guaiac Wood, Musk

• Made in Italy.
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Cartusian Parfum di Capri

CARTHUSIAN PERFUMI di CAPRI

FIORI di CAPRI

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POSITANO The AMALFI COAST

CAPRI NAPLES SORRENTO RAVELLO

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Sicilian Pasta Cucuzza Soup Recipes

ZUPPA di CUCUZZA

 

"THATS a GAGOOTZA" !!!

RECIPES FROM MY SICILIAN NONNA 

by Daniel Bellino "Z"

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RECIPE

 

Zuppa di Cucuzza

 

Excerpted Form Daniel Bellino's

 

Grandma Bellino's Italian Cookbook

 

 

 

 

ZUPPA di CUCUZZA

    “Gagootz” !!!!

This is a soup that my mother used to make every now and then. Usually when her friend Mary Santangelo gave her a couple big Cucuzza, from their backyard garden in Garfield. My mother Lucia learned this recipe from her mother who used to make it back in Sicily, and she learned how to make it from her mother, my Great Grandmother Salemi. This dish is one of the quintessential recipes of this book, and also of both the Italian-American and Sicilian-American table as a whole, and of course of Sicilians in Sicily, especially in the years of the first 70 years of the 20^th Century from around 1900 to 1970’s or so. The soup is easy to make and quite economical, feeding about 15 or 16 portions of which you can serve over a 3 - 4 day time. Cucuzza are not always available in every store, however more and more super markets are carrying them during their growing season, and you can always get them at any produce store that specializes in Italian foods.

This zuppa is a soup of course, but almost a pasta dish as well, and you can vary the amount of pasta as you like. Cooking pasta separately on the side and when you are serving it, you will use double the amount of pasta or more, with less liquid in the soup and using the soup actually as a sauce. I always do this, as there are always leftovers when making a pot of it, and serving it as a pasta is a nice welcome alternative to give one variety from the same dish. I do the same with Lentil Soup to make Pasta Lenticchie, a pasta dish. In addition, if you like, you can sauté one link of Italian Sweet or Hot Sausage, serve up the soup as either pasta or soup and add a link of sausage or two to each plate. You will love it any way you do, as do the Bellino’s and millions of other Italian’s have over the years. So make it, and enjoy, and always Mangia Bene Amici!

GAGOOTZ

 

RECIPE :

INGREDIENTS :

1 large Cucuzza ak.a. Gagootz

1 large onion, peeled and diced

6 Garlic Cloves, peeled and sliced thin

8 tablespoons Olive Oil

½ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

1 teaspoon Sea Salt

½ tsp. Black Pepper

6 Plum Tomatoes, chopped

1 pound fresh cooked Fava Beans, or frozen Baby Lima Beans (or canned lima beans)

1 pound imported Italian Ditalini (or Ronzoni)

Cut off ends of the Cucuzza and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Cut the Cucuzza in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and discard. Cut into 1 ½ inch cubes.

Put olive oil and cucuzza in a large 6-quart pot. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring with a wooden spoon. Add onion and cook for 4 minutes more.

Add garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Add red pepper, and cook for 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. Add water and cook on medium-low heat for 12 minutes.

Add Fava Beans (or Lima Beans) and cook on low heat for 6 minutes.

Cook Ditalini according to directions on package. When finished cooking, drain in a colander, making sure to reserve 2 – 3 cups of water to add to soup.

Add all the pasta to the soup. Add salt 7 Black Pepper and stir.

Add water little by little to the soup until you reach the consistency that you like. The soup should be fairly thick, yet slightly watery.

Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top of each bow of soup and pass grated cheese for your guest to put in their soup.

Save any remaining soup in a closed container to enjoy anytime for lunch, dinner, or anytime in-between.

 

 

ZUPPA di CUCUZZA

 

 

Mangia Bene !!!

MINESTRA di CUCUZZA SICILIANA

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PASTA con CUCUZZA

PASTA con CUCUZZA SICILIANA

VIDEO RECIPE

3 SICILIAN CUCUZZA Recipes

From a REAL SICILIAN

POLEPTTE (Meatballs) di CUCUZZA

CUCUZZA eb PANDELLA

CUCUZZA with TUNA

POLPETTE di CUCUZZZA

CUCUZZA MEATBALLS

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ALSO by DANIEL

 

 

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Venice Hemingway Favorite Hotel Gritti Palace Hemingways

 

The GRAND CANAL

The GRITTI PALACE

The GITTI PALACE HOTEL

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Ernest Hemingway with Wife Martha Gellhorn

The GRITTI PALACE

VENICE, ITALY

Not only can I look down from Hemingway’s window, I can also sit in his chair."

Adrian Mourby in the newly unveiled Hemingway Suite at the Gritti Palace which reopened last month after an 18 month refurbishment.

Outside my window the men who punt the black traghetti back and forth joke while waiting for customers. The traghetto has crossed at this point for centuries. There are only a few places on the great serpentine coil of Venice’s Grand Canal that are still served by them, but when Hemingway, Somerset Maugham or John Ruskin wanted to get across the Grand Canal, these eminent men of English letters could just walk outside the Gritti Palace and step on board. It’s one of the many advantages of this sixteenth century brick palazzo that became a hotel in the nineteenth.

To commemorate these writers, the newly reopened Gritti Palace has named a suite after each.

Not only can I look down from Hemingway’s window, I can also sit in his chair. When the Gritti closed eighteen months ago for refurbishment, every item of furniture, every picture and Murano glass chandelier was labelled and stored, which is why I know that Papa Hemingway sat in this unremarkable low green chair. By the time Hem was staying at the Gritti he had grown corpulent, sitting here his belly would have rested low on his thighs. As I take his place, I can’t help wondering what he would have made of the new Gritti and the suite that bears his name. No doubt he would have found it all a bit over-decorated, and more to the taste of “Miss Mary”, his hard-faced fourth wife who is pictured on the wall opposite. She and Papa are standing on the terrace of the Gritti during one of her visits, circa 1949.

The HEMINGWAY SUITE

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STAY in The HEMINGWAY SUITE

There is only one Gritti Palace, and there is only one true Hemingway's Suite. 

Of course, as an avid Hemingway fan, I’m aware that when that black and white photo was taken Hem (left with Mary) was infuriating Miss Mary with a new infatuation. Ernest Hemingway was 50 and had recently fallen for a young Venetian artist, Countess Adriana Ivancich. She was only 19 and quite unaware of the strength of his feelings. Frustrated, Hemingway poured his passion into the worst he ever wrote, Across the River and into the Trees. The story is a thinly veiled fantasy in which an old American colonel, marked for death, is having a barely unconsummated affair with Renata, a young Venetian aristocrat. Hem wrote the book fuelled by crates of Valpolicella which he would buy from Harry’s bar round the corner. I feel rather sorry for the author, physically old before his time, staggering back to the Gritti at night or waking as light played on the surface of the Grand Canal, and taking a bottle of Valpolicella and the Herald Tribune to the lavatory with him, as Colonel Cantwell does.

A man needs toys. Big men need big toys. 

When the book came out, it was a critical disaster. Worse Hemingway made the guilty mistake of dedicating his book of Adriana fantasies to Mary. No wonder she looks so tightly wound in that photo. Ironically the critical mauling that Hemingway received over Across the River and into the Trees spurred him to hit back with The Old Man and the Sea, which won him the Nobel Prize for Literature - though I’m sure  Mary Hemingway would have had something to say about the fact that the cover illustration of that book was done by the young woman he fell in love with in Venice. 

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Models of HEMINGWAYS BOATS

The HEMINGWAY SUITE

And finally: Rum with a view. 

The bar in the author's former suite is well stocked ...

The HEMINGWAY SUITE

The GRITTI PALACE HOTEL

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In 1948, Hemingway stayed in Venice’s glamorous GRITTI PALACE Gritti Palace has also hosted other celebrated figures, like Peggy Guggenheim, Elizabeth Taylor, and Richard Burton, and is still known as one of Venice’s most alluring luxury hotels. Even when Hemingway was in Venice and not staying at Gritti Palace, he came often to dine and socialize.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Behind The BAR - HARRY'S BAR

VENICE, ITALY

At this time Hemingway began to frequent Harry's Bar and befriends the owner Giuseppe Cipriani, a warm local man who took much pride in his establishment. At Harry’s, Hemingway could observe and meet people, while eating, drinking, and writing in style at his table in the corner. Although Hemingway was Harry’s Bar most celebrated guest, perhaps because he went so frequently, it is also known for entertaining famous creative characters like Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Truman Capote, Orson Welles, and Woody Allen. The owner, Ciprani invented the ‘Bellini,’ a light, sparkling cocktail made with Prosecco and fresh white peaches, which is still served at Harry’s Bar. Hemingway was partial to Harry’s Montgomery cocktail, which was made with gin and a touch of vermouth, as well as Venice’s divine wines.

Seduced by Venice’s excellent wine and food, Hemingway soon craved more solitude and invigorating stimulation to write, so he moved to the Venetian island of Torcello. On Torcello, Hemingway had the chance to hole himself away to write. He also was able to engage in more active, adventurous pursuits, like jetting across the Grand Canal, and hunting game with his Venetian friends. On this tiny island, Hemingway wrote another novel, Across the River and into the Trees.

GIUSEPPE CIPRIANI & ERNEST HEMINGWAY

VENICE

HARY'S BAR, VENICE

ERNEST HEMINGWAY with Owner GIUSEPPE CIPRIANI

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