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    Fabbrica: Manufactured Italian

    Fabbrica is celebrity chef Mark McEwan’s latest restaurant, which is located across his namesake (upscale) grocery store at the Shops at Don Mills. The Italian word Fabbrica means factory, and here at McEwan’s establishment, they aim to serve rustic © admin for My Folie à Deux, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: culinary, Fabbrica, Folie a Deux, food, restaurant, Toronto, Uncategorized Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

  • Holiday Attractions

    Celebrating an Italian New Year

    Buon Anno! Happy New Year! New Year’s Eve as we know it was an invention of the ancient Romans. In 153 B.C. they moved the start of the new year from the Spring equinox to January 1 and dedicated the first month of the year to Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings, who looks back toward the old year and ahead toward the new one. For six days, Romans celebrated by hanging lights, preparing lavish banquets, and decorating their houses with boughs of greenery, including holly and mistletoe (considered magical plants because they bore fruit in the dead of winter). The Romans gave each other glass jars filled with dates…

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    Changing Seasons in the Italian Language

    l’autunno autumn The change of the seasons (il cambio delle stagioni) doesn’t bring dramatic changes in California, where I live. But in Italy every stagione – la primavera (spring), l’estate (summer), l’autunno (autumn), and l’inverno (winter) — has a different feel and focus. L’autunno is my favorite. The names of the months of autumn date back to ancient Rome — and remind us that our calendar (calendario) was one of the enduring gifts of Julius Caesar. Before his time the Roman calendar, devised by Rome’s founder Romulus some 2700 years ago, had only ten months. January and February, when the land lay fallow,  didn’t exist. The new year began in…