In This Issue

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• Kiwis in Italy!

• What's new at Dream of Italy

• Casa del Gelato - Our Featured Partner for July 2012

• Olympic Specials - Forza Italia! Forza Nuova Zelanda!

• Mid Winter Italian Recipe - warm the cockles of your heart!

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Kiwis in Italy!

This section of our newsletter is focussed on people doing interesting things in Italy or with the Italian community where ever it is.

I recently met Romi Patel at work and found we shared a common interest in Italy and the Italian language.  Romi and I used to greet one another and share short exchanges in Italian in the office and it was truly fun. After his assignment ended, Romi was off to Italy and what I heard he was doing was interesting.  So I 'interviewed him' for Dream of Italy News!

Read on....

Hi Romi, thanks for the time to chat today.  What are you doing in Italy right now?

Gaynor and I are here in Italy for two reasons. Firstly to pursue our study of the Italian language and, secondly, to spend three weeks in vacanza, practising our Italian and travelling around Northern Italy.

Where are you from and what do you normally do?

I am, originally, from Auckland, but now live on a life-style block in Pukekohe (part of Auckland). I have lived there for the last 22 years and share it with Maximillian, the Orange Cat and Arnold and Eva, my two Kunekune piglets (all animals understand my Italian perfectly).

I don’t think there is a “normal for me”. My career spans law, broadcasting, and engineering. My current occupation is as a consultant in business growth.  I assist companies with things such as developing strategy, responding to tenders, project management, and mergers and acquisition.

What inspired you to go to Italy to learn Italian?

I suppose that I should answer this by commenting on why I decided to learn Italian in the first place. During previous visits, for both pleasure and business, I found that by combining English with my university French and schoolboy Latin I was able to combine to communicate with the locals.  So, I said to myself, all those years ago, “one day I will learn this language; one day Roger Fitch, one day”. So, five years ago that “one day” arrived.
Read more.......

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What's new at Dream of Italy!

There are lots of big changes going on in our world!  Here are a few!

People Changes

Firstly, Alan is finally leaving his role in the corporate business world as General Manager of IT for New Zealand with Transfield Services, to now focus on the Dream of Italy business full time.

Secondly, James has joined Dream of Italy as a Marketing Intern to help with some major changes to our website and other new and exciting things.  Watch this space.  This newsletter is just one of the great changes coming up!

Last but not least our first grandson was born in March and with our daughter's wedding in May we are now officially 'Empty Nesters'.  To help us adjust to this new phase of life, we are taking off in September for our annual pilgrimage to Italy, this time visiting Naples and Sicily.  We'll be visiting some suppliers and catching up with old friends, as well as scouting around for new and exciting things to sell in our shop.  We are looking forward to exploring some parts of Italy which are less familiar to us.

New Products Just In!

We have two new product ranges just arrived from Italy and we are very excited about both!

 

Stationery

If you love Italian quality and design flair, you will love our new range of Stationery from Florence!

We haven't had time to put all the items up on the website yet, so if you are in Auckland come in to our store at 413 Mt Eden Road, to check out the beautiful Cards, Notebooks, Collage Paper, Italian Paper, Perfumed Drawer liners, Document Holders, Boxed Writing Paper, Stationery Wallets and more!

The cards, and in particular the Music Cards are proving very popular with shop customers.

We will be loading up more Italian Stationery products onto the website over the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Florentine Wooden Trays

Just imagine yourself presenting your guests with their evening Campari on one of these Florentine wooden trays!

Kathy has loved these trays as they are a vivid reminder of her childhood in Italy where items like this were used every day.  We have been searching for these for years and finally found the right supplier.

The trays are hand washable and resistant to heat, alcohol or coffee spills \ - hardier than they look!.

Our range includes several traditional designs with in red, (as shown at left), light blue, light green and pink, all on a gold base colour. Shapes include oval, small rectangular and large rectangular, with several more designs in the shop and coming to the website soon!

 

 

Free Shipping

We are trialling free shipping for web orders!  This applies to New Zealand and worldwide (there are a few exceptions for overseas orders involving large ceramic and glass items).  Place your web order now while the trial lasts!

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Featured Partner for July 2012 - Casa del Gelato, Mt Eden

Our Featured Partner for this Newsletter is 'Casa del Gelato', one of our neighbours in Mt Eden, Auckland.  Specialising in the Gelati that Italy is famous for, this store at the Northern end of the Mt Eden village is run by Lily.

We decided it was time we got together to offer both of our customers something special.

Casa del Gelato is offering all Dream of Italy customers a special '$2 off' offer.  Just print off this part of our newsletter, cut it out and present it at Casa del Gelato in Mt Eden during the month of August 2012 (to celebrate the hottest month in Italy!) and get $2 off any purchase!

Look out for future 'partner specials' from the Dream of Italy newsletter!

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Olympic Specials!

With the Olympics in full swing, I must say I have dual allegiances this year!  To celebrate, we are offering TWO special deals:

1. If you are on Facebook, 'Like' our Facebook page and we will send you a $10 voucher to spend on any Dream of Italy product. Just write on our wall - 'saw your email offer' and it will trigger an email from us with your voucher details.  You can make your purchase on line or come in to our shop if you are in Auckland.
2. It is Masquerade Ball season at the moment, so if you are looking for a mask or know someone who is, send them this email to receive a NZ$15 voucher off any mask purchase.  They will need to bring the email into the shop or email us for their voucher number if buying online.

There is FREE SHIPPING on our online orders!

This offer will close on 12th August 2012 (the closing day of the Olympics).

If you are following Italy at the games, best chances for medals are in Fencing (Italy has 15 fencers in the team and has captured many medals at past games) and boxing.  Roberto Cammarelle is a 31 year old policeman from Milan and boxes in the super heavy weight division, where he won gold in Beijing. Despite his success as a boxer, he refused to turn 'pro' and continues with his policing duties in Milan! Of course, Francesca Shiavone will also compete in tennis and Italy's popular champion swimmer Frederica Pellegrini who won the 200m free style event in 2008.

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Mid Winter Italian Recipe

- warm the cockles of your heart!

These little rice balls are known as 'arancini' (little oranges), because of their golden crust, which gives them the appearance of an orange.  They can be stuffed with various types of cheese, meats or chopped vegetables.

Arancini are served as snack food in bars and cafes all over Sicily.  Fried stuffed rice balls are also called 'suppli di riso' in some areas of Italy.

When mozzarella is added to the filling, they are called 'suppli al telefono' (telephone rice balls!) because the melted cheese pulls out like a long telephone wire!

Arancini can be assembled up to an hour in advance and fried at the last minute or they can be fried and kept in a warm oven for up to an hour.  Serve with traditional Italian tomato sauce for dipping to complete this lovely Italian snack.  Just perfect for a cold winter's day!

Click here for the full recipe. P.S. Our favourite bar in Mt Eden, Liquid Molten does fabulous Arancini if you want to try them before making!

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