Speaking of wine, I recall the following from a book mentioned by Chuckanut in a thread last year: Extra Virgin Amongst the Olive Groves of Liguria, Annie Hawes, 2001.
The British author bought a small primitive place in the hills a few miles inland from Diano Marina, which was meant to be a place for a town inhabitant to spend a night or two during the grape or olive harvest season, and not as a permanent housing. She recounted many interesting anecdotes about the peculiar and charming habits of the locals. Some of them spoke mainly Ligurian, and were not even well versed in the common Italian language.
Initially, she kept hearing them referring to wine as vino d'uva. which means grape vine. She asked if they also made wine from other fruits besides grape, to which they said no. Then, why not simply called it vino, she asked. The locals replied that they wanted to distinguish their homemade wine from commercial wines bought in bottles at the stores. The latter is made from grape all right, but who knows what else is put in there, they said.
The homemade wine was stored in jugs, and topped off with a layer of olive oil, also home made, on top to seal the surface of the wine from air. After pouring, they just blew off the droplets of oil that float on top of the wine.
Very interesting book, and full of stories that one would not find elsewhere. The author hung around with the locals and peasants in Liguria, and knew a lot more about their customs and habit, and had so many interesting stories to tell, more than the best-seller memoirs of Peter Mayle covering his time among the Provencial French. Mayle was a millionaire, and he observed the local French from a distance, and did not mingle with the laborers and peasants. Books by Annie Hawes would sell much better, if she had an editor to organize the content differently.
