Last day of vacation. We started our day with a North End Boston culinary tour. We started at a place called Cafe Vitorria. And the best part was dessert first. We had the most delicious cannoli ever. They never prefil their cannoli. They do it after they are ordered, so the outside stays crisp and delicious. We also had a cappuccino. This tour was a combination North end history tour as well as food. We walked quite a bit on the freedom trail. From the canolis, we went to a panateria (bread bakery) called Bricco. We had slices of fresh baked Italian bread that had chunks of prosciutto and cheese baked in the loaf. It was down a narrow dark alley. An average tourist would never know it was there. Back around the corner of this little alley were 2 picnic tables. The bakery itself was down a flight of stairs in a basement. From there we walked through a mostly Italian neighborhood and heard stories of how grateful the Italian people were to the Jewish people for helping them set up and maintain successful businesses in Boston. There was a street called Salem, but it wasn’t for the town In Massachusetts, it was how the Jewish term Shalom was translated by the Italians. Our next culinary stop was to a cute Italian deli/grocery named Salumaria. There our guide ordered a traditional Italian sandwich with fresh sliced hard salamis and cheese on Italian bread. The store reminded me of a little deli I went to in Italy. There was a meat case with fresh cured meats, a cheese counter, and a nice selection of olives and sundried tomatoes. They carried a nice selection of olive oils, vinegars and other edible items from Italy. We walked to a little park across the street from Paul Rever’s house to eat our sandwich. Paul was a busy talented man. He was not only the spy that we know him as in aiding beating the British from ruling this country, but he was a silversmith and iron castor. He made several bells, but only one remains visible. I learned he had 16 children as well. 😳 His first wife died after giving birth to their 8th child.
After our sandwich, we got to tour the neighborhood and saw a statue of Paul Revere. His horse had one leg up and one down which means he was injured in battle but survived. Had he been killed, both of the horses legs would have been up off the ground. And had he remained uninjured, all the horses legs would have remained down. Apparently, this is a universal way of letting people know how famous warriors fared in wars, on their statues. Then we made our way to the north church via the freedom trail (marked on the sidewalks and streets by a double line of bricks). The north church tower is where Paul Revere was to hang the famous lanterns, one if by land, 2 if by sea…
(They came by sea, by the way). The church had something unique I’d never seen. They were little sectioned off boxes with gates on them. Inside, benches to sit on. Families would pay money to the church for their families box. The closer you were to the front, the more expensive your box. They thought the closer to the front they were, the closer they were to god. This church was also one of the first churches that allowed African Americans to attend the services. Though even in the north, they had to sit in a balcony. I guess it was progress for the time. But still so sad and disheartening. When we left the church, we concluded our tour with a slice of cheese pizza from Ernesto’s pizza. The 2nd oldest same family owned pizza place in Boston. The oldest one has branched out and has more than one store in town, it was called Reginas. Our guide was a high school English teacher named Conner. We were to be his last tour of the summer as he was returning to school next week. I enjoyed the tour, in spite of the super hot temperatures of the day. It was well into the 90’s with humidity to match. (Kind of like home, so I hear).