Middle aged women: 1 Me: 0

“Ciao ciao grazie ciao prego caio prego grazie ciao ciao.” In Italy that might literally mean hundreds of things. I am relatively sure that those words, no matter the order or frequency can explain everything that has ever happened to you or anyone else or anything in general, ever. Also, throwing in a “si” once in a while helps…usually. I say usually, because up until yesterday nothing has really backfired when I say “si” in response to something I don’t understand. Well that lucky streak came to an abrupt end when I was on the train yesterday and some middle aged Italian lady across from me said something and gestured to something on the train floor, maybe my shoes, or her shoes, or her shopping bag. I don’t know. When I said “si” she and her friend sitting next to her started to laugh at me, and my lack of Italian. Middle aged women: 1 Me: 0
On a more exciting note, I had an amazing time in Siena and Montalcino with Ryan and Emily. We tasted nine different Brunelos local to that region, all of which were amazing. Then we had a great dinner, Tuscan soup, pasta with a wild boar sauce, and a plate of cheese and meat.
And on an even more exciting note, if you can believe it, today is the start of our week long wine stage; it’s going to be awesome! We are visiting two Barolo wineries with wine tastings, a cheese maker (not sure why since its wine stage, but I won’t complain), plus we are doing another two wine tastings at the wine bank here in Pollenzo. Details to come.

Vino

It has been a little more than a month, and I have already tasted my way through many adventures. How about a little recap of what I have experienced so far? Good, here we go;

1. Spent a few days eating nothing but amazing cheese and drinking beer and wine.
2. Decided that the panna cotta at Osteria Del Boccondivino is the best tasting thing that has ever touched my lips…get your mind out of the gutter, jeezz.
3. Gone to, and hiked through the five towns of Cinque Terre. Seen the Mediterranean Sea for the first time.
4. Finished Italian class, history of Italian cuisine, and food history.
5. Scored my first goal against a bunch of Italian soccer players, that does certifiably make me awesome, just in case you were wondering.
6. Gone to two bio dynamic wineries, and had tastings at both, I also received two free bottles of wine. Had my first chocolate tasting with a local artisan chocolate maker.

Now, a few things that are coming up soon;

1. Going to Siena in the region of Tuscany.( That’s actually happing real soon like in day, 10/19)
2. Going on a wine stage, which involves a week of visiting wineries and tasting wines.
3. Seeing my Dad, and going to Milan to visit my cousins with him.
4. Going on an olive oil stage, same thing as wine, but with olive oil. I have been assigned to the Liguria region; I have been told that they have the best olives there.

Finally, things that I still want to do;

1. Go to my distant families’ old winery in Collie Piacenza.
2. Stand on the Champs-Élysées and pretend I won the Tour De France, maybe kiss the ground.
3. Go to Amsterdam, Munich, Paris, Nice, Egypt, Pompeii, Venice, just too many places to name and too little time to go.
4. Go hiking in the Alps.

Time to finish packing for Siena!

It's America...In Italy

It has already been two full weeks of classes here at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, and I only have eight more too go. Granted, one of those eight weeks will be me drinking and learning about wine, and another will be learning about and tasting olive oils. So, in reality it’s only six weeks of actual class left. That’s not so bad.

The two classes we’re taking; History of Cuisine, and History of Italian Cuisine will be over next week which is definitely a good thing.

“In the case of two week old History of Italian Cuisine, you are…NOT, an exciting class. In the case of two week old History of Cuisine, you are…NOT, exciting either.”

Ok so I lost some steam with that last one, but hopefully the Maury reference got the point across. See, it’s not so much that the classes are long and drawn out, I have gotten used to that. It’s that the material that we are learning is either dry, or I already know it.

In History of Cuisine we have been learning about American history with some relation to food for all but one class, and now the entire second section is devoted to it. I learned about American history in elementary school, middle school, and high school. Honestly, do I need to come to Italy to learn more about America? History of Italian Cuisine is better, but not by much. Our teacher is a genius, probable the most knowledgeable person on Italy’s food history, but for the life of him he cannot connect his thoughts. His lectors consist of him rambling on about something relating to Italy’s food history for three hours. I leave feeling more confused than when I walked in.

Now that that is out of my system, I can tell you about the most exciting part of my week, the dinner I helped make with my roommates for our good friends Paolo and Annalise. We made a four course dinner, starting with crostini and fig jam, topped with prosciutto di Parma. Second we had homemade pasta with dried roasted tomatoes and olive oil. Then came a roast beef tartar with an arugula salad and balsamic vinegar dressing, finally we had a baked and seasoned chicken breast with some awesome honey, we bought at cheese, and an arugula salad. The night was a huge hit. Paolo and Annalise also brought two amazing wines, a white Tocai Friulano, and a dessert wine Vigna del Volta.

Not much is happening until next weekend when Paolo has set up a winery tour for us. Now is the time that the vineyards are doing their grape harvesting. It is also white truffle season, awesome!

A Date With History

Italian classes are officially over, and I feel like I have learned enough to get by now. I can understand basic phrases and I’m getting better every day. Come December, I may even be able to speak without planning what I want to say in advance.

Last week was a very exciting one since there was graduation on Thursday, and “Eat In” on Friday. Did I mention I meet Carlo Petrini? No. Well I did. If that name doesn’t ring a bell that’s ok, it’s not like he founded an organization called Slow Food here in Bra, that is now thriving worldwide and has revolutionized the way we view food and sustainability. Oh wait, I guess he did. So yeah, it’s a big deal.

As he formally welcomed use to the school, I did my best to hold myself together, but all I wanted to do was giggle like a teenage girl would around one of the Jonas brothers. After our break in class I went outside with Matt and Ryan and we couldn’t believe who walked around the corner, the man, the myth, the legend; Carlo Petrini. We had another brief conversation with him in our broken Italian about school, his upcoming trip to the USA; he even said that we should have dinner together sometime.

The next big news is the second annual “Eat In.” This is a big community style dinner organized by the school and the second year students as a way to welcome the first year students, and to bring together the whole school. Groups of students prepared meals and brought them to the dinner. I was assigned to a group of who was making traditional Kenyan food and had a great time cooking and eating. The night was very successful, the town even paid for the wine! Try to get Durham to do that.

Finally, the week cumulated with an amazing trip to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a collection of five towns along the coast of Liguria. The five towns are Monterosso, Veranzza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Throughout the weekend we got a chance to hike the whole trail. We had beautiful weather resulting in some amazing views of the ocean and surrounding hill side. Many more amazing trips to come, I do love it here in Italy.

School is Now in Session

School has officially started. The first week of Italian classes are over and now that I am not cramming my head full of six hours a day worth of Italian, I can take a minute to unwind, and reflect. Italian has been hard to learn, but with so much class it has been getting easier every day. We have been learning basic greetings, verb conjugation in the present tense, descriptions, directions, weather, simple everyday conversational Italian. This is great since I definitely enjoy knowing how to ask for something, rather than pointing and grunting a little.

Last week all had to go into Cuneo to get some government number that allowed us to live in Italy for an extended amount of time, and to get free government health care, woot woot! The trip was quite an adventure, that involved accidentally buying a train ticket instead of a bus ticket, getting off the bus a stop or two too early, and wandering around until we found the correct building. After waiting around for hours we were told only four people actually needed to be there. So, one day wasted due to Italian bureaucracy. Well, I shouldn’t say wasted, I did enjoy the city, and will be going back to see it again, I bought a round way train ticket anyway.

I am excited for next weekend because we are all taking the train to Cinque Terre and hiking to the different towns. All Thanks to Lauren who was kind enough to organize this whole weekend trip!

Time to get some reading done on this beautiful day for one of our courses called History of Cuisine, which starts on Tuesday.

It Helps to Have Friends in High Places

Feeling groggy and bloated after waking up at noon has become common place; after all I have been drinking amazing beer, and eating cheese from three straight days. Throughout these four days I would say I have tried over 50 types of cheeses, mostly from Italy, and about 50 different types of beer, also mostly from Italy. I have also of course had a few glasses of wine along the way.

This festival has given me the chance to experience many artisanal beers, cheeses, wines, balsamic vinegars, and honeys, that I don’t think I will ever get to taste again unless I find myself back here, which is a strong possibility at this point. Everyday has truly been a unique experience.

A few highlights of the festival have been the wine tent, beer tent, and cheese market. Paulo, who also works at the schools wine bank, was working at the wine tent and taught us about six different wines all from the Piedmont region we are living in. We tasted four Barbarescos, and two Barolos. The Brabarescos are lighter in color and taste, the Borolo is a much stronger tasting wine. All these wine are produced within an hour of Bra.

Now onto the beer, and wow, was there a lot of it. To start, I want to say thanks the students working the beer tent for hooking us up every day! I probably paid four euro for the 50 half glasses of beer, all of which were amazing. Some of my favorites were the Winterlude which is a triple and New Morning which is a saison, both made by the same producer. The Black Lizard a super dark, nearly black porter was amazing; it had a strong coffee taste and was very heavy. Re Ale which is American pale ale and was phenomenal, I must have had three glass of that alone. Novi Luna which is another saison and had hints of flowers. It was very light and refreshing. Those round out my top five for the beer, and they were phenomenal.

The beer may have seemed like the main event, and for most people it probably was, but the cheese took the show. I have tried the best of nearly every single kind of cheese there is. Every conception I have of what good cheese is is gone. It is hard to describe what I have tasted, but it has ranged from the creamiest mozzarella, to the sharpest parmigiano reggiano, and the most flavorful blue cheese.

Not to mention the balsamic vinegar. I have tried balsamic vinegar aged for longer than two of my lives; so thick that it took a few seconds before it even began to pour out of the bottle. It also costs about 150euro, around 200 USD for probably a cup and a half. The best part, one of our Italian classmates’, Marco, works there and is going to takes us on a tour. He also said he would get us the balsamic for half price, score! I can’t forget the many types of honey, some made from famous Piemonte hazelnuts, some from pistachios, some from white mustard plus many more.

Now that cheese has come to a close, it’s time to wind down the partying as I get ready to start Italian class on Monday.

Getting Settled in

I am now on my third day here in Bra, and still have not managed a good night sleep. This is probably due to a few factors:
1. I have been drinking lots of awesome wine and not going to bed until at the earliest 3:30 am.
2. There is “aperitivo” which is drinks and snacks at 7 so dinner is usually eaten at 10-11pm. Then more drinking commences.
3. At 7am every morning motor bikes and cares eco between our building and the adjacent one, waking me up.

Regardless I am still having an amazing time. We have been at the University for Gastronomic Sciences for the past two days for orientations. I learned today that the school has a wine bank, with over 80,000 of the best wine from all over the world! We will be getting a tour, and having a five day wine tasting stage at the end of October. Communicating is hard, but our Italian classes start Monday.
Starting Friday there is “cheese” which is a four day festival involving hundreds of samples of local and global cheese, wine, and beer.