Thoughts and Thought Provokers

Anonymous asked: are you planning to go see 'the beatles: the lost concert' film?

I have a feeling that one of my good friends Emma or my cousin Rocky would love to have a date to this movie… so I will go with a yes!

On April 18th, my grandmother and her friend Joan came to visit me here in Italy!  It was so much fun.  The first day, we just got dinner and hung out, because they were a little beat from their flight.  The next day, I gave them the customary tour of the Verona city… we saw Piazza Erbe, Piazza Bra, the Arena, Via Mazzini, the works.  It started to rain, so we headed towards my new favorite place to get a drink by The Hill.  I was soaked to the skin and was freezing, but I managed to survive!  We headed back out into the rain and headed to dinner at Osteria Giulietta & Romeo, where I had the same ragu gnocchi that I ordered when the parents were here.  It was just as spectacular as before, and very filling.  That night we got home and hung out again, but I was sooo sleepy because I was so full.

On the 20th, we headed around mid-afternoon to Asiago for the weekend!  The “nonnas” were allowed to come too because there were so many students not going on the trip, so it was wonderful that they got to go for free.  We headed out around 3:30 and took the hour and a half drive to the town of Asiago.  It. Was. Beautiful.  Right away I wanted to get out and take pictures.  We were all meeting downstairs for dinner at 7:30, so Alyssa, Lynne and I set out to walk to the store to get some wine and snacks before dinner.  Here is the view of our place (our room is the balcony on the top right):

The views along the way were SPECTACULAR.  So stunning. So much green, and the clouds seemed so low because we were so high up:

We saw a pig herding two cows along the way… it was adorable!

He had his eye on me for realz:

It started to rain just as we were getting back for dinner, so we had perfect timing.  Dinner was very nice, and afterwards everyone was pretty beat, so we stayed in and had a girls night.  AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS:

That’s right. Huge bottle of wine for €3.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get over how cheap the wine is here!  We had an amazing night… I don’t think that any of the nights here in Italy compare!  We played with Claudio’s little dogs too… it was so much fun.

The next day was the thing that I had been most excited for before I came to Verona: THE CHEESE FACTORY.

Us getting talked to by the cheese man:

The grandmas:

We got a tour of the inside of the cheese factory, and got to see how they started with milk and ended with cheese!

Looks delicious right?! 

They started with this one giant cheese ball:

And then ended up with two!

One of the most delicious magic tricks I’ve ever seen.

Those ginormous balls of cheese go into casings, and then are stored like this:

Don’t forget the texture on the outside!  They use this, and place it around the outside of the cheese:

… so the rind with have a texture!

The cheese and I were very good friends.

GNAM GNAM!

After the actual place where they make the cheese, we saw where they break up the fresher Grana Padana cheese.

And then we got to sample it… from taking it right out of the ginormous tub it was in!

Me and the ginormous tub:

Then we got to see the room where the older cheese is kept for a longer period of time (this room definitely smelled the worst!):

After this room we finally got to taste more cheese.  We had a “baby” grana padana, 1 year old and 2 year old.  I loved the oldest one!  It was sooo good.

Grandma and the 1 year old:

We all got in front of the huge wheel of cheese outside of the factory:

After the cheese factory we headed out to the town of Asiago, where we visited the street market and sat in the square.  It wasn’t anything too special, but it was relaxing which was nice.  

The best part of this trip into town was right when we were going to get onto the bus, we decided to do a little exploring into the park nearby, and this sight met our eyes:

Just unbelievable.

And on the other side, this view:

I literally could have just laid in the grass there all day.  It smelled so amazing and the grass was so green… it’s making me all happy right now just thinking about it again!

Once we got back from our trip into town, it was time for horseback riding.  I guess you could say I don’t need to horseback ride again any time soon.

How uncomfortable to I look on that horse?! Pretty uncomfortable, I would say.  The best that can be said about that time was that I did not fall off. Yay?

We had dinner again that night all together, and it was so much fun again.  We stayed in that night as well, attempted to have another girls night, which we did a little bit, but it was nothing as compared to the night before!

The next morning, it was raining pretty steadily, but for some reason I still decided to go horseback riding out of the pen.  It was really beautiful, but my horse did not want to listen, and I was not comfortable trotting, which is all it wanted to do.  It was also pretty scary going up and down hills that were slippery rocks.  Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have gone!  Oh well, I guess.  Live and let live.

We had lunch at the hotel, and then afterwards packed up our bags and headed back home.  We stopped at a war museum along the way, and it was pretty crazy to see all of the artifacts they had.  I slept all the way home on the bus because I was just so exhausted from horseback riding.  Once we got home, Jennie, Sarah & I decided to have a potluck style dinner and cook for the grandmothers, and it was wonderful.  I was sooo full from dinner, but it was nice to have dinner in versus going out.

The next day, I had class in the afternoon, so the grandmas decided to go to Venice.  They apparently had a spectacular time, listening to all of Claudio’s advice about the best places to go.  We met up around dinner time, hopped on a bus and went to one of the best pizzerias in Verona, Du De Cope.  I had a spectacular pizza with buffalo mozzarella, and I have to say it was definitely one of the best pizzas I’ve had while here!  We took the bus home, and hung out in the grandmas room for a while.  I left them pretty sad, because they were leaving the next morning at 4 am.  I had a wonderful time with them though, and I’m so glad they got to visit!  I think they had a really good time too. :)

let the countdown to chicago begin…..

3 DAYS

Last Saturday, a small portion of our cohort headed to the Pre-Alps in Northern Italy to do a little adventuring and hiking!

We drove to the small town of Giazza (circled on the map, Verona is down south) and took a two hour hike into the Pre-Alps that were near the village.  IT WAS GORGEOUS!  I had been feeling a little funky and sad before this hike, but my release into nature sure did the trick.

We followed the little stream for the majority of the way, but then the climb started to get steeper.  We saw some abandoned houses along the way, that I would just love to reinhabit, like, NOW.

More pretty shots along the way up:

The group trekking up the mountain side:

We reached a little plateau where we got to relax a little bit, see the house that was built there,

and get some fresh water straight from the mountain!

It seriously was sooo beautiful and green.

We got told a little about the history of this region at this point, and about the house built there.

Then we continued our trek onward on the side of the mountain; luckily there wasn’t as much uphill anymore.

On the way, we saw a house that was crumbling.  This area is different from most places in the world; instead of having people take over and ruin nature, nature has instead taken over where humans used to live.  I kinda like that!

At this point in the hike, Lynn and I got separated from the group because we wanted to take a lot of pictures of the abandoned house.  No matter!  We had a good time traversing the dangerous path downwards.  It was super muddy and slippery, so it was a bit scary, but still fun!

Me looking all cute, drenched in rain:

After two  hours, we were all pretty beat, muddy, damp and hungry.  We headed through the town to the place where we had lunch.  I’m in love with this town!

For lunch, we got to try their spaghetti made from vegetable coal, something that is famous in this region.  It actually tasted really good!  It was kinda like eating a camp fire haha!

After lunch, we had a demonstration of these men who shoot off ancient guns.  They were huge, loud and scary.  Jason, a boy from our group, got to shoot it off, and I think almost everyone in our cohort had a heart attack.

After a day of high intensity activity, all of us were pretty beat.  I know that I personally went home and passed out!

On Sunday, we headed west of Verona towards Lake Garda.  We started out the day at the aquarium.  While not as amazing as the Shedd Aquarium back in Chicago, it was still pretty cool!  We got to pet a star fish (as demonstrated by my friend Sam below):

saw some jellies:

and got to get our faces painted by a mermaid!!!

YAY!

After the aquarium, we headed to a town off of Lake Garda, where we just hung out for a bit, eating gelato.  It was raining pretty steadily, so there wasn’t much more we wanted to do at this point.  I got dark chocolate and snickers.  LITERALLY AMAZING.  Top 5 gelatos I have had here for sure!

After the gelato deliciousness, we headed to an arcade place where we could either lasertag or bowl.  I chose bowling, and I am proud to say in two games I bowled a 244!! SCORE!  Up until this point, we were basically living a 3rd grader’s dream.

After bowling, we headed to the town of Garda for dinner.  We had a chance to walk around before dinner, so we did a little shopping and then wanted to see the lake because it wasn’t raining anymore.  It was so gorgeous!

Next up was the famous sea food dinner that Claudio had been talking about FOREVER!  I tried everything, I’m pleased to say, and discovered that I actually like some of the seafood we tasted!  Here are a few samples of what we had:

Because of the endless wine that we were given, the bus ride home was a fun one indeed.  We all headed out as a cohort to Art Cafe for the night, and it was one of the more fun nights I have had while here in Verona!

Anonymous asked: TURD

Turd [turd]

noun Slang: Vulgar .

so in other words, thank you for your input.

This post is quite delayed, but I have been struggling from succumbing to homesickness, and thought that this post could be saved until I really started to get upset, so I would be able to relive the amazing time spent with my parents while here.  Now that I am indeed homesick, it only seems right to make this post!

On Monday the 2nd, I woke up at 2 am in order to catch the 3:05 am train out of Verona straight to Firenze, where I was to meet up with the parental units.  The train took a little over 3 hours, but it was definitely worth it to not have to switch trains!  Once I reached Florence, I was super excited to see the parents… and then they weren’t there yet :( All was well though, as they arrived a little later, and the reunion was much needed!  We headed over to the bus station then, and caught the 7:15 fast bus to Siena.  Once in Siena, we stopped for a little coffee and the parents got some pastries.  I demonstrated my mad coffee drinking skills when I showed up their meager cafe americanos with an espresso.  I am so skilled in the coffee biz now!  We headed back to the transportation center of sorts, where we met up with Paola, who was to be our tour guide for our winery tour through the Brunello wine region.  We took a little side trip and picked up another couple, and then we were on our way to the wineries!!  On our trip to the first winery, Paola described how wines are classified and why the Brunello wine is so special.  It is labelled as a DOCG wine, which means that there are a limited number of bottles that can be produced per year, along with very strict guidelines that must be followed while making it.  It is a combination of these factors that make the Brunello wine very prestigious, and also VERY EXPENSIVE!

When we arrived at the first winery, Abbadia Ardenga, and this is what greeted us:

How beautiful is the Tuscan countryside?

We were shown this handmade “map”, made on wood, that shows how the winery that we were at is located on the road that travels up through Italy, eventually making it’s way to France (mom will now model with it):

The outside of the first winery:

The name of the first winery:

We began our tour by being shown into the aging room, where the Brunello wine sits in ginormous barrels for 2 years, and then must age in bottles for another 4 months.  Here we have momma modeling again (notice how huge the barrels are!!):

Here I am with the owner of the winery, an old man named Mario.  He didn’t speak any English, but I actually understood what he was saying!  He was adorable; he used me as his model:

And then used me as a demonstrator to try out the wine (even though it wasn’t aged to perfection yet… this batch is due to be ready in 2013):

It really was delicious… especially for a college student who lives off of boxed wine most of the time :)

Next, after the aging room, we got to see some of the different tools they used to harvest teh grapes and produce the wine, and then were shown the aging room for the Vinsanto, which is a desert liquor.  It gets aged in mini barrels… so cute!

After that, we were shown the winery’s personal collection of wine.  It was very impressive; they had wine from all over the world from every year since the 1930s. It was very cool to see!

Finally, it was time to taste some wine!

The parents and their wines:

Me and my wine:

We also got to sample some meats, homemade bread, and some pecorino cheese made in this region:

Both mom and I were given the honor of opening up one of the wine bottles that we sampled and were allowed to keep the corks, signed by Mario:

All in all, we tried 8 different products of the winery: (from left to right)

Ardengo, Rosso di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino 2006, Olio Extravergine di Oliva, Vinsanto, Brunello di Montalcino Vigna 2007, Grappa di Brunello Riserva & Brunello di Montalcino 2004

Everything was spectacular.  Even though I’m no wine aficionado, I now know how to correctly sample the wine and can definitely taste the difference between table wine and very prestigious wine!

And thus, at 10 am, our lovely winery tour group had a spectacular buzz on.

After a goodbye from Mario, we piled back into our little van and headed off to the town of Montalcino, where the Brunello wine was born.  Along the way, we stopped to take some pictures of the glorious Tuscan countryside:

Aren’t we such a beautiful family??

My father, the amazing photographer, with Montalcino in the background:

The beauty that surrounded us:

After touring the city of Montalcino for a bit, we headed to our second winery, which was located on the property of the people who produce it.  It was a little more modern than the previous winery, using steel barrels for production and having an electronic system to monitor everything.  I think that this place was my favorite; the house was completely gorgeous, and the production of the wine was literally in their front yard.

The grapes on the left, the house of the owners on the right:

The same grapes on the right, with the large warehouse used for producing the wine on the left:

The gorgeous house they lived in:

If I remember correctly, it was built in the 1500s, and was recently renovated by the family.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  Can you imagine waking up every morning, looking out your window, and just being enveloped in the Tuscan countryside?  I sure can!

Of course the family got a picture in front of this gorgeous estate:

After getting a tour of the warehouse, we had a wonderful lunch prepared in the home of the winery owner.  It was such an amazing meal!  My favorite dish was this spicy bean dish… it was so delectable.  I wish I knew how to cook like that!

After sadly tearing myself away from this house, we headed to our final stop.  This place was not known mainly for it’s production of wine (it had one type of Brunello it produced), but instead was known for it’s honey production.  There were about 20-25 different types of honeys produced here, all from the boxes shown below:

The place had all of it’s different honeys come from the flowers around the estate and in a forest nearby…. the flavoring from the honey is not added after harvesting the honey, but instead it gets its flavor from the flower that the bee visits to pollinate!  It was so fascinating to learn about it, and even more fascinating to watch Dario, the son of the man who owns the estate, explain all about bees dancing.  HE WAS SO CUTE. (Sadly, no pictures were taken of him.)

Mom showin us one of the bee boxes:

Sadly, this was our last stop for the day, but we really did have a spectacular time!  Everything was amazing and so informative!

We headed back to Siena, and then hopped on the bus to take us back to Florence.  Having been drinking all day, we were pretty tired.  But, there was still enough energy to drink some more!  AND COURTNEY CAME OVER!  So we popped open one of the Brunellos, and had a little wine before we headed out to dinner.

After enjoying our pizza nearby, we headed back to our bed and breakfast.  Courtney stayed for a bit and watched Angels and Demons, and then left because she had class in the morning, and I settled into my king sized bed for the night.

The next morning, we enjoyed the breakfast at our bed and breakfast, and then headed out to tour Florence!  We hit up the normal sites that needed to be seen (seeing as it was the parents’ first time in Florence), and I finally got to walk up the duomo!  It was a pain staking 414 steps, but worth the climb to see the beautiful scenery.

I had to get down after a while, because my legs were going numb from being up so high!  The way down was about 50x worse than the way up.  I just wanted to get to the bottom!

We met up with Courtney at the bottom, because she had a break from class, and we walked around the markets.  It started to rain pretty badly, so we took refuge in a gelato shop, and the parents had their first gelato.  I got nutella and crema caramel.  So good of course!  Courtney sadly had to leave for class, but I know I’ll see her again soon :)

While walking around, we found a “Falconeri” store, which we originally thought was “Falconer” which is my grandma’s maiden name on my dad’s side.  Of course, a photo had to be taken:

After walking around for so long, we needed a libation, and stopped at a little place for a drink.  It was very nice.

We headed back to the bed and breakfast, got our luggage, and then began the adventure to get to the train station for our train to Verona.  After much confusion, we got onto a train that would take us to Prato, where we would need to transfer onto a train to Bologna.  Of course, the train to Prato was late, but we managed to sprint to the other train that was being held for us to get to Bologna.  Having mom and dad’s million pound suitcases were a bit of a problem, but we managed to get to Verona all right!!  We spent dinner at a place right below my apartment, and it was kind of an adventure trying to find something for the parents to eat!  I of course got pizza, and they had ragu.  It was very good!  We were beat after dinner, so we parted ways.  Their hotel was a 5 minute walk from my apartment, which was very convenient!

The next day, I took the parents on a tour of Verona.  I went into the Arena for the first time this trip (having already been in it when I came to Verona for my singing competition 3 years ago) and it was just as impressive as ever.  We also went up “The Hill”, and got a beautiful panoramic view of Verona.  After the hill, we headed to a bar near Ponte Pietra that was recommended by Claudio when we first took a tour of Verona back in January.  Wine for mom, beer for dad, and some Moscato for me. YUM!  It was beautiful sitting by the water and enjoying our drinks.

Artsy shot of mom:

View of The Hill where we got our drinks:

That night, my parents met my host mom, and they hit it off!  It was wonderful for them to finally meet the woman that I’ve been living with for 3 months!  After our cocktails with her, we headed to the infamous San Matteo for dinner with the Martins, my friend Alyssa’s family.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!  I had a blast, and I think that our families got along fabulously :)

Alyssa and me:

Intense intra-family discussion:

After dinner, we headed back home.  I had had quite a bit of wine, so it was a swift bed time for me!

Next day, I took the parents to see Venice.

It was kind of a gloomy day, but better a little colder than crazy hot!  I showed them the main places to see, including the lace school and the glass shop.  We made purchases at both places, so it was nice that I knew about these little gems!  Our trip was a little short, but we wanted to get back home for dinner because everything is so expensive in Venice.  We did stop and get some Venetian candy, which was some flavored liquorice filled with a creme in the middle.  I got apple, mom strawberry, and dad lemon.  So tasty!

YUM!

We headed back on the semi-crowded train to Verona, and hung out in the parents’ hotel room for a bit.  Mom really wanted some gnocchi, and, at the suggestion of my host mom, we headed to a restaurant that was supposed to have the best gnocchi in town.  We got there at 630, which is early for Italians to eat, so we had the restaurant to ourselves.  Mom and I got gnocchi with ragu, and dad got penne with ragu.  IT WAS LITERALLY THE BEST THING I HAVE EATEN WHILE IN ITALY.  Mom can attest… that ragu was simply fabulous.  I want to go back right now!  We also all had a second course, and were literally stuffed to the brim.  I don’t think I’ve ever been that full!  We headed back to my apartment then so the parents could meet Anna Greta.  She was sooo shy, and only said “Ciao!” as the parents were leaving.  Of course, immediately after they left, she was talking up a storm :)

The next day, the parents left their luggage at their hotel after check out and came and hung out at my apartment before their 1230 train to Milan.  It was so sad to see them go :(((  But, as I keep reminding myself, I will see them sooo soon.  I’m almost done with my time here, and it really is hard to believe!

I have the best parents in the world :)))

Anna Greta has recently gotten this new amazing toy… and it’s called “tartaruga”, which is turtle in Italian!! IT’S SO MUCH FUN. you move it by moving your arms side to side, which turns the wheel!!

she’s a little drag racer it’s hilarious!

… obvi I tried.  don’t mind my good looks…

SO MUCH FUN