Wednesday - No clever title ideas....

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Geo: 44.4944, 11.3492

A really good, busy, and tiring day today! Off to school, as usual, more new large concepts to learn, each day this week has been a new major concept, such as past tense, I really need more than one day to digest this one...plus all the other things.... Anyway, hopefully when I get home I'll continue with my Rosetta Stone program and will be able to retain this stuff!

As mentioned yesterday a few other students and I were planning on going for lunch. It turned out to be off and on during class time and then it was decided it was "on". So off we went in search of the trattoria recommended by one of our teachers, we found it just fine and it was about a 15-minute walk from the school. A tip if you are coming to Italy, houses, restaurants do have numbers and streets, but don't expect them to be in the same order that you may be used to. The address is Solferino 40, well we passed 44, 48, 39, 39A, on one side of the "road" and then on the other side was 40... So if you are thinking 40 needs be somewhere in between 39 and 44 you would be wrong! ;-)

Had a fantastic lunch, I wanted to have an authentic meal famous for this area and I was not disappointed.The three of us had a nice visit, sharing about our families and getting to know each other better. I don't know of a better way to meet such a diverse and interesting set of people from all walks of life, people I would never get to know if I stayed in my city all the time, though I'm looking forward to going home!

I was offered the opportunity to attend this afternoon/evening's cooking class. It was really amazing, we learned to cook Le Arancine Di Riso (fried rice balls), the Sicilian way with meat in it and a vegetarian variety, both super tasty. We learned how to make Gnocchi Di Patate Alla Gricia, WOW it was good. And then Ragu Alla Bolognese.... It was an amazing food day and I'm stuffed to the brim, needless to say, I didn't stop and get gelato as I rolled back to my apartment this evening.... Tons of photos to show so I can remember how he did things. I am not including all the photos I took. I'm not a big fan of cooking but the smells and the food really tasted so good anyone would enjoy it. For dessert we had a salty and savory combination, they said it was like pannacotta, which I"ve never had only heard of. This was a creamy yellow mixture that had an orange flavor, then right before we ate it he sprinkled flaked sea salt over it and then grated real licorice on top, it again was really good. Normally I'd turn down something like this, but I'm going for all the new experiences I can while I'm here and it was really good. I guess I'll have to try pannacotta sometime...

The chef is also a sommelier and so was pairing wine with the different courses, I had some great water since I don't drink, but he really seemed to know what he was talking about and the others appreciated it.

The class started at 4:30 and we finished up about 8:30 and I got back about 9:00, did my homework with 1/4 of my brain as I'm so tired. Had a bit of work emailing to do and now it's 11:21 and I"m ready for bed. Will post the photos and probably get into bed in an half hour or so. Only two days left, sad to leave and happy to go all at the same time!

BTW, fun little experience, I had time to kill between lunch and the cooking class so went to a piazza and sat on a bench. A little old lady came and sat next to me, dressed very nicely and said something to me. I told her I only spoke a little Italian and we sat there in silence for a little bit. She then said something, I don't remember what, but eventually, she asked in Italian if I liked Bologna, "yes", "Bella?" , "yes", then on to other beautiful Italian cities. She mentioned Calabria and I think that she was from there, I said my grandparents (great) were from there, and we understood (and not) each other for a little while anyway. Fun to have these spur of the moment interactions with people when you travel.

A domani!
Wendy

Steps: 9,956 will try to get that to 10,000 by midnight! It's now 12:14 and I got the 10,000 by 12!
Miles: 4.29
Floors: 12

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Photos

Lunch that J___ and A___ had
Tagliatelle with shantrelle mushrooms and tomatos, they said it was delicious and it looked and smelled like it.

The schools cucina
The owner of the school went to cooking school and is a sommelier also. He was explaining wine details to the others but I don't drink so that wasn't of interest to me.

The first thing was to get the Ragu cooking
It needs to cook a minimum of 2 hours for the flavors to get just right, ours cooked for 3.

He used pork and beef, onions, carrots, pancetta
Tomato sauce, some tomato paste and added milk at the end
He's also measuring out the rice on a scale here.

Cooling and separating it into two bowls
One he flavored with juiced spinach and the other with saffron, so we had green rice for the vegetarian Arrancine and yellow for the other.

Comments

[Kath]

Hi Wendy, just a quick note to test the comments since I have been watching Sammi all day today. Can't take one's eyes off her for too long! Glad you were able to find more room for photos. Sounds like the new friendships and this cooking c
lass were highlights to remember from Bologna, so nice that it is ending well despite a little (understandable ) homesickness. Have enjoyed looking at the photos to get an overview of what it's like there. I noticed yesterday your location was Richland, which is why your travelpod map shows a loop now...there and back again (wow)! Got to go, enjoy your last couple of days and will pray for a good trip home.Love, Kath

[Kath]

Nope, I was wrong...the map loop was always there, I guess, for your roundtrip. Looks like everything is now in perfect order... :) I bet the aromas were wonderful; the food sounds delicious.

[Karen Hull]

Chanterelles?! Oh yummmm!

[Karen Hull]

You actually got to make your own? What fun!