Thoughts on Travel

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It's taking a bit longer to get Jorgen's thoughts on the Pergine Castle and Signe's rendition of the Alpenzoo, so I thought I'd just use the break to come clean on my thoughts of Italy and travel, in general.

Early on, I blogged about my brave girls. Well, they don't get that from me. I'm a chicken. Italy, while breathtaking and delicious, scared me. I spend a lot of time talking myself into things (does talking to myself make me crazy?), or through things. I spent a lot of energy in Italy trying to calm myself down...generally, any time we left the house. If there was a car or tunnel involved, get the straight jacket. I seriously thought that I might have a nervous breakdown. Keep in mind that I'm trying to turn myself around on the "Mother of the Year" thing by being a good example. I don't want to show my kids that I'm afraid, it's all a big, fun adventure! However, I have a genuine fear of tunnels...and Northern Italy is full of them - cut right through the mountains. It's not the tunnels themselves so much, it's the claustrophobia. I've had that since my brothers used to pin me down in the yard and pretend they were going to spit "loogies" in my face. I get the claustrophobia in crowds, too. Can you imagine? I grew up as part of a crowd and now they (crowds, not my family) freak me out. Much of Italy is crowded, as are most tourist destinations. So, as I mentioned earlier, I'm talking to myself a lot. I can see it in my face in the pictures we took...everyone else looks happy and carefree, I look wrinkled and worried.

That said, Italy is so beautiful. There are some highlights for me, though. As I mentioned, just getting to know my cousin, Mary, better - and as a grown up - was the best. The second day we were there, we headed to the grocery store. Now, I don't like to shop. However, take me to a Byerly's grocery store and let me go...I could truly spend hours looking at all the goodies. Going to the store in Italy was like one big specialty shop...it's all yummy goodness. There are rules, I found out in a hurry. NO touching the produce without gloves, that was the main one. I'm glad I had Mary to lead me. I got my goodies to take back to Sweden and the prices were amazing. Initially, Mary kept mentioning how expensive things were...I had to assure her that we had been in Sweden for 3 months, the sticker shock is now "sticker reality", and the food prices in Italy are much more reasonable.

Since we were home alone on the weekdays, I made my daily trek down to the little bakery by Mary's place. Just a tiny store front with a few groceries and fresh baked goodies. The first day was awful, me feeling like an idiot because I had no idea what yummy treasures lurked inside the yummy puffs of goodness sitting in front of me. In frustration, I simply pointed to the ones the looked good and held up however many fingers I wanted. Same goes for the rolls behind this kind woman, point and hold up my fingers. What am I, two years old? I handed her the euros (always a bigger bill than needed, since the coins confused me) got my change and headed home. By day three, I could determine "creme or marmalade" and which rolls we liked best without feeling like too much of a fool. On day 4, this nice woman greeted me with "Grazie...Mary's sister?". I replied with a grin, "Hello. Mary's cousin!". We had sandwiches each day of the yummiest bread I've ever eaten; some great salami, parmesan, homemade olive oil and balsamic vinegar. A sandwich never tasted so good. I didn't gain my goal of 10 pounds (at least not in adipose tissue...I gained it in slabs of Parmesan, though!). I did, however, gain 3...and I have that little bakery to thank for each and every one of them. For 10 days, I could have lived on bread alone.

We didn't live on bread alone. You known I enjoy a good glass of wine on occasion. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that neither Mary or Rudi drinks much wine! I did manage to have some good wine, but I've learned that much of the joy of drinking a good glass of wine is sharing it with friends. As Jeff mentioned in his blog, we had a great meal up in the mountains. I enjoyed a local dumpling soup and a mushroom pasta that was quite good. I had a few espressos in Italy, but I'm not a convert. I think I prefer Swedish coffee...can you imagine? Maybe I just don't know how to drink it in Italy, I noticed that Mary and Rudi put their espressos back in a hurry, kind of like a shot. Hmmm, maybe it's all in the technique. Our most memorable meal came on Halloween, no trick. The kids threw themselves a little Halloween Party, complete with masks (from Venice, of course!) and trick or treating. Well, modified trick or treating...we adults each had a bag of candy and they stopped at each of our stations to pick up their treats. They even had their first trick or treaters EVER that evening. Emma had agreed to "kid sit" while the adults went out to dinner....which is ALWAYS eaten later. Rudi made reservations and we were off...with just one wrong turn on a dark, rainy, narrow road in the mountains with our 5 children home alone. Get my drift? I still hadn't adjusted to the driving/riding fear!

Rudi had made reservations at Maso Franch, a fancy, modern restaurant. You can check it out at www.masofranch.it (sorry, Debbie, I couldn't get the menu...it was huge and leather bound!). It was dark, so we couldn't really appreciate the beautiful structure and view, but we know it was great. Jeff and I were a bit under dressed, as we had only packed jeans and t-shirts, but that didn't have any effect on how much we enjoyed ourselves...we're getting used to being seen as "clueless Americans", in fact, we're embracing it. The restaurant was featuring two regional tasting menus (for two), so we each ordered one and got the full extent of that region's remarkable cuisine. I'm not going to go through the complete menu, but I'd love to share the highlights. I love to cook nearly as much as I love to eat, but we rarely eat out, so this was a real treat. I like to try new things, but I wouldn't say I'm really daring. I figure if I'm going to spend money on something, I want to KNOW I'll enjoy it. So this was a stretch for me. I ate rabbit. Before taking that first bite, I had to take my childhood memories of catching bunnies on the 4th of July in Howard, SD...an annual tradition,..and put them somewhere far away. This wasn't a bunny, after all...it's only purpose in life was to become a delightful meal for someone. And it was delightful - but I still haven't told Signe that I ate rabbit. We also had some kind of mussel with caviar, a tomato ravioli stuffed with artichokes, deer tenderloin, and lutefisk. You heard me right. I've spent 18 years as part of a Norwegian family, 7 years living in a Swedish community, 3 months in Sweden proper and have never succumbed to the allure of dried herring reconstituted in lye. I had to go to Italy for that. It was probably the best way for me to do it...I was drinking a great wine and it slid right down. Now I can officially say I've eaten lutefisk. Our 5 courses ended with amazing desserts. My favorite was a hollowed out apple filled with a hazelnut gelato, topped with a lightly browned meringue and served on a caramel sauce. Not your average caramel apple. The evening ended with a plate of mini, handmade candies on the table...just to taste. We ate every single bite. We looked around the beautiful place, hopped in our car, (I) said a prayer and headed home...it was 12:30 am!

Enough about the food. There are a few other things you should know if traveling to Italy. You must wear a swim cap when you go swimming. There was a rainy day where we needed to burn some energy off of the kids. We took them to the local pool, but Mary had warned us that we would all need swim caps...it's a hair thing...they don't want your hair getting in the pool. The swim caps aren't the kind you think of in the US, they're these stretchy, porous things that you just plop on your head. The funniest part was when Mary had to ask if Jeff needed to wear one and the very attractive, young Italian women sort of chuckled and said no. I was thinking to myself, "laugh all you want, honey...wait until you see his chest and back - then we'll see who's laughing". What, are they going to make him wear a body cap? The last little "rule" that I can think of is that you DON'T wear shoes into the house. That wasn't too hard for us, as the same rule applies in Sweden. I kind of like it...other than tripping on a pile of shoes every time you walk in the door.

Once again, I've managed to ramble on and on. Thanks for listening. I can't wait to tell you about Verona!

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Photos

Is this a trick?
The Oss family's very first trick or treaters!

Signe and Elizabeth
These two became inseperable.

My job
Jeff drives, I read the travel book trying to decide our next destination.

Comments

[Susan Panciera]

Ti sento
Ti sento, Maria. "I hear/feel you!" I'm glad you got to experience Italy in your travels. We'll have lots of notes to compare when we come home to Saint Peter!