Ciao Italy!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Foods of Italy
Friday, March 4, 2011
Roma Diary by Ellie
Today after school we took the train to Rome. I read and ate the pizza my mom gave to me. When we arrived, it was freezing cold outside but soon we took the taxi to our apartment. After that, we watched a little TV and fell straight to sleep.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Venice with the International Women's Club
This is not the narrowest street in Venice!
The International Women's Club of Treviso went on a guided tour of Venice last week. We took the train down together & the guide showed us a lot of things that you can't find in guidebooks. For instance, in each piazza or square there is an old well - there are drain holes on the ground near the well, which let rainwater flow through sand & clay below into a big basin which collected the water for drinking. I had seen the wells before, but never noticed the drain holes!
Also, there was a triangular shaped carved stone that you have to walk under at Ponte del Paradiso. It was put in place to join the houses of two families that were linked when a son from one married the daughter from the other.
We visited a church that looked large, but plain on the outside, Franciscan Gothic style, called the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa. Inside, Titian is buried (even though he died of the plague & nobody who died of the plague was to be buried inside the city, they made an exception for him). His painting, the Assumption of the Virgin, is above the altar and the largest altarpiece in Venice. There is a monument for him inside the church, designed by Canova and also a monument to Canova (whose body is buried in his hometown of Possano, but Canova's heart is in an urn inside the monument in the church).
I also found out that at three spots along the Grand Canal, you can take a gondola "ferry" across the river for only 50 euro cents! What a deal for anyone who wants to ride a gondola but doesn't want to empty their bank account.
At the end of the day, I went off to the Jewish Ghetto (the first ghetto) with an Israeli friend of mine. She picked up some kosher meat & I ate an amazing bowl of matzo ball soup. Then, we ran all the way to the train station, just to see it pulling out as we arrived. Luckily, trains depart from Venice to Treviso every 20 minutes. We weren't even late to pick the kids up from school!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Asolo & The Rocca
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Circus (Circo)
If You Need Medicine, Come to Italy
The pharmacy here is also ridiculously inexpensive. A prescription that I had filled in the US (generic brand) cost me $75. Here, I got the name brand version for under 15 euro. The pharmacy also carries homeopathic medicine, which is about half the cost of what you'd find in the US.
When a woman gets pregnant here, her doctor excuses her from work for the duration of the pregnancy. If you break your arm, you also are excused from work. I know this because two teachers at the International school are out - one for the remainder of the year, the other for 2 months. My friend told me that we can get a doctor to prescribe regular massages for stress relief & the insurance will pay for them. Hmmm. . . maybe I'll look into that. First, though, we must get over this flu!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Trader Joe's Bolognaise - Goodbye Forever!
Here, there are no convenience foods. If you want an easy snack, and you can go out, your choices are: brioche (croissant), tramezzini (white bread sandwich with tons of mayo), toast (white bread, ham, & cheese), or at home you can have crackers or cookies. I have found granola bars & breakfast cereal, but most are very sugary or full of chocolate. Other options are fresh fruit & veggies, which we snack on a lot, and bread & cheese (& a variety of meats).
So, I'm learning to cook things from scratch. Last week I made black beans for the first time in my life. It's so funny that I asked Justin to bring cans of black beans from the US last Dec., but his bags were too heavy & he ended up having to dump them at the airport. Shortly after that, I found dry black beans at a specialty bio (organic) shop. And now, I know how to make beans!
Tonight I made a bolognaise sauce. I've been doing this every week since we've been here, & I think my sauce is getting better & better. The great thing is that I know it so well that I can just throw in whatever is in the frig. This one had onion, garlic, leeks, carrots, zucchini, and red bell pepper along with the tomatoes, meat, & spices I added. I also love my new cast iron cooking pots - bought just two, but I think I'll go back for a couple more sizes. And, we have a new set of knives that make cutting a breeze and a couple of great wooden cutting boards.
I'm very excited about learning how to cook more things from scratch, & am looking into some cooking classes here. When we come back I may resort to canned beans for a quick & easy taco-salad night, but I don't think I can ever go back to a jar of bolognaise.