One Year Ago Today I was http://dreaminginitalianthistime.blogspot.it/2011/11/mi-sento-un-fallito-invecedomani-e-un.html
So, Nick slept
in the room across the hall from mine, but even still the elevator guys woke
him up VERY early. They woke me up for
sure because the work is just above my room and next to it (they do work on the
roof in addition to the elevator shaft).
We had oatmeal, and I was a nice hostess and shared my oatmeal…whoa…that
says a lot. We sat and talked for a bit
while we ate and even after we had finished.
I took a shower
and got ready for the day. I decided to
wear an Alabama t-shirt and houndstooth scarf.
Once we were both ready, cameras in my purse and a plan to walk through
the historical center, we headed out for the day. I was a bit nervous to play tour guide
because I do not know anything about the city really. I mean, I can find my way around and point
you to some things, but I cannot give you a history lesson or anything. About halfway to Corso Mazzini, the place
with all of the stores and where everyone has passeggiata, I was telling Nick
about the chocolate store and how they had the Vanilla tea that I wanted and
loved. I was telling him the story of asking the lady in the store if they had
it regularly and when she said yes, I told her, “you can’t get that in the United
States!!!” These two older men were
walking in front of us and one of them stopped and turned all the way around to
look at me!! Nick and I found this
hilarious..we laughed about it the rest of the weekend and kept saying “you
can’t find this in the United States!!”
I really wanted to know what the man was thinking…i.e. “You stupid
American!” or “What language was that??” or “Why are you being so loud and in
another language??” It was so funny…I
cannot really convey it in writing, it is kind of one of those, “you had to be
there” moments, but trust me…it was hilarious!!
So, we stopped
in the chocolate store, and I was DEVESTATED to see that they did NOT have my
Vanilla tea anymore!!! I KNEW I should
have bought all4 or 5 boxes last time.
They did have a TON of other Twinings flavors that we do not have at
home…so, when I get my paycheck, I am sooo buying a new kind. Then, we asked the guy in the back of the
store about a Calabrese wine. We were in
search of one for dinner later that night.
He was very helpful and showed us quite a few wines. However, we did not intend to buy one at the
moment, because we did not want to carry it around all day! The next stop we made was for me to look in
this Calabrian Specialità store because I thought they might have Calabrese
wines, but they had mostly liquors and peppers.
When we arrived
at the bottom of the historical center, we had to choose our path. The first goes to the theatre, and the second
goes to the beautiful church. We chose
to start with the theatre. I like this
walk, but it is all up hill on a rione
(small, narrow street) where a lot of cars go flying past you, and you fear for
your life just a little bit. There is
one little shop, that I have stopped at before where I just stand and watch the
men MAKE shoes…no really…like they
are forming the leather and stuff to make
the shoes. Whenever I see this I have
this feeling of “holy cow…only in Italy!!!”
We stopped in the Duomo so that Nick could see it, and I could take
pictures because when I had seen it with Lilla, I had not been able to take any
pictures. When we made it to the
theatre, we discovered that it was closed for the day…so bummed…however, they
said that it would be open tomorrow!!
So, we asked the lady how to get to the castle from here. She said that there were some steps nearby
that we could take and it would get us there quickly. So here goes the next adventure…I hope I can do it justice with my words.
I showed Nick
where Lilla had gone to high school; the big old one. Right next to the theatre is the more modern
school that they built. Next to it is a
staircase that appears to go to the school.
So, for about 2 seconds we contemplated whether or not this would be the
stairs the lady was referring to, but we immediately dismissed them because
they did not appear to go anywhere but to the school. So, we started this slow and steady climb up
a hill (mountain) on a road that did not appear to be designed for pedestrians,
but was not overrun with cars either. We
were passed by cars and quite a few buses, but never saw any stairs. We were granted some BEAUTIFUL views of Cosenza and the surrounding mountains, so this
climb was well worth it.
We did stop at
one point and overlook the city for a little bit. We were standing on this wall
just looking out over the city and talking…at this point we were mostly talking
about football and how Nick’s school, The University of Washington, does have a
few National Championships (4 maybe?). I
told him that this made them a legitimate team and he asked how many Auburn
had…sorry Auburn fans…I had to be truthful here. ;) One
bus passed by and honked it’s horn at us, but Nick was convinced he was honking
at me…Nick was also a bit shocked by some of the free things I have received
since I’ve been here in Cosenza. He says
that it would never happen for a guy! We
continued our climb and came to this small village on the hillside. There was a beautiful little church
there. It was up a steep hill, but I was
thoroughly enjoying seeing this kind of area in Italy…it was straight out of my
imagination! The church doors were not
enough tall enough for Nick to fit through (see picture), but it was beautiful
inside.  |
| ughh it won't turn.... |
Just as I was in November, I am
constantly in awe of the fact that the simplest church in Italy is way fancier
than any church in America; or at least any church I have ever seen in America
(including St. Patrick’s, etc). There
was this one little heater in the church, like the kind they put outside at
restaurants and stuff in the winter…haha…I doubt it heats that church up enough
to make it comfortable. We were almost to
our destination, the castle.
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| ughh...upside down view of the river |
My calf
muscles and quads were starting to burn from the constant uphill climb, and I
was starting to think of the saying, “what goes up, must come down”, but it was
well worth it. We had also passed a few
signs to some restaurants that we thought we might try for lunch because we
were convinced that if they were this far removed from the center of town, they
were bound to be more local and not in any way touristy. However, first we had to reach the
castle. Once we reached the castle, we
discovered that they are in the middle of repairing it, and so you cannot get
inside. However, we took pictures with
the BEAUTIFUL view and a few pictures of the castle. We joked about hopping the barbwire fence
(the universal language for DO NOT ENTER), and how it would land us in the
slide show from the consulate/embassy about stupid things Americans do in
Italy…except we would have been completely sober! This sort of thing was a
running joke in Rome about what we could “do” or photoshop ourselves doing, to
get into this ridiculous slide show! The
castle was under video surveillance, so we figured we should stay on “our” side
of the fence! ;) Once we had taken some pictures and enjoyed
the views, we started our trek downhill…boy did my knees hate me then!
On the way up to
the castle, we saw these stairs…hmm…could these
be the elusive stairs?? On the way down we decided to try them. They took us through this back “ally”, for
lack of a better word, and it felt like we were in someone’s personal space,
but again, it was so “Italian” that I
did not care! We came to a place that
had been about halfway through our climb…so that was at least one short cut,
but still not the original stairs we had been told about. So, then we made the turn to try one of the
hopefully authentic restaurants. It
would have been SUPER authentic, but it was closed…of course! So, we decided to pick this random route
down…and, as luck would have it, we found the elusive staircase….we would have
saved a TON of climbing if only we had taken that original set of stairs that
we thought went to the school. However,
we determined that you live and learn…and we would not have had some of the
beautiful views that we did…and not as good of a workout that worked up our appetite
for a good lunch. We reminded ourselves
of what Devorah said in Rome, “just let things happen!!”
So, by this time
we were hungry. We stopped in a little place that I had eaten lunch once, but
did not see what we wanted. We thought
about just heading to the apartment, but then we came across a restaurant next
to the Duomo, and so we stopped there.
It was a relatively quaint looking place, and we were the first for
lunch. We sat down at a table near the
window and started perusing the menu. We
decided to order a pizza to split. As
luck would have it, they only serve pizza at dinner. So, our sweet waiter brought us some bread,
that included these cracker things, some olive oil, and then some pepper oil
(something I have only seen this once…and I am sure is unique to Calabria
because they are big on spicy/peppers).
We then chose some gnocchi and a risotto to split. The risotto had zucchini, and something else,
but we thought it was another veggie, so I ordered it as my lunch. We did not have to wait terribly long for our
food, but what a shock I was in for when it came! The “other word”, the one that I did not
know…was SHRIMP! When the guy sat it down in front of me, I almost died, but I
had to keep it in because it was after all my
fault. Nick was so very kind to switch
with me because there was NO WAY I would have made it through that…I did share
his gnocchi with him, and he pushed most of the shrimp to the side of the
plate!! I think I thanked him a million
times for eating that…because goodness knows I could not have done it!! So, that was my first huge language
blunder.
After we
finished, we headed to the beautiful church on the outskirts of the historical
center. We arrived to find that it was
closed. We were able to see the
courtyard area, but then headed to the museum.
I was able to show Nick my favorite painting that I call, “Typical Italian
woman”, but the other side where I got the tour was closed. We took a random road back down to the center
of town, but found everything was still closed.
Therefore, we decided to come back for the wine when we went out for my
first official passeggiata later that evening.
We came back to
the apartment to rest our feet/legs for a bit.
While we were here, a weird number called my phone, and good thing I
answered it because it was the lady from Customs saying that they were holding
my computer hostage and she needed my email address…that was fun! I had to spell it out in the Italian
alphabet, which meant I was really grateful to have learned the ABC’s (song) in
Italian. She was repeating it back to me
with weird words and I was just grateful that it seemed to be correct. She said that they would email me with
further instructions…great…my computer will not be here when it was scheduled
to be…ughh so frustrating. Also during
this time, my roommate showed up to get an envelope that Lila and Ernesto had
left in the mailbox for her. She was
really sweet, really cute, and I could understand her Italian…though I think
she knows to speak slowly so that I can understand her! She said that she did not know when she was
moving in because she was not sure when her classes started…huh??? Oh well, I
am not complaining…a bit confused, but not complaining. She said that it could
be next week, so I guess we shall see!
Then we headed
to the grocery store to get the ingredients for our dessert recipe that one of
Nick’s professors had given him, but his friends had also made a few nights
before, and also our dinner ingredients.
It was fun to go on a bit of a scavenger hunt for things like, yeast,
cocoa, sugar, etc. etc. We stopped in a
Chinese store and got a wine opener, whisk, and wine stopper, and headed back
to the apartment. We dropped our stuff,
and headed to Corso Mazzini for our passeggiata. We decided to walk arm in arm, the way
Italian friends do. The way you
distinguish Italian friends holding on to each other, and Italian couples is
that the friends all walk arm-in-arm…women, men, or women and men. Italian couples…are usually
groping each other in some form or fashion!
We stopped in the store that I found with the black eyed peas and looked
around for a minute, and then headed to the chocolate store to get our
wine! I asked about the vanilla tea this
time and she said that it should come on another shipment in about 15-20
days…something tells me Ill never see that tea again because I should have bought
it all the first time!! Then we made our
way to the wines…we of course had forgotten almost all of the ones the guy
showed us! We wanted a Calabrese wine,
but I did not want something that was too dry (a concept I had to teach Nick
about). I worked up the courage to use
my Italian and ask for a Calabrese Pinot Noir (Pinot Nero in Italian), but
there was not one! We eventually, after
asking our original friend from the morning, on a Calabrese wine that was not
too sweet and not too dry! After this we
did as the Italians do…we strolled down Corso Mazzini with no hurry and just
took in all of the sights and sounds.
Nick was amazed at the sea of people, and the fact that they were eating
gelato and donuts so close to dinner time!
He said that Gubbio does not have an area like this…and it made me
thankful for Cosenza! It was so much fun to actually participate in the passeggiata!!!
Cooking dinner
was fun! I made veggies (broccoli,
zucchini, tomatoes, and carrots) with chicken.
We had wine with our dinner and sat and talked for a bit. We talked about so much, including politics
and how forward the Italians are with asking about our political views.
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| mixing ingredients |
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| Making whipped cream |
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| making whipped cream |
Next up was our dessert adventure. Boy was this an adventure. I will provide you all with the recipe in the recipe blog that can be found on the right hand side of this blog! Click on the link that says something like “recipes and stuff”!! You may or may not have to fudge on a few things… i.e. add another egg…or a bit more milk…it will depend on what your mixture is looking like! We put ours in a pan that might have been a little too deep for our recipe, but we were determined that it would work. Given that my oven does not have temperatures, we just had to guess what 175 would be. This was after we remembered that 175 was Celsius and not Fahrenheit, because we were in disbelief that anything would cook at such a low temperature…Fulbright students ladies and gentlemen!! We actually did not end up using the Nutella….and just kind of cooked it based on looks…not time! Meanwhile, we were making our own homemade whipped cream! That was fun!! We took turns, and it was fun to see it turn into an actual cream!! Ours was like…a brownie…I REALLY want someone to try this recipe…more than one person!! Please!!! Ill let you know when it is posted and I expect to see some comments on your attempts at it!! So, we shared a bit of our dessert and then sat down to watch a movie.
We watched
Batman Begins because it is one of Nick’s favorite movies, by his favorite
director, Christopher Nolan. It was a
great movie….but I am curious to see the others! This movie was mostly set up! Nick also scolded me earlier for not ever
watching “The Lord of the Rings” andfor not even making it through the book The
Hobbit , my freshman year of high school.
He was upset with me that we had the opportunity to do this in high
school and I did not take advantage of it.
We went our separate ways and fell
asleep!
Themes of the
day: 1. You can’t get that in America
(United States) 2. Live and learn…live and learn
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