Past the Two Week Marker

Ok, let me explain myself!
Sidewalks are kind of built into the buildings so they are like little tunnels with arches and pillars and they are called Portici (pronounced porteechee). I found out that they only exist in Piemonte, not anywhere else in Italy or the world! Go Piemonte!


Now, let me commence with wonderous tales of Italian food:

The snack (spuntino) between 4-5 is called miranda (or at least that is how it sounds, it is probably spelled way wrong!) and one may eat a pudding, or a cookie/toast thing with nutella, or gelato!

Did I mention before that I live directly next to una Fabrica Di Balocco? (a Balocco factory) For those of you poor souls who don't know what Balocco is then go to the nearest grocery store and educate yourself by buying the first package of cookies or panetonni with the big red letters on it saying BALOCCO. Some days if we're lucky you can smell freshly baked cookies in the air when you step out the front door! If you are unlucky, you may smell burnt cookies...

Do you want to hear what a day of eating looks like over here? Of course you do!

Colazione/Breakfast: cup of hot milk with some coffee in it, some delightful little buttery cookies for dipping in the nilk, and a cookie/toast thing with nutella on it.

Pranzo/Lunch: Fizzy white wine which is not Champagne but better (I find my taste for white wine is growing, but of course I still love red wine), ravioli with a cream sauce with sage leaves in it (you eat around the leaves...), olives soaked in some wonderful mixture of flavors, then when I finish the pasta, I whip out the bread and soak up all of the left over sauce and oil on my plate. Then we may have some cooked carrots with such a sweek flavor you'd think they were caramels!
Then out comes the cheese- There may e 5 different types of cheese on a plate and then a tupperware with some fresh mozzarella balls that are not from a cow, but a goat (Davide only eats this cheese or cream cheese or sometimes Fontina). We cut off hunks of cheese to eat either with bread or we drizzle some honey on it and eat it that way.
After the cheese isfruit. We put a huge basket of fruit on the table and pick out which one we want. It you go for an apple you have to peel it like a potatoe before you eat it because the skin is thinker and kind of gross. If you go for an orange, do not be suprized to find that it is indeed red on the inside. I prefer to go for a Kiwi which in italian is kiwi.
Lastly we pull out the left over apricot cake that Erika (my host aunt) made. But whait I forgot, the last step after we clean up is the coffee. Me, Eros and Simo enjoy a hot (and tiny!) espressos with sugar!

I want to go on to explain dinner, but It would take too long and I have to go, but I will continue at a later date.

Love, gratitude, happiness -Michelle