We Dine with the Locals

Trip to Italy - Journal Entry #21 - September 28, 2009 - 7:30 am

After an hour's rest, we went back downstairs to visit some more with Rosita and to get a better feel for the house. This home is quite beautiful. What is most notable is that the outside of the house is an extension of the inside. We spent most of our time here sitting outside.

There is a large yard that is separated down the middle by a gravel driveway that leads to a rear exit / entrance. Both the front and the rear entrances are gated. There is much outdoor seating on the concrete patio next to the house. It is all very comfortable.

For dinner, we were taken to a local favorite restaurant. What a meal! Altogether, those joining us were Rosita, Maurizio and Barbara, Roberto, Nikki and Paolo, Renza and Chiara, and the three of us. The meal started with hard salami (most meals here do), and fried polenta (with melted cheese dip) and fried fat (!?!). I'm not quite sure what this last thing was, but I tried everything. We also drank a local red wine and we drank it out of bowls! They explained that you use the bowl to swirl the wine up the sides. The residual color left on the side of the bowl

allows you to judge how good the wine is. The main courses were two kinds of pasta: (i) tortellini stuffed with ricotta and spinach and (ii) fettucini with procini mushrooms. There is no such thing as bad food in Italy.

Oh and one more thing. I was make to try horse meat! It came with polenta and it wasn't bad -- although psychologically, I could not regularly eat horse.

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I am making this journal while on my flight from Milano to Paris. The plane has taken off and we are flying over the Alps. The highest ones are snow capped. And they're very pointy. I think we flew over Lake Como, Lake Maggiore and Lake Orta earlier. Dad and Chris are driving there today!

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Back to Stradella: Saturday was a long day, but it was a very good day. We all slept well, although I noticed that Rosita's neighborhood has a wide variety of background noises. Cars buzz by well into the night, and every house seems to have at least one or two dogs. They like to visit with each other and bark well into the night. And then, of course, there are the bell towers which chime periodically! Ah, well. Luckily, I was very tired and fell asleep quickly.