Pass the Cheese Please!

Parole: antipasti (appetizer), sole (sun, something present in Italy and not New York)

I find nothing more encouraging than a burst of spring weather after some rain.  Yesterday was one of those dreary and rainy days.  Add that to the time change that we had this weekend (which I did not realize was occurring until 11am the day of the time change), and it sure makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning.  Usually I am up and awake with the sun shining into my room; however, the darker mornings have made for some tired awakenings.

The spring weather is great.  This afternoon is breezy and sunny.  The weather on my computer’s desktop says that it is 64 degrees F here, and 28 degrees F in Ithaca.  I think I made the right decision here.  This morning I could smell fresh cut grass and blossoming trees as I walked to the bus station.  Currently, I am sitting in Parco Vetrai, which can be seen from my window in the apartment.  It is less than a 5 minute walk away.  I am sitting here writing, listening to an old man hit rocks with his push lawn mower, watching dogs run around, and trying to catch some Italian words that dog owners are yelling.  (Even the dogs know Italian!  I better get cracking on this whole language barrier thing.)  There is internet here in the park too.  It is provided by the same service as what we get in the apartment, however, it is a different access point, which seems to be more reliable thus far.  Life is good.

Aaahh the sights and scents of spring

Yesterday we visited a farm in the mountains with Federico and Prof. Quarantelli—Federico’s boss.  We went on more extremely curvy and narrow two way roads.  The purpose of this visit was to investigate into some problems that the farm is having with nutrition, which is causing problems with laminitis and mastitis.  The feedstuff, which is fed to cows individually as pellets at grain feeding stations, seems to have some vitamin deficiencies.  Last summer, Federico’s lab tested the amount of vitamins in the pellets, and the amount was far less than what the feed bill says it should have been.  Now they are with a different feed company and are trying to figure out some more nutritional issues.

A lot of the farm visits that we make are ones similar to what Cornell’s Cooperative Extension service does.  The professors do a lot of consulting for farmers as problems arise.  There is no extension service in Italy.  Federico says he would like to start one for Parma, but there is no money for it.

Following the farm visit, we ate a very big lunch.  Our antipasti was a pizza-type bread, however instead of sauce and cheese, it had ham, sausage, and some vegetables.  For our primi piatto, we had polenta.  Polenta is traditionally a food for poor people.  It is basically cornmeal mixed with boiling water.  We tried three different toppings on our polenta: mushrooms, 4 cheese, and ragu.  I liked ragu the best.  Ragu (not to be confused with the tomato sauce company in the States) refers to a tomato sauce with meat in it, and the ragu polenta also had strips of bacon on top.  For our secundo piatto, we had pork cooked in a balsamic vinegar sauce.  It was just right in terms of the strength of the vinegar.  Finally, for dolce, we had salame di cioccolato, which is basically chocolate cookie dough with some pieces of nuts or chocolate in it, sliced to looked like salami.  It was a very filling meal.

Lunch after the farm visit

On the way home from the farm, I rode in the front of the van with Quarantelli.  His English is limited, as is my Italian (however everyone, including us, Italian students we meet, and the staff that we work with, have become more proficient in each other’s languages).  So, from an observer, it would look like Quarentelli and I were playing charades.  We would talk about companies that we drive by, high speed trains that would speed past us on the accompanying rail, and about the different types of crops and fruit trees along the road, using hand signals to try to describe what we were talking about.  It’s fun to decipher and figure out what words and phrases really mean.

Well, that is all for now.  I am going to type up some notes here in the park and enjoy the sun while it lasts.  I am sure it will be raining again soon.

Adopo!

Parole: palazzo (palace, villa), musica (music), navigare in Internet (to browse the internet)

Yesterday consisted of a combination of a productive morning and a relaxing afternoon for all of us.  Liz and Lindsey got up at 7 and ran to the vet faculty (literally ran, because that is what they do).  They volunteered to milk a sick cow which stayed at the faculty for the weekend, so they milked her first thing that morning.  Aubrey and I headed to McDonald’s to use the internet to upload a blog post and to check out what was going on in the world.  The internet is still not working at our apartment.  It has been unusable for a little over a week now.  We have full signal of the city internet at home, we can always get connected to it, and sometimes it even lets us log in with our username and password, however, it never actually works well enough for ANYTHING to actually load.  It is very frustrating, however, the good news is, McDonald’s is only a 10 minute walk away for free internet, and we get free internet at the vet faculty.  It is just an inconvenience not having it in the apartment.  Anyway, once we finished using the internet, we went back to the flat, and headed to the TIM store to reload our cell phones.  All of us met back up again at the train station, where the ticket machine wasn’t working right, and we had to run to our train so we wouldn’t miss it.

The trains that we took from Parma to Mantova yesterday were the same ones as the first two trains we took when we went to Verona.  We took a short, loud, hot, rough-riding, two-car train from Parma to Piadena, and then took a large, fast, quiet, smooth-riding, double decker train from Piadena to Mantova.  (By the way, Mantova is actually spelled Mantua, however, it is pronounced Mantova, and so now many places read “Mantova” instead of “Mantua”).

Swan on Largo Mezzo

Once we arrived in Mantova, we grabbed some pizza for lunch wondered around the city.  We visited a duomo, walked through several beautiful piazzas, strolled through some parks, saw some palazzos, walked on the edge of a couple lakes (Mantova is on three lakes, whose names translate to Lake Inferior, Lake Middle, and Lake Superior), and walked around the outside of Castello San Giorgio.  The Castle still has a moat with water in it.  Most castles that we have seen have had their moat’s drained, and are full of cats.  In addition, the sun was bright today so it was a perfect day for photo taking.  I bought a pair of obnoxious reflective sunglasses on a street market, and used them and Lindsey’s aviators to take lots of “reflection” type pictures.

UPDATE! I forgot to mention the lady that told us where a good gelateria is!  We were standing at a small intersection deciding which way to go, and a little old lady walks up to us, and asks us what we were looking for.  Victoria took charge as she is the best and most confident Italian speaker of us, and asked where a good gelateria is.  She told us where to go, and said that she thought we were from Yugoslavia, and then she went on her merry way.  Older ladies seem to be around everywhere in Italy, always doing something, and walking like like they are on a mission (no matter how fast they may be walking or biking).

On our way home, we literally took the same trains back to Parma.  How do I know?  In the morning, Victoria had an orange on the train.  On the way home, we were eating strawberries and Grana cheese, and when we were throwing away the strawberry tops in the garbage trays by the seats, Victoria’s orange peels were still there!  We were on the same train, in the same car, in the same seats, as we were in the morning before.  And this was on the long, double decker train too, not the small, two-car one.

Castello di San Giorgio on the edge of Lake Inferior

Once we got back to Parma, we headed to McDonald’s for internet, where I also am this morning to post this.  They play American music here.  Last night I was sitting here, and someone’s cell phone rings.  The ringtone?  Super Mario theme song.  I laughed out loud.  The Italians are also always talking to us about American movies and pop culture, and sometimes they knowing more about it than we do (which really isn’t saying much considering my pop culture knowledge).  It’s amazing how technology really sends things like music, video games, and viral youtube videos across the world.

This afternoon we think we are headed to a Rugby game, and then, who knows what.  This week we are going on a lot of field trips for our classes.  We are excited to visit a lot of farm and new places.

Ciao!

Parole: gratis (free), grazie mille, (thanks a million!)

Welcome to Italy:  The land of unique cheeses, specialty pastries, delicious wines, and awesome people.  This week has been full of examples showing how giving Italians seem to be.

This week, we stopped by at the bakery located two buildings down the street from us.  Monday we bought a couple loaves of bread.  They were a typical Italian bread, being soft in the middle, hard on the outside.  The woman working at the bakery threw in a couple pieces of focaccia and torta frita for us for free.  A couple of days later, the same person was working, and we bought two more of those loaves of bread, as well as two regular loaves of wheat bread. (We cut the bread in half horizontally and added tomato sauce, cheese, and prosciutto, making a pizza (it was delicious).  Again, she through in some free goodies.  Sure, we stopped by in the late afternoon, so it is probably near closing and she just wants to get the bread off of the shelves, but it is that giving mentality.  We bought some more bread today to go with the 1.5 liters of homemade olive oil that Federico gave us.  (In addition to opening his home to us, driving us places, introducing us to people, and spending a lot of time with us.  He also said that his wife wants to plan a trip with us.)  We also made friends with the woman works at the pastry shop by the station, where we bought some goodies to take to Federico’s last Sunday.  We make sure we wave to her when we walk by every day.  It is nice to have some local companions in the area.

Sunset behind our building

The giving character of our ag systems class has made sure that we are not going hungry.  Tuesday, the instructors provided us with something called Columba, a special sweet bread in the shape of the dove, only available this time of year, before Easter.  They also provided us with a wine.  Thursday, they brought in homemade salami, a homemade Malvasia Dolce wine, (a dessert wine, very sweet, almost like grape juice), Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, torta frita, and focaccia.  I suppose you could say that we are beginning to “figure out the system” in that class.  Every day we talk about differences in our societies and they ask us about foods that we have tried here in Italy.  Often they will mention to us a food that we have not even heard of, and will be very surprised when they find out that we have not tried it yet.  As a result, they bring them in for us.  (And we are not just saying that we have not tried the food so they will bring it in, we legitimately have not tried some of the foods they have mentioned).  Further, as the salami and the wine came from Prof. Ferri’s farm, I asked him where his farm is.  He said that it was a few kilometers away, and that we could stop in on our way to our field trip on Wednesday.  Further, Professor Bonazzi said that if we wanted to, sometime we could visit his brother-in-law’s place, as he  makes real balsamic vinegar.  Again, it is so awesome how the Italians have really opened up to us, making us feel welcome, and making sure that we have the best experiences here that we can have by helping us to see and taste some of the best things in Italy.  We are very thankful for how much the people around us have done for us.

Some of the buildings at the Vet Faculty

An additional event we attended this week was a seminar on Milk Quality.  Yes, it was all in Italian, and yes we understood some of it.  I couldn’t quite concentrate on the speaker enough to know exactly what he was talking about; however, they had PowerPoint slides which helped.  With the slides, I could read along and figure out the general idea of what they were talking about.  Yesterday when we met with Federico, we went over some of the highlights of the conference, discussing how much casein, fat, and somatic cells affect Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese yield and quality.  The seminar also talked about different types of casein and how they affected cheese yield and quality.  It was fun to figure out what they were trying to present, so we asked Federico for a schedule of classes we could sit in on in Italian at the vet faculty.

Today we are headed to Mantova to do some exploring.  Also, our internet is not working at all at the flat anymore.  We are so dependent on it, as it is our only connection to the outside world, and we look up so many things all the time.

A Dopo!

Parole: cavallo (horse), delizioso (delicious)

Sam and Lucas arrived this weekend!  Sam spent the weekend getting caught up with some of his Italian friends in the area, and Lucas spent the weekend with us.  Because Lucas is an English speaker, I found myself structuring my sentences in a simple form, and talking slower and more clearly, as we do when we are speaking English to a native Italian speaker.  I caught myself doing it, and after that I made an effort to speak in my normal fast, mumbley, hard to understand American accent to him.

This past Saturday was the first Saturday that we spent in Parma.  So, we did more exploring around the city and showed Lucas around.  We visited the city’s market.  The girls bought “Italia” socks.  This market is much, much smaller than ones in other cities that we have visited.  We also went to Parco Ducale.  The park was full of couples (who made sure you knew they were couples), dogs, runners, walkers, bikers, and one roller-blader. There were so many people everywhere in the city!  Now and then Lucas would say things like “This is so Italy”, referring to the hundreds of people strolling around the city, socializing, shopping, relaxing, and enjoying themselves.  They were not in a hurry, and had no better place to be.  Such a difference when compared to the American culture.

Sunset on the pond at Parco Ducale

We exited the park on Via John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and walked through a food market, which featured local cheeses, salamis, and prosciutto.  It looked delicious.  Then, we headed went back toward the city center.

On our way, we found what I think is the best gelateria we have visited so far.  Attica Due Torri, literarily meaning old two towers,  gives you up to three flavors in generous portions on a cone for a whopping 1,70€.  What a deal!  I ordered a flavor called cookies, and another one called Due Torri.  It was odd ordering the flavor called “cookies” since it was an English word and we ordered in Italian.  The gelato was so delicious.  We took pictures of the place and will make sure that we visit it again when we are on that side of town.

Next we found a store called “Scout”, which is a clothing store that we saw in Bologna.  The girls wanted to go to, however we couldn’t find it when we tried to look for it again  (or I “forgot” where it was).  The Scout in Parma was neat, being retrofitted into an old stone building.  It included three levels in the small space that it took up, and it still had an original statue inside the building.  Scout is a little on the pricey side, especially if you are looking for Carhartt brand clothes. (getting closer to a Tractor Supply Company store!)  Apparently Carhartt is the brand to have in Italy.  Here, if you are wearing something that says Carhartt, it means that you are rich.  This makes sense as a Carhartt T-shirt was priced at 40€.  That is probably almost as much as my Carhartt bib-overalls!

We crossed the river, and went back to the city center, looking for a place to eat.  We found a place that looked promising:  Fair prices and a great menu posted for the evening.  However, like most places, this osteria wouldn’t be open for another hour (8pm).  So wondered around, and in the Italian way, we stopped at a bar for a glass of wine.  It was less than 2€ for a glass of wine, and they provided us with chips and bread.

We returned to the osteria that we spotted earlier.  It was called I Tre Porcellini, which literally means “the three little pigs”.  It was delicious.  I had gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce.  For desert we ordered something called semifreddo¸ which translates to semi cold.  It was so delicious, that we ordered a second one. We did some research and found out that it is a mixture of gelato and whipped cream, plus some other things.

Semifreddo

The good food didn’t stop there.  The next day Federico invited us to his farm.  For lunch, we enjoyed Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese with both authentic and commercially made balsamic vinegar, and with honey.  Real balsamic vinegar has the consistency of molasses, and is sweeter than normal balsamic vinegar.  Each year, people will add grape leaves to the top of a barrel to ferment, and drain the vinegar out the bottom.  It takes years to get enough of it to use.  For our primi piaitti, we had homemade lasagna (it was made by one of his neighbors who discovered that she makes really good lasagna, so she decided to start selling it).  Our second dish was chicken in a mustard/cheese/oil type sauce.  It was really good.  Even though we were all completely full by this point, we also had apple pie, which was actually like a lemon cake with apples baked into it.  This was a very filling and very delicious meal.

Since we were all stuffed full, we needed some exercise.  Federico gave us a grand tour of his farm.  It formally was a dairy farm, and now it is a hobby farm, with a pony, horses, donkeys, geese, a dog, and some cats.  He has a stud and he breeds horses to sell.

Next, Federico and his wife, Elena, took two horses across the road, where his father lives and where more horses are boarded.  We dressed the horses and saddled them up.  We rode them around in a field behind the barn.  The sky was clear, and we could see the mountains on the horizon as we rode horses into the sunset (well, I guess it was during sunset, but you get the idea).

Riding horses into the sunset

After it began to get dark out, we headed inside for some tea and some pastries.  Federico’s son, Samuele, (3 years old) was loving the attention that he had been getting from us all day.  He used his counting skills to put spoonfulls of sugar in our tea.  Then, when no one was not looking, he snuck an entire spoonful of sugar into his mouth.  Based on his actions and his ability to entertain us throughout the day, it was very clear to us that Samuele was just like his father.

It was such a great day in the countryside.  It was so nice to get away from a city environment and into open, green spaces to work with some animals and see another farm, and to be in a home.  I want to send a HUGE thank you to the entire Righi family-especially Elena, who worked so hard making food for us and helping us with the horses.  Again, the Italian hospitality is fantastic, as we felt so welcome by Federico’s entire family!  The weekend worked out great for Lucas so he could experience our great little city and the Italian countryside in a family environment.

I have one more thing about food to add.  Today, our food and culture instructor wanted us to experience our lessons first hand, so we went to another osteria.  Federico and Sam Fessenden joined us, as we enjoyed another big meal.  It included cheese from mild to strong in flavor, tortelli (not tortellini, its similar to ravioli) stuffed with potato, ricotta & herbs, and squash (ours was like a pumpkin filling, very sweet), and pesto di cavallo, which is seasoned, minced, raw horse meat.  For dessert we had tiramisu and cheesecake covered with chocolate.

I have no idea why we go through so much Nutella

As you can tell from the food we have been eating, I will be eating sandwiches (without Nutella) and salads for the rest of the week.  Lucas headed to Venice this morning to do some exploring there before he leaves Italy.  As for us, we will be in classes and visiting farms.

Cheers!

Parole: burro (butter), zangola (churn), macchina (car)

Yesterday we went on a field trip.  We piled into the faculty’s Mercedes van and headed towards higher ground.  Our destination?  La Villa:  A farm and cheese house operation owned by two entrepreneurial-minded brothers.  The farm is located in Urzano.

La Villa sign

La Villa is an “azienda agricola biologica”, which translates to an organic farm business.  They milk 150 cows twice daily in a double 12 parlor.  They have Holsteins, Brown Swiss, and Rossa Reggiano breeds of cows.  The Rossa Reggiano is the original breed for making Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  There are only a few herds of them left.  They do not produce much milk, but their milk high quality, making it ideal for cheese production.  However, they tend to get nervous easily.  A farm we visited last year that had this breed told us that the cow likes to have the same person milk them each time, otherwise they get nervous.  It is just a characteristic of the breed.

In the caseificio at La Villa, they make organic Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  As they were putting the blocks of curds into cheese cloth, they gave us a handful.  It was sweet and sticky.  After the curds were taken out of the caldrons, they took us to the room where the cream separator tanks are.  The evening’s milk is put into these large, shallow tanks, for the cream to rise overnight.  The now-skimmed milk is then drained from the bottom into the caldrons with the morning milk.  The owner explained this process in Italian, and we were able to understand without translation.  Partially due to hand movements, partially due to familiar words, and partially due to seeing this process before.  Our instructor who was translating for us was impressed when we understood.  They then take the cream and turn it into butter, in their room called a burroficio.  The whey is sold to feed for pigs which are going to prosciutto production.  In this set-up, they are able to make use of all of their raw materials.

Our Group, including Dott. Ferri, and one of the owners of La Villa. They have about 3000 cheese wheels in inventory, which is a little more than half of what they want to have.

The next innovation we saw was their artificial hay dryer.  It has been in the process of building since 2000, and should be completed to be used this summer.  They dryer consisted of two huge concrete buildings.  Everything here is made of concrete, because they do not have the wood resource that we in the United States.  It has to take so much more engineering to build everything from small barns to large factories entirely out of concrete.  The buildings had a floor in them that was made up of old railroad ties (which are also concrete) spaced around 2 inches apart.  Because it was under construction, we were able to walk through the bowels of the facility to see how it works.  There are two squirrel-cage fans that are about 5 foot in diameter each, and two large heaters.  Natural gas will fire the heaters, and 3-phase power will run the fans.  The fans will blow hot air through the slotted floor to dry the hay, and then the air will escape through an opening under the rafters.

High above us there was a hoist which had an arm and a cab.  The operator will climb up a staircase and get into the cab to operate this hoist to move the hay around the building.  However, the staircase is not built yet.  So I asked “How do you get into the cab?” and they said “We haven’t figured that out yet.”  Italians can be funny too.

At the conclusion of our grand tour, we went to their cheese store, where they provided us with wine and cheese.  It was delicious.

On the way home, we took a different road winding down through the mountains.  These roads are narrow with sharp bends and steep banks on either side.  The car ride itself was an adventure.  On the way home, the instructors showed us a castle in the area, which was built in the 1400s by someone for his lover.  It looked really familiar, so I asked if there was a restaurant in it.  They said there was.  As it turns out, it was the same castle that we ate at when we came last year!  They said they were hoping to impress us with the castle, and were disappointed when they heard that we have already been there.

I learned a lot on the trip, and I am looking forward to many more experiences like this throughout the semester.

Finally, today is a national holiday in Italy.  That’s right; we have St. Patrick ’s Day off.  However, it is not for St. Patrick ’s Day, it is for the celebration of 150 years of Italian unity.  Not everybody agrees with this holiday, so only time will tell how it works out. Also, this weekend Lucas Fuess and Sam Fessenden, some friends from Cornell, will be visiting us on their spring break tour of Europe.

Addio!

(I forgot my camera, photo’s courtesy of Lindsey)

Parole: ponte (bridge), biglietto (ticket)

In honor of the upcoming Maple Weekends and maple season celebrations, we ventured to Verona.  However, when we got there, I did not see any maple trees, boilers, pancakes, or VVS (Vernon Verona Sherrill) FFA members promoting their delicious maple products.  Instead, we saw a marvelous ancient city that includes a mini-coliseum, the story of Romeo and Juliet, a magnificent basilica, and lots of gelato (Unfortunately, they did not have maple gelato, however I think someone should make some).

Lindsey was the day’s tour guide, as her Italy book had a lot of “must see” attractions set up in a stroll across the city.  We followed the guide relatively close.  The first thing we did was purchase a Verona Card for 15€ for two days (they no longer sell the 10€ 1 day option), which allowed us to use urban transportation and view, climb, and enter many attractions for free.  So, we hopped on a bus from Platform A to Piazza Bra’, where our adventure began.  We wandered around L’Arena and had some pizza for lunch.  After, we went inside L’Arena.

L'Arena

L’Arena is a Roman amphitheater built in the first century AD.  It holds upwards of 30,000 people, and looks like a mini-coliseum.  However, unlike the Coliseum, this amphitheater is still in use.  When it is not open to tourists, it is being used for concerts, shows, and operas.  There have literally been millions of people walking in and out of the structure over the past 2000 years, as we saw on the wear pattern of the marble steps.

Inside L'Arena

Next, we headed to the place that is believed to be the Capulet’s house, as in Juliet Capulet of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. We saw the courtyard and balcony, and we were able to actually enter the balcony.  In the courtyard is a statue of Juliet, and it is good luck to touch her right breast, as shown by the wear pattern on the statue, where thousands of people have performed this good luck ritual.

After that, we trekked up the 368 steps of Torre dei Lamberti, a 80 meter tower (roughly 263 feet) to a view of the city.  Unfortunately, it was foggy in the distance and clouds were beginning to roll in, so we couldn’t see a long distance, but we were able to have a better idea of where everything was in the city, and how it was designed on the curves of the Adige River.

The next stop after the Torre was the Tombs of the Scravaleni family.  The Scravalini’s were most powerful family in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.  The tombs where elaborate, with sculptures and small towers.  It turns out that the architect for this piece of art designed it anonymously.  The Scravaleni family house is across from the tombs, on Piazza Dante, where there is a statue of Dante, and several statues around the piazza overlooking the open space.  The family helped to support Dante, a famous Italian poet.

Inside the basilica

The next stop on the Verona walk was the Basilica di Sant Anastasia.  From the outside, it looks like any other brick building, however on the inside looks completely different.  It features 12 red Veronese Marble pillars supporting a well-lit structure that is full of paintings, gold trim, and overall elegance.  While we were there an organist was showcasing his talents on the pipe organ.  I always wanted to hear one of those old instruments in action.  The keyboard was in the middle/front of the building, and the pipes were on either sidewall.  Just imagine the piping for this organ to work!  It sounded great.  The basilica was built around 1290 AD.  Similar to L’Arena, it was mind blowing to think how many millions of people have walked through the basilica.  The center aisle of the building was very worn, like the steps of L’Arena.  On the sides, the floor seemed to be untouched and perfectly smooth.

After the basilica, we went to Ponte Pietra, a bridge built by the Romans.  You can tell by its old looks and Roman style.  On the other side of the river was Treatro Romano—an ancient roman theater—and a fortress further above it on the hill.

Ponte Pietra, a bridge built by the Romans

Near to Ponte Pietra, we ate at a small gelateria which was recommended by Lindsey’s book.  While we were there, a woman approached me and asked how much my gelato was.  I didn’t realize she was talking to me, so I must have had a confused look on my face when I looked at her, as she said “Cuanta costa?”  You should have seen the look on her face when I responded with “Two twenty” in my clearly American accent.  Turns out she is from Toronto and is on a quilting trip with some of her friends.  It was nice to speak to another English speaker.

Our final destination was the duomo.  The exterior of the duomo was much more impressive than that of the basilica, however its inside was darker and not as impressive.  Like many of the gothic cathedrals we have visited, it was almost eerie inside.  I think the orchestra inside that was practicing for an opera performance later that night may have contributed to the eerie feeling of the cathedral.

We grabbed dinner at a small café, and headed back on the train to Parma.  If there is one thing that I have learned on all of these day trips is that the old saying “never judge a book by its cover” carries through in many situations.  I really wasn’t expecting maple syrup, however I did not really know what to expect at all.  No matter how much research you do on a place before you go, you will almost always be impressed, especially when you are visiting places that are hundreds, upwards of thousands, of years older than your native country. Bottom line?  Travel with an open mind, don’t get stressed, and always have your camera batteries charged.

Parole: gravità (gravity), cotello (knife)

With four hungry people living in one apartment, the dishes pile up quickly.  Daily there are at least 12 spoons with Nutella or peanut butter-like remnants in the sink.  We all willingly take turns at washing dishes and making meals.  There is no set system, it just works out.

Yesterday I did the pre-dinner dishes, and tonight I entertained the post-dinner crowed of Ikea specialties.  Yesterday we were home a majority of the day, because Wednesdays are free in our schedule, thus explaining the pre-dinner party in the sink.  Throughout the semester, we will be using Wednesdays for field trips and farm tours, which is very exciting considering the number of regular field trips we take at Cornell.  Allora, I while I was doing dishes tonight, I realized that a lot of the lessons that I learned in my regents level physics class (if Mr. Basset is reading this, I LOVE PHYSICS!, also known as “Amo la fisica!”  I will be sure to yell it in the streets of Parma) can be applied to this daily chore.  Here are some examples:

1.  No two objects can occupy the same space: This law even exists between water and sponges, when enough force is applied.  When washing a cup, I generally follow the standard rinse, dump, sponge, rinse again procedure.  I would say that “dump” would be the most important step.  If the there is some water still in the cup when one goes to sponge the inside of the glass, you will know that you are learning a physics lesson.  This is because when the sponge is put in the glass, water will proceed to shoot out of the opening of the cup, splashing you.

2.  Gravity-It’s the law: The faucet in our kitchen sink is located high above the bottom of the sink.  This means you can get more dishes in it before you need to wash them.  However, it also means that acceleration due to gravity will cause the water to accelerate towards the center of the earth and will come into contact with the bottom of the sink so fast, that it will splash.  This coupled with a relatively shallow sink, will also result in a wet dishwasher. However, gravity is also a plus in this situation.  The dish drying rack is located directly above the sink, inside a cabinet.  It is a brilliant idea.  The dishes are out of sight in a cabinet while they are drying.  The water will drip directly into the sink as they dry.  This, coupled with the correct ambient temperature and relative humidity will result in dry dishes in a relatively quick manner.

Note the innovative dish rack, the position of the faucet relative to the sink, and the shallow sides of the sink.

I am sure that more laws of physics will become more evident as the semester continues.  Over spring break I am hoping to explore the phenomenon we call “lift” as we conquer Europe.

This week was our first week of classes.  I wasn’t sure if I could handle sitting through a two hour plus lecture, as there are times when I can barely sit through a 50 minute class at Cornell.  However, I am impressed.  The professors have been very engaging, and have share a lot of interesting information with us.  Our first class, “Italian Food:  History, Culture, and Taste” made me hungry while we listened about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, their encounters with so-called “barbarians”, and how food and agriculture influenced everything that they did.  In our EU and Italian agriculture/economics systems classes, we have learned a lot about how policy in the EU has both stimulated and repressed food production over the past 60 years in order to support producers.  I have found it easy to stay attentive in all of the classes because of their interesting material and engaging instructors.  Everything is just so different over here, especially when it comes to policy, so I think that is why it is so interesting.  I am excited to see what the next week of classes will bring.

Tomorrow is Friday, and due to a slight adjustment in scheduling, we don’t have classes.  We will be meeting with Federico to take care of some more Italian bureaucratic issues in order to legally reside in the country for more than 90 days, and translate some tourist information about Verona for a possible weekend getaway.

Ciao!

PS-The weather as been fantastic this week!  Sunny and 50s (F)

Happy 71st Birthday Chuck Norris!

Parole: marmo (marble), tempo caldo (warm weather), bello (beautiful)

When visiting a city with ancient tourist attractions and a population of a little over 1.8 million people, you find that the streets and the buildings are a lot busier than a weekend trip to the Syracuse mall.  Saturday, we hopped on a train to Milano with our friend Victoria from the UK to visit il duomo (gothic cathedral), a castle, and a galleria.

When we arrived to Milano, we took the metro to the city center, which is where these attractions are located.  The Milano metro is simple to navigate and very clean, especially when compared to New York City’s subway system.  As we emerged from the underground railway, all we saw was il duomo. (and guys trying to sell us “genuine bracelets from Africa” for Shakira (which is apparently what they were calling Aubrey and Lindsey) and trying to give us corn kernels to feed pigeons)  The sheer size of the building and the details in sculptures and carvings is difficult for me to describe.

View of Il Duomo from the subway stairwell

Here is some background on the structure itself.  It took a little over 500 years to build, starting from the early 14^th century.  It is made completely out of marble except for the statue on top of the turret of the duomo, which is gold plated copper.  There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of statues and there are beautiful stained glass windows, all in a gothic style structure.  Some of the statues appear to be behind cages, making you wonder how they were even carved!  One statue inside is of a man who is holding his own skin.  Apparently it was an anatomy lesson for one of Da Vinci’s students, who carved the statue.

Inside there is a red light above the alter which indicates the location of one of the nails from Jesus’ crucifixion.  The nail is only on display for three days every September.  The pipe organ is the largest one in Italy, containing over 260 pipes.  There were two sections to it, one on each side of the alter.  Each section looked like it was probably 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide.

After a quick lunch away from the touristy part of the city, we got in line to climb to the roof of il duomo.  An easy 236 steps later, we were on the roof.  When they said a rooftop view, I just thought it meant a view from the top.  We were literally on the roof of the building, walking around on the shingle-like marble.  It was a great view of the city.  They say that you can see the Alps, however, it was a little hazy in the distance, so we couldn’t see them.

Us on top of the roof of Il Duomo

Next we headed to Castello Sforzesco, and had a look around.  Construction on it began in the 1450s, and it has been both restored and threatened to be destroyed many times since then.  Like many places where there are ruins, the castle’s moat appeared to be a cat sanctuary.  Judging by the number of pigeon feathers where the moat used to be, I would say that they are there for bird control reasons.

Our final stop was the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  This had several shops, including Prada and Louis Vuitton.  Apparently these are famous brands.  The girls thought that I was lying when I told them that I didn’t know what Louis Vuitton was.  I have heard of Prada only because of a movie.  The girls also wanted to go shopping for some clothes, or at least to look at them in various stores.  There clearly weren’t any clothes for me, as there was not a Tractor Supply Company store in site.

The weather is warm and clear today in Parma, and should stay almost this nice for a few days.  We have our schedule temporarily determined, and last Friday, we tackled the Penny Market and got lots of groceries in the hopes that we don’t need to go back to the store every other day.

We are looking forward to another good week and all of the experiences that will come with it.

Buonasera!

Nuevo parole di Italiano: fattoria (farm), caseificio (cheese house),

The official first week of classes for Universita’ degli studi di Parma has begun.  So what did we do this week?  We had some experiences on the Parma buses, learned some Italian, visited a farm, enrolled in the University, and paid some rent.

We have now figured out the bus system here in the city.  As you know, our last trip on the buses lasted a little bit longer than we expected it to.  We now have a bus pass for a month, and then in April we can buy a three month bus pass if we want to.  They only sell the “three month” passes every three months.

After our bus adventure, Federico decided the next day that he would pick us up at our apartment.  We went to the vet faculty and did some more translating of the blog and learned some more grammar from Federico.

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese wheel

Wednesday, Federico picked us up in the vet faculty’s van.  This van is like a box.  The sides and the back are literally straight up and down.  From our apartment we went to a dairy farm owned by the Scalabrini family, about 25 kilometers outside of the city.  It is a “antica fattoria e caseifico”, meaning it is an old farm and a cheese house.  The site includes its 300 cow dairy operation, its cheese production facility, and a store.  This combination is something found often in Italy.  As they are producing genuine parmigiano-reggiano cheese, they cannot feed fermented forages or TMR as per their co-op’s requirements.  They feed hay and grain.  They are not looking for quantity, but quality.  Further, the evenings milk sets in shallow vats in the cheese plant overnight in order to separate the solids, and when the mornings milk arrives, the partially-skimmed milk is added, and the cheese making process begins.  This means that timing is crucial.  As such, the farm uses a double 14 parlor in order to milk their 300 cows fast to feed the cheese plant.  This is a common practice in Italy.   Unlike in the States where parlors often run around the clock, they only milk for 4 hours a day to get the milk to their cheese plant on time.   At the end of the tour, Federico bought us 2 kilograms of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and the farm owner gave us what is an equivalent to about 2 containers of fresh Ricotta cheese.  (Grazie mille per Federico e la famigla Scalabrini!)  We mixed the ricotta with some tomato sauce and threw it in with some big noodles for dinner.  It was very delicious.

Trying the fresh ricotta

Today Federico picked us up again and took is to the central offices of the University in a small car, called a Fiat Panda.

Federico, how are 5 of us going to fit in that? Even Liz is bigger than the car!

The offices are located in the center of the city in a building that we have heard is upwards of 400 years old.  According to [http://old.unipr.it/ects.php?info=Guidaateneo&tipo=a0506&ID=4&lang=en], the earliest diploma found from the University was from 962 AD.  In the central offices, we went to the Erasmus department, which is the European name for an exchange program.  Here, we paid our rent (350€, which is roughly $482), got enrolled in the University, and learned about the bus system as I mentioned earlier.  However, to be fully enrolled, we need to bring passport-type photos to the Erasmus office, so we can get our ID cards and our exam booklet.  Luckily, we can just go to a photo booth (like the fun ones in malls) at the train station to get instant passport photos ourselves, relatively cheaply.  Once that is finished, we will be completely enrolled.

After enrollment, we took the bus “campus”.  What they call campus is where the main academic buildings and departments are, including the basics:  The ag school, engineering, math, sciences, and linguistics, among others.  We headed to the linguistics department for our first day of an elementary Italian course.  It was a bit overwhelming, but the translating that we did, our background in Spanish, and the lessons with Federico gave us enough background to understand what was going on—for the most part.  In the class there were students from Poland, Portugal, the UK, and Iran.  They knew much more Italian than we did.

Following class, we went back to the central offices for a meeting for Erasmus students about a teaching placement opportunity.  The University partners with local primary and middle schools and lets exchange students help teachers teach their native language.  This means that we would be able to go to an elementary or middle school and help teach English-an AWESOME opportunity.  We also can get credit for this if we put in enough hours.  Our ability to do this will depend on our class schedule, which we will find out about next week.

Caseificio Tour ((L to R) Corey, Lindsey, Federico, Liz, and Aubrey)

One more day of classes, and then we are off to Milan for a day trip on Saturday (at least that is the plan so far).

Arrivederci!