Mantua-Deiva Marina 08/21/2010

Had breakfast at the Bed and Breakfast in a very nice private little yard in the back of her place. After spending so many days surrounded by Italian it was weird to have English spoken by everyone at the table. We then travelled to Deiva Marina, which is about a four-hour drive from Verona. We stopped in Mantua for an hour and a half (Mantova in Italian) and looked at the buildings. It was an entirely spontaneous visit so we didn’t know which buildings to go in or why the name Mantua was so familiar until we left so we didn’t see any of the spectacular artwork inside the buildings. But the buildings were constructed beautifully in themselves and there was a great view coming into the city. There was this one clock on a tower that not only told the time (in roman numerals that went all the way to XXIV on an outer ring) but an inner ring with two layers of the months around the outer end (which was used depended on the next inner ring which showed which sign we were in) and the pointer was a girlish figure with a unicorn that would open up to reveal which phase the moon was in.




Once we finally got into Deiva Marina we quickly moved into our apartment for the week. It’s so nice to have my own room (I mean tonight I’m sharing it but for the next 4 or 5 days its all mine.) And grocery shopping and cooking for ourselves and having a kitchen where I can just grab what I want without having everyone knowing about it will be just divine. The apartment is within walking distance to the beach and is very small and there are a lot of younger people here. I’ll go on a photo tour tomorrow and will keep you updated. No wifi here either but we have a tv here although I don’t think I’ll be watching much of it.

OH! And the church is right next door. I’m reminded because the bells go every half hour and a couple of times already today they’ve been joyfully ringing.

Verona 08/20/10

Got up early today to pack everything up and catch a train to Verona (actually the stop before because that’s where our bed and breakfast was). After a stressful 3- hour trip we finally got to the station, got all our luggage off and still had time to have an espresso before our friend picked us up from the station. She’s an American friend who moved to Italy about 20 years ago and has been a great help with planning the trip and we’re going to spend the last two weeks of our time here with her taking care of us.

We drove to a bed and breakfast about 20 miles from Verona and unpacked, claimed out beds, and decided to drive to a nearby sightseeing joint which was an old fortress town bordering a very very large lake between Trento and Verona, Lago de Guarda. We walked around, talked about the differences between Americans and Italians, ate, and tried not to buy those stupid touristy things. Today was the first time I was served a whole fish and I almost couldn’t it because it’s little head was looking at me. But I got over it and it was good although I think I’ll try to avoid that experience again.




Afterwards we drove back to the bed and breakfast and took a little nap before getting ready to see Turnadot in the Verona Arena, which is the only reason we made the trip to Verona. We left a few hours early so that we could explore the city but ominous thundering noises went on all during our nap (although it was dry where we were) as we got closer to the city it started to rain, and then its started to rain harder, and then we ended up stuck in the parking lot for two hours of anxiously glancing up at the sky looking for any lighting up of the rain and counting the seconds between the lighting and thunder, which was close. Finally at 8 we decided to get out of the car because it looked like there was a break in the storm and we wanted to make sure of what was going on with the opera which would start at 9. We were able to rush order a pizza from a pizzeria (which does NOT happen in Italy a lot let me tell you) and get into the Arena. It was still drizzling at 9 but the stage hands were mopping up the set and preparing to get ready so we were still hopeful. If they start the opera and play for 5 minutes they can cancel the show and not give you a refund so we were wondering if we were sitting in the cold and wet to get played. But they got everything ready and started at 9:40 and everything went beautifully from there.

Last time we came in 2005 we saw Aida and were caught in a very violent downpour about 30 minutes before the show that completely soaked us but stopped right before so we sat through the night shivering and wet so I guess this time was a much better deal. The Verona theater has a tradition of having the audience light candles while they turn off all the lights at the beginning of the show because that’s how they arena was lit hundreds of years ago. They didn’t do it this year which made me sad but I still have the memory from before.

Roncone Days 6, 7, and 8

08/17/2010-
Had lunch with one of gramma’s cousins today. She made homemade gnocchi in a buttery cream sauce and chicken and sausage and everything was delicious but much too much. I was going to go the lake and read afterwards but it started to rain again and forced me back inside (when we finally got home around 4). Then we hosted dinner at the hotel again for some more cousins and went to bed.

08/18/2010 –

We went to an agritur (a restaurant or hotel that grows or raises all their own food) and had polenta but their portions were much too large and honestly not very good. (too salty we think) We did, however, learn about a problem the bees in Italy have been having though so it was pretty educational I guess. Got home late, stuffed, so we went to have a light (ha) dinner at the hotel, which was still too much.

08/19/2010 –

Kidnapped by family again. Went to a small town near Tione and had coffee and bought touristy things before going back to Tione and eating proper homemade polenta with family. Got back around 2, packed a little, and went into town to say goodbyes to various cousins. Met some awesome cuddly dogs and came back and finished packing as we have an early start tomorrow.

Also I decided to explore the U.S. with a friend when I go back in September. Our plans were thwarted at first when the Jet Blue “all you can fly” deal sold out literally minutes before we were able to get in touch with each other, but it looks like we’re going to try and do something like that anyway. I’m excited but worried that the permanent move to Seattle might have to be postponed (although it’s not like there’s anything waiting for me there anyway). Maybe a mysterious job will just fall into my lap. Hmmmm…

Roncone -Days 4 and 5 08/15, 08/16

Sunday was a holiday in Italy (celebrating the Ascension of Mary I think) and Roncone celebrated by a special mass followed by a procession in which they take out all the church regalia and lead the attendees around the town while going through “Hail Marys” (again I think this is what was going on as they did this all in Italian). There was another lottery in the square and we won a skateboard, a child’s play pen, and a whole array of useless gadgets (I think Gramma got a pack of straws). We benevolently passed on these goodies to kids in the family because we’re good cousins. We then ate at Diana’s pizza place again and I moved on from just artichoke to artichoke, mushrooms, and ham. Aww aren’t I growing up.

The day started off pretty and that lasted until about lunch. After a nap at the hotel we walked about a block of the mile to the piazza before we realized the rain was just getting worse and we trudged back to the hotel. That night we had cancelled dinner plans at the hotel because they were making special town-made polenta (a heated ground corn meal with various spices and specks of meat thrown in). With the rain though we were out of luck and ended up huddled in a friends living room with about 6 other friends and family, showing old family pictures and making fun of each other. If I understood just a bit more Italian I might have come away with a blind date with her “best” grandson. As it was, when the rain let up we all went out to hear the town band play (in which he played) and see the status of polenta- making (which was postponed until Monday.) After being devoted fans for about a half hour we all split up with our goodies and went home. Gramma and I contented ourselves on a dinner of fries, which, after all the food we’ve had to eat in the past week, was pretty awesome.





Monday all we did was hang out with family in Tione. Got to meet two large (came up to my hip large) German Shepherds; and then we all watched Flipper in Italian. It’s been raining off and on every day since we got here which makes sitting by the lake and reading while working on my tan kind of impossible. Instead there’s a lot of eating, sleeping, and gossiping with the Italian fambam. Which is just as fun as I’m learning a lot about my family.

Roncone -Day 3 08/14/2010

Walked to the lake this morning and read for about an hour and took pictures. It rained all of yesterday and was semi-nice this morning but another downpour moved in.



Luckily for me, I had enough sense to walk back beforehand where I met Gramma outside and we decided to eat lunch at the hotel instead of wander the streets looking for cousins to feed us. Here’s another menu of what they fed us. There were two different versions of the second course and gramma got one and I got the other so we didn’t eat ALL of this.






The food as always was good and cheesey and delightfully easy to eat and afterwards we got some pretty spectacular thunderstorms to wake us up at night.

Roncone -Day 2 08/13/2010

Aside from sleeping in till 10:30 because it was raining and we accidently left the shutters closed which made the room pitch black, we had a pretty productive day here. (Although, in all fairness, I probably would have slept until noon if I had the chance so I suppose I shouldn’t be making excuses about shutters).

We walked around the town and even though I ‘know’ that everywhere closes from 12-3 in Italy so people can have lunch, I was still caught by surprise when everywhere was closed. Fortunately, because it’s a big tourist month here the bars were still open and we went to Diana’s Bar/Pizzeria in the center of the town and had my first real ristorante-made Italian pizza since we got here. Last time I was here in 2004 all I ate was Margherita pizza (cheese pizza) but this time I branched out a little and got Carcoffi pizza (artichoke and cheese pizza). Here’s a pic of what you get and yes I ate all of it in one go. Oops.

After lunch we were supposed to just go back to the hotel but Gramma decided to visit a cousin (forgetting that they would be in the middle of lunch) and the host quickly deduced that if she didn’t like the answer Gramma gave she would look at me and nod and I would automatically say “Si.” We almost had to eat another 5- course lunch. We escaped (literally) and took a nap back at the hotel and walked around again at 4 when everything was open. We visited the cousin again at a more appropriate time and spent about a half hour drinking coffee, eating desert, and arranging for an actual lunch this time (despite the fact that we spent 10 minutes trying to say no. I kept my mouth shut this time but I probably would have saved time by just saying yes because resistance was futile. I’m now looking forward to gnocchi for lunch on Tuesday. The lunch instead of dinner was probably the only concession we got.)

After walking around a little more in the rain we got back to the hotel and waited for dinner. Now that I’m not eating at a person’s home I feel ok taking pictures of the meals so you’ll get to see what we ate. The menu was in Italian and I’m tired so you can translate it yourself ;). The food is in the order that we got it and I ate everything except a side of mushrooms. The first item, the apertif, was a green fizzy drink that I didn’t think to take a picture of. But it was bright green and fizzy and served in a champagne glass.

Roncone 08/12/10

Last time I wrote it was 08/11/10 in Savignone….we didn’t do much the rest of that night except visit the local church which was also having a festival. Gramma and I won three things at the lottery the church was holding after mass (one of them was a toddler’s pink scunchie so I don’t know if we should count that…but hey, it’s better than nothing, right?). It looked like everyone in the town came out for the event and to gossip after mass, which I found refreshing after my lonesome city-life where you were lucky if you knew your neighbor.

(as a side note…The only reason I knew my neighbors were because of the earthquake that shut our power off for three days when I was 6.)

Anyway, Savignone is a bit bigger than the other places we’ve been to so far. One family, our host derisively told us, even designed their house to look like a medieval castle but she wanted to make it very clear it wasn’t actually a medieval castle.

After the lottery, we got home, ate, slept and got up at 4:30 AM so we could catch the 5:55 bus from Genoa to Tione. Of course the bus was late so I had an extra 15 minutes to be Mama Alex and worry but it all worked out in the end. If you call a 6-hour bus ride when it should have been 4 ‘working-out’. The family who picked us up lived just a block away and saved lunch for us so it wasn’t that bad. The food, as always, was delicious and they had tiramasu gelato to follow so I’m basically in heaven here.

After assuring each other that everyone in out respective families was well and happy and then staring off into the distance (look at the view of their backyard and you’ll see why that wasn’t as awkward as it needed to be)

we started talking a little about politics and all the terrible stories in the world which led to a 5 hour long discussion of all the bad things that have happened to our ‘tanti bene familias’ and a deliciously good gossip fest ensued. I understood enough to get the gist of everything but not enough to join in a lot.

Afterwards we had dinner, which was minestrone (the Italian word for all soups) followed by potatoes, proscetta, cheese, and desert.

Also, I ATE ALL THE MINESTRONE EVERYONE! This was a big deal for me as it had onions, celery, carrots, parsley, zucchini, and probably some other vegetables I didn’t dare ask about. I liked it. I mean I actually could have bragged about my improved eating habits a few meals earlier when I ate another version of minestrone but since all I did today was sit on a bus and eat I felt I’d save it for now.

2 espressos later we went to our hotel in Roncone, which is about two small towns away from Tione. It’s very pretty and attracts the dedicated tourists but it’s also generally quiet and the tourists aren’t the annoying, Hawaii shirt, fanny-pack kind so I expect we’ll have fun.