Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Winter becomes Spring

 March is really living up to it's reputation here in the Saluzzo area.  In like a lion & out like a lamb.  Well we have another week to confirm it's "lambiness", but the lion part is certainly true.  On Sunday, March 7 we got a bunch of snow.  I guess the crazy Washington winter weather found me!  It snowed all day on Sunday and got to be a bit over a foot.  Though they were calling for snow, I never believed we'd wake up to a sea of white.
From Blogger Pictures
Luckily we had planned a nearly perfect snow day without even knowing it would snow.  The extended family with good friends Antonio & Laura went to Ruffia to have a big polenta lunch!  Laura had offered to make polenta for everyone  and you just can't say no to an offer like that.  I made ratatouille to go with it and Maria Pia made sausages and a mushroom sauce.  It was all very delicious and very hearty, perfect for a snowy afternoon. 
From Blogger Pictures
After we had stuffed ourselves we went outside to build a huge snowman.  The snow never let up, so it was hard to get a good picture.  It was very beautiful though.
From Blogger Pictures
Then on Wednesday it snowed again!!  Another 7 - 8 inches I think.  Olney loved it.  He's crazy for snow.  He had a great time running around the field and chasing snowballs we threw to him.  It was nice to get once last snow day for the season.
From Olney Puppy
So that was very "lionesque."   Then, the weekend before last, we met my friend Caitlin in Nice.  Caitlin's studying in France, but hadn't been to Nice before.  It was really nice for us to get to Nice.  We hadn't been since we went with Vicki & Amy & Danny almost a year ago!  One of our goals for this year is to go more often.  It's only about a 3 hour drive, so it's a nice weekend get away.  We left Olney in Savi Beach though.  We want to try to bring him to Nice, but not when we're meeting someone else.  We're worried he'll be too afraid of all the noises and strangeness.  He's sort of a scaredy cat, especially of loud, low noises & booms. 

Anyway, we met Caitlin in Nice Friday evening.  She had arrived a few hours before and explored a bit, but hadn't quite made it to the most touristy (and our favorite) parts of Nice.  We went to the apartment to unpack and relax and change before going to the Fleur de Jade, a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant a few blocks away from the apartment.  I love this place.  Fabri & I only knew of one or two good places to eat in Nice, the rest are all the same touristy overpriced places.  I found the Fleur de Jade in a Nice guidebook from the library.  The restaurant is very decorative, you have to step over a koi pond to get in, the food is delicious and (for Nice) inexpensive and the guys there speak English and love Americans! 
From Nice & Spring Flowers
After dinner we walked around Nice pointing out all the attractions to Caitlin.  We eventually (of course) found our way to Wayne's.  Wayne's is always an awesome time and we danced (to the so-so band) and drank and hung out until we were too tired.

The next morning we woke up late and went shopping.  My second favorite thing about Nice is the shopping.  There are a lot of stores close to our apartment including H&M and a shopping mall, the Nice Etoile.  Everyone got something new and we continued window shopping all the way down to the beach.  By then it was lunch time and we headed to the Festival des moules.  Here you get all you can eat mussels & fries for 14 euros (the price went up again).  It's a lot of fun and a tradition for Fabri.
From Nice & Spring Flowers
After all those mussels we were stuffed and went back to the apartment to sleep.  Later that evening Fabri cooked a yummy dinner of carbonara spaghetti.  After dinner we went down to Old Nice and took Caitlin to another English speaking pub, Thor which has actually been renamed AkaThor.  Anyway,  we were all still stuffed from lunch & dinner and unfortunately Caitlin had a disagreeable hard cider.  Teaches her to drink hard cider...

But overall we still had a marvelous time in Nice and hopefully Caitlin will make it all the way to Saluzzo this summer!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Bologna (not the Oscar Mayer kind)

The weekend of February 19 we went to Bologna, Italy.  Bologna is a 3 to 4 hour drive from Saluzzo.  It's in the center north of Italy in a region famous for ragu sauce, parmesan cheese and prosciutto.  Oh yeah, and bologna!!  The Italians call it mortadella and it's pretty yummy.
From Bologna (Not the Oscar Mayer Kind)
We sort of decided at the last minute to go to Bologna.  We were getting cabin fever and needed a change in scenery and had been thinking about going to Nice.  But the weather called for rain off and on all weekend, so we switched destinations to Bologna which has the most covered sidewalks in the world: 38 km!  We found a cute hotel on Venere.com right in the center of the city.  On Friday we dropped Olney off at Fabri's parents house and headed east!  The weather was sort of strange and I snapped a few photos from the car.
From Bologna (Not the Oscar Mayer Kind)
The Tomtom found the hotel without a problem and we were lucky to find parking right away.  Parking seemed to be a problem in the center and every time we went to the car to check on it we were asked if we were leaving. After we checked in it was a bit before 8 so we hit the streets to get our bearing on the city and find a restaurant.  The tourist center of Bologona is somewhat small and it wasn't hard to navigate especially because we came armed with a map Maria Pia had form her recent trip there.  We walked around somewhat randomly until we found a restaurant that looked popular and full.  I had the mixed grilled meat & veggies and Fabri had a spicey grilled chicken.  We tried some Bologna house wine which just doesn't compare to our Piemonte wines.  The bread was really good though and Fabri had a delicious marscapone for dessert.  In fact, I'm going to try to figure out how to make that for dessert this week.  I think I'll just whip marscapone with sugar and vanilla and serve it with amaretto cookies.
From Bologna (Not the Oscar Mayer Kind)
ANYWAY, the next day we toured the city.  Bologna is lousy with towers.  The wealthy and affluent families of Bologna built towers to show how rich and powerful they are.  The tallest one strategically placed in the center of the city is a bit over 300 ft and we walked up the whole thing!  It was worth it for the views, but the stairs were small and worn from the years and inside was humid and sticky.  Pretty gross overall.  This is me looking fabulous while under these awful conditions!
From Bologna (Not the Oscar Mayer Kind)
We had lunch at a cute Naples style restaurant, but we had Bologna specialties: mortadella & parmesan cheese, pasta with ragu sauce and gnocchi.  After some more site-seeing we avoided a rain shower with an afternoon nap.  That night we went to the restaurant Bentivoglio which was recommended by some students of mine.  It's a jazz club/restaurant with very good food, though the wine list was a little expensive in my opinion.  We had the best steaks and were introduced to the delicious San Giovese Speciale wine from the hills of Bologna.  We brought home 2 bottles!
From Bologna (Not the Oscar Mayer Kind)
Then Sunday we went to the Jewish Museum before a leisurely ride home.  It was a very nice weekend!  As usual, there are a lot more pictures on my Picasa Web Album (link to the right).