I guess maybe I should change this to the Keen European Adventure...

Ever been to Finland?  Me neither.  So why not go?  In November?

Do you know how cold it is in Finland in November?  Me neither.

It is 0.

That's right.  0 degrees (Celsius but who's counting).

The first thing I noticed about Finland, besides the cold, is that Finnish is a completely foreign language.  No Romance/Latin basis here.  They put 2 U's and oomlots in and all kinds of other weird stuff.  Sometimes the G sounds like a G but more often it sounds like a Y.  Even German was easier to understand that Finnish. 

From now on it's not "all Greek to me"  It's all Finnish.

But the people are nice.  So nice.  And quiet.  We were easily the loudest people on the street all day today.  Have you met my kids?  Yeah, big surprise there.

I really enjoy being able to take mass transit when I am in European cities.  We did it in London, Paris, Berlin, and Bergamo.  It is a little more difficult here, because, again, Finnish, but for the most part we seem to be figuring it out.  We hopped on the light rail to go down town.  We found a Starbucks for some coffee, but passed some local shops we might try tomorrow.  The kids have been less than thrilled with the food, so we were hoping to find something there, but alas, my picky little eaters made a pass.

We did eventually land at a cool little market where there was a smoothie and gluten free panini stand.  Their smoothies were very delicious.  Ryan had the "Red" with  berries, banana and apple juice while I tried the "Violet" which had mint and coconut water.  I really liked the mint as it made it very refreshing considering we were drinking smoothies in 0 degree weather.

Emily preferred the hot sausages from a little market stall outside. This sausage was about 2 feet long and she nearly ate the whole thing.  That girl does love her meat. The market was very worldly as I met one shop owner from India, another from Cornwall, and a couple from Peru.  When I told Ryan that the gentleman was from India and he was Indian, he kindly corrected me, "They are native Americans, Mom".  And I had to explain that no, this really was an Indian from the country of India.  Not awkward at all.

Off in the distance we saw a giant Ferris Wheel, the Helsinki Sky Wheel, and of course, being the perpetual tourists, my children were dying to go on it.  After forcing them to look at all the stuff in the shops, we finally relented and got tickets and hopped on board.  We got to go around the wheel 5 times, which thrilled the children to no end.  We were also the only ones on the ride.

Right next to the Skywheel, was a pool.  An outdoor, heated pool.  The thing that really blew my mind was how many people were swimming in the pool, in 0 degree weather.  Apparently Finns really love their swimming and there has been a big push from the government to make sure all Finns know how to swim for enjoyment and safety.

I learned this tidbit because we made our children go through the Helsinki Museum.  Someday, as Aaron put it, we will be able to go through a museum and he will actually be able to see and read stuff, but that was not today.  They enjoyed the Children's World exhibit and Emily and Ryan taught us our numbers in the old classroom.  They liked looking at the toys and they put on a great little puppet show.  I really think Emily has found her calling.

We headed back after that because, did I mention it was cold?  Emily ended up falling asleep in Aaron's arms and Ryan followed quickly on the railcar.  Now they are taking a nap and eventually we will venture out into the cold to get some food.

There are a lot of things that are similar to the states here.  I see many familiar brand names and stores, but there are a few huge differences.  There are no homeless people here.  Or if there are, they have been put away for the winter.  Even in the day time, it is too cold for people to be out with no shelter, or even without a jacket for any length of time.  There is little trash and very few cars.  Even when we were headed back at 4:00 or so, the traffic was certainly heavier than when we headed out at 11, but nothing like 4:00 in a big city in the states.  The man I met at the market who was from Cornwall said that there is little crime to speak of here because people have what they need.  We saw many bicycles out without locks because, I'm assuming, people don't have to worry about it being stolen.

As we were walking back to the flat, the children were being picked up by parents at their school.  We have a school just down the block from where we are, and I'm guessing that many of them live in the apartments around here.  There was no long line of cars to pick up the kids, just adults swarming around and then walking home with their munchkins. 

My phone died, so I don't have any pictures yet, but Aaron took some good ones which I will try and add on later.  More adventures in Helsinki tomorrow.

Venice

I'm not going to lie.  The moment I stepped off the train, the emotion I was feeling caught in my throat.  Right outside the station, is the Grand Canal.  There is no noise of cars, no sounds of honking.  All you hear is the sound of the water lapping against the stones, the sounds of boats motoring down the canal,and the voices of all the people.  You can smell the sea air on the wind.  Not a powerful salty smell like the ocean, more just a hint of salt.


My mom and I had traveled to Europe in 2001, only a few months after September 11.  We had an extra day before we had to go home, and we were in Milan.  Mom and I had discussed going to Venice, but like a fool I said No.  We ended up having a perfectly fine day in Milan, but I had always thought I'd come back.

Now, 15 years later, here I was, in Venice.  With entirely different people that I hadn't even known existed 15 years before.  I had felt the same thing when I was in London the second time.  And when I got to see the Duomo in Milan... again.

So many people don't get the chance to go to Europe once, and here I was, again.

I don't want to make it sound like a year in Europe is a completely magical thing. There have been some good things and some hard things.  Not having a support system to just get out for a night has been hard.  Not being able to speak Italian well has been very hard.  I had no idea how lonely it would feel.

But here we were in Venice.  It really is as beautiful as it looks.  The best part about arriving in Venice was the unadulterated joy on my son's face as he realized that the buses were boats.  I can't remember the last time I saw him so excited. Aaron and I had told him we were going to a city where there were no cars and all the streets were water. We have discovered that he does not do well with surprises.  He can get easily overwhelmed where as if you pre-warn him, he can at least get used to some of the idea (as much as he can being 4) and then he's not so overwhelmed by the things he didn't expect.

"Look!  The buses are boats!"

Ryan promptly decided we needed to go on a boat ride, no two boat rides!  One on a bus boat and then one on a regular boat.  And we should do that right now, despite the fact that we hadn't eaten lunch or checked into the hotel yet.  Aaron and I assured Ryan that we would indeed take a boat ride, but that we needed food first.  I had found a list of gluten free restaurants on line, and we headed through Venice's winding streets toward a place called La Zucca.

Little did I know that you need reservations for lunch on a Saturday at La Zucca.  While gluten free is not a foreign request here, it is not everywhere and after hearing that we needed a reservation at this place, I was concerned that we would continue to wander around the city to other restaurants and continue to be turned away.  We ended up eating at a little place across the canal called Al Ponte Del Megio.  Aaron had spaghetti with olio di peperoncino and I had tagliatella (which is like our linguini) with eggplant and dried tomatoes.  It was amazing.  Ryan had a peanut butter sandwich and some beautiful strawberries we bought from a fruit vendor in Venice.

After lunch, Ryan kept asking if we could go on the boat yet, and we assured him that after the hotel, we would indeed go on a bus boat.  I had hoped to go on a gondola, but it was 80€ for a 30 min tour! If we hadn't had the children who can barely sit still for 5 minutes, a gondola ride could possibly be the most perfect way to see the city.  However, when you have a 4 year old who gets excited every time a boat motors by and an 18 month old who would more likely jump over the side at the sight of a cat on shore than sit still for 30 minutes, a gondola ride did not seem like a good investment.


We finally found the hotel which turned out to be a quiet little place on the western side of Venice.  The room was very large and clean.  Ryan declared that it was a "good room".  And then proceeded to jump from bed to bed (after kindly removing his shoes).

We made our way back to the train station where we got on a "bus boat" and Ryan and I snagged the front seats.  Everything about the boat he loved.  He liked going fast, he liked it when the boat banged against the dock.  We held our breath under every tunnel and he loved it when I would let my breath out first.  At one point we "raced" a taxi boat and he was laughing and pointing and urging the bus boat to go faster.

He was only ready to get off when gelato was mentioned.  We disembarked near Piazza San Marco and were promptly swallowed by the throngs of tourists.   There were women in Carnevale dresses and masks.  Stalls full of trinkets and souvenirs.  I was surprised at how many people were there, even though it was a Saturday.  Emily woke up from her nap on the boat and wanted to walk.  Between not having to watch out for cars and the bridges and boats, it turned out that Venice was the perfect city for my kids.  It was difficult to find a gluten free gelateria, but we ended up walking all the way to a place called Gelato Fantasy who ended up having gluten free cones!  Ryan has decided he doesn't like cones, however, since last time he had one and he ended up getting more on his hands than in his mouth!  So he got a cup of chocolate (of course). Emily got very excited and shared my chocolate and Bailey's although she decided she would leave the Bailey's to me.  Aaron got peanut butter which is an incredibly rare flavor to find in Italy.

For dinner we were hoping to find gluten free pizza, but after fighting through the crowds, we found the restaurant to be closed for improvements.  While many restaurants seemed to offer a gluten free pasta option, and most of them served seafood and vegetable gluten free options, Ryan had decided he wanted gluten free pizza.  We worked our way through our options and finally found a restaurant that had an entire gluten free menu.  Emily, when asked, said she wanted rice.  When ordering Risotto, we had to have a minimum of two orders, so Aaron and Emily decided to both have the "Classic" risotto.  Ryan had spaghetti with butter and I had the cuttlefish with polenta.

While the food was good, what we didn't know was Classic Risotto, in Venice, is seafood risotto.  Emily seems to have an allergy to tomatoes, but luckily shellfish didn't seem to be an issue.  While she wasn't the neatest eater in the world, she very much enjoyed her "rice".

Cuttlefish and polenta came in an inky black sauce.  I had never had it before, but in my head I made that noise that Jane makes in Mary Poppins when her medicine comes out a different color.  It was good, but I feel like it was one of those things I can just check off the list and now I don't have to eat it again.

Venice still has so much enchantment and charm, but some aspects of it feel like a giant theme park.  The stalls of cheap souvenirs, seeing the same items over and over in all the shop windows, it all sort of reminds me of the souvenir shops in Six Flags or Disneyland.  Everything is expensive, the food, the gondola rides, even 75 min on a "bus boat" costs 7.50€ per person (luckily the kids are free).  Finding a hideaway or a secret locals only kind of place may not even exist anymore in Venice.  It's even difficult for the locals to live with the prices of everything rising.

At the end of the first night, I was a bit disenchanted.  There had been so many people that just following the kids through the streets and keeping track of them felt more like a chore than being able to just stroll through the streets.  It took so long to find our way from place to place that it felt like that's all we were doing. I will admit that Venice, at that moment, was not all I had hoped it to be.

The next morning was another crystal clear day.  We had a lovely breakfast in the hotel with meats, cheese, yogurt, cereal, milk and orange juice.  The best part about all of Italy is that even the smallest places have an espresso machine and being able to begin your day with a Cappucino (or Cappuccio) is one of my favorite things.

We headed out pretty early, and decided to drop off the bag at the train station and then just wind our way through the city.  I had found a restaurant that did actually have gluten free pizza for Ryan for lunch and since it was on the other side of the island, it gave us the perfect excuse to just wander.

It was much quieter and less crowded and I was feeling much better about the city.  Seeing it in the morning, before everyone had woken up after a late night, was wonderful.  Maybe it was the morning light or the breeze off the sea, but I could finally get a feeling of the city.  It's hard to explain, but when we were surrounded by tourists, it was like I could have been anywhere.  But, Sunday morning, when we weren't surrounded by strangers, you can feel the city.   You can see the Moorish and Persian influences that give Venice such a unique look.  You can see a man motoring down the canal with his son and their weekly groceries.  I highly recommend having a good map or even a phone with plenty of battery and Google Maps to get you back to where you want to go, but if you have no where to be, there can't possibly be a better or more beautiful place to get lost than Venice.

Fried Calamari with roasted red peppers,
grilled polenta and a red pepper sauce.

Our lunch was so good.  Ryan got his gluten free pizza, Emily had some more risotto, although she decided Ryan could not possibly eat his pizza alone, Aaron had pizza as well and I couldn't resist ordering the fried calamari.  It was possibly the best calamari I've ever had.  it was lightly breaded and crispy, cooked perfectly and served with a red bell pepper sauce.  That along with the house white wine made it the best meal we had in Venice.

Then Ryan discovered he still had our hotel keys in his pocket, so we took our second "boat bus" ride down the Grand Canal and returned to the hotel to give them back.  Then we wandered a bit longer while Emily took a short nap, and then Ryan fell asleep in Aaron's arms.  We headed back to the train station even though we had a couple hours before our train arrived.  Ryan found a fantastic bright pink flowered baseball cap with Italia written across it in hot pink as his souvenir from Venice.  I found a glass vase with purple leaves.

At the train station was a Gelateria called Grom that was completely gluten free.  Cones, cookies, every flavor, all completely gluten free.  We all enjoyed one last gelato before going out in front of the train station to terrorize the pigeons and listen to the electric guitar player play "Stairway to Heaven".

Terrorizing the birds.

It was an amazing weekend.  We could not have asked for better weather or a more perfect city for the kids to run around.  I will always remember Venice fondly.  It was truly the experience of a life time to get to see the unique beauty that is Venezia.

Here's a link to the entire album of Venice photos on Facebook.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...And Santa Lucia Day

A beautiful arrangement over the top of one of the stores.

I am officially the worst blogger ever.  I just want to say, in my defense, that most of my days go like this.  Ryan wakes up at 6.  If he has to go to school, then we all get up.  If he doesn't, Aaron sends me back to bed so that I don't kill anyone.  Once we're up, there's breakfasts, getting dressed, Emily goes down for a  nap a few hours after waking up.  Then I look at a lot of stuff on Facebook (I bet you guys didn't know that part), take a shower, whatever won't wake up the baby.  Ryan sleeps like the dead.  The boy could sleep through a train running through the middle of our house and not even crack an eyelid.  But the minute that he starts tromping down the stairs, Emily is up and demanding "mimi" (that's milk in Emily language).  I don't think she actually likes sleep.  She would much rather be up and doing stuff.  Any stuff.  So if I make too much noise while she's napping, then we don't get a nap.  And that girl is like her mom (see above where Aaron sends me back to get my beauty sleep so there are no homicides committed).

The tree in front of the
Artigianale Birreria

Garland over the street in Citta Alta

So after the Emily nap there's lunch and then Emily demands her shoes, hat and jacket and goes to the door and decides its time for a walk.  So we go for a walk.  Sometimes just around and sometimes to the park.  At 3:30 we pick up Ryan (who is usually exhausted.  Naps stopped when school started... yay).  Then back home, dinner around 5, baths, bed... then kid free time after 7 or 7:30.

The only difference is that I get to do all this in Italy, (yay!).  It just makes it difficult to do touristy stuff (boo!).  We have gotten to see a lot of Bergamo. Emily and I are bus riding regulars.  They have a lot of sidewalk markets here that are pretty fun.  And trying to find things can sometimes be a little like a treasure hunt.  They don't really have craft stores here so anything you might need that is crafty you have to figure out... "where would I buy that if Michael's didn't exist?".  Tissue paper?  A paper store.  Felt?  A fabric store.  Yarn?  A yarn store.  Yes, it would seem obvious if I didn't come from a country where some genius just put all that together in one store.

The window display in the
Maglieria artigianale
(sweater store)

The tree in front of one
of the clothing stores
in Citta Alta and my
personal favorite.
I love the puffballs and
may steal them for use
on a later tree.

Also.  I cannot find gift boxes here.  You know those cheap little paper ones that Target sells in value packs?  Don't exist in Italy.  What does exist is boxes from stores at €1.50 a piece.  Or those really nice gift boxes at €4 or €5 a piece.  Um.  I don't think so. So I apologize to all those getting gifts this year when your really nice sweater is just swaddled in wrapping paper.  That's so Italian of me!

The great thing about this time of year though, is the Christmas decorations.  Italians (but specifically Bergamascans) do not slouch when it comes to Christmas.  I think I've mentioned before that we live in a rather touristy place which makes for some really awesome Christmas decorations.  We have garland strung across the roads over head from building to building, huge stars lighting up the intersections, personalized Christmas trees in front of every store, Christmas music piped through all of Citta Alta, advertisements for Cioccolata Calda con panna (that's hot chocolate with whipped cream but it totally sounds better in Italian), roasted chestnuts, decorated windows, garland and lights all over the buildings, a Christmas tree in our courtyard.  Let me tell you, these Italians do it up right.  I can't wait to see London.

Let me also tell you that calling it a holiday "season" is not an exaggeration either.  First we have the Festa della Immaculata on Dec 8.  This signifies when Mary found out she was pregnant with (by?) the Immaculate conception.  Don't try and do any kind of math that makes it work for Jesus to be born on Dec 25th.

Edit:  My amazing Aunt Mary helped me learn more about the Immaculate Conception.  Apparently Mary was actually conceived by her parents with God's grace so as to be free of original sin so that she could then have Jesus so many years later.  That makes so much more sense! This was quite a long term plan God had.

A depiction of Santa Lucia
arriving at a house with a
sleigh full of gifts.

Then we have the Festa de Santa Lucia on Dec 13th.  Let me tell you about this chick (is it disrespectful to call a Saint a chick?).  She shows up on the night of the 12th riding a donkey.  Kids are supposed to leave out water and refreshments for her along with a bucket of water and hay for the donkey.  In return, she leaves them presents.  However (and this is kind of a BIG however), if the kids don't go to bed, if they see Santa Lucia when she shows up at their house, she BLINDS them.  And takes back all the presents.  She does not play around.  Needless to say, after talking with a grown man who grew up with this story, kids are in bed asleep as fast as possible, terrified that they will wake up too early and be blinded.  So there's that.

All joking aside, this is a pretty big holiday for them.  It is only celebrated in Bergamo and a few other cities in the eastern part of Lombardy (the region that Bergamo is in.  It's kind of like a state but not really).  The kids visit a tomb here and leave letters for Santa Lucia.  They can also leave their letters in the blue box in the picture to the left.  That is a scene depicting Santa Lucia visiting a house with gifts for the children.  Ryan's school took a field trip there so the kids could give their letters to Santa Lucia and they also had Santa Lucia visit their classroom to drop off some presents.  I don't know what she brought exactly because Ryan said "yeah, I think she came, I don't remember what she brought though, except oranges, but I don't like oranges so I didn't take one".  So as far as I know, I contributed  €12 for some oranges that Ryan didn't take.  Sweet.

After reading about it online, it looks like Santa Lucia also visits many Scandinavian children as well.  It's kind of fascinating that two areas that are so far apart celebrate the same Saint in similar ways.

Decorated with wings.

12 days later is Christmas.  Santa Claus (or Bobba Natale) is not nearly the celebrity here as he is in the states.  But who can compete with Santa Lucia and her awesome blinding powers.  Ryan actually asked me what happens if he sees Santa.  I said I wasn't sure.  Then Ryan said that "Daddy told me to eat Santa if I see him".  After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, Aaron denies ever saying this.  As much as I love the kid, I am with Aaron on this one.

And wait, there's more.

Snow flakes and candles

The tree in front of the bookshop.
All of the ornaments are made
from newsprint or pages from a
book or something.
I thought it was a great idea.

On Jan 6, the wise men finally show up to greet the baby Jesus.  They also bring gifts to the kids.  I'm not sure how kids in Italy wound up making out so well.  Jesus only got Frankincense, Myrrh and gold.  These kids get three days of toys and candy.  I feel like we all know who wins in this deal.  From chatting with locals it seems that the wise men prefer to visit the southern parts of Italy more than the northern parts. Perhaps they like the cannoli down there better.  I know I do.

So that's about as much as I know about the Holiday Season in Bergamo.  It is also pretty cold here so it actually feels like winter.  We did get snow, big, beautiful, fat flakes coming down one morning so that was awesome.  Nothing stuck, but I kind of feel like the falling is the beautiful part and the sticking is just a big mess and nightmare.

Italians love Starbucks and The Milan Expo (or How to Cram 250,000 People in a Tiny Area...)

250,000 people who have no idea what a line is.  People who don't understand that second hand smoke is a really horrible thing and you probably shouldn't be holding your cigarette at the same height as most children's faces or blowing that smoke behind you into those said children's same faces.

Ryan and Emily on the train

I would love to say that the Expo was awesome.  I was totally prepared to be awed and inspired.  I didn't mind forking over 80€ to see this amazing ode to all things green, environmentally conscious, and of course all the food.

Sadly, we didn't get there until after noon.  Part of that was having to ride the train and the subway to get there rather than having the car, and part of it is having two kids and being happy to be out of the house, dressed, before 9:30.  By the time we got there, we were starving, the kids were hungry (aka cranky and whiny) and we knew we had to get food first.  The geniuses of the Expo put 3 whole tiny food stalls right at the entrance.  So after standing in line for 30 minutes while Aaron entertained the children, we finally got a couple Piadinas (tortillas with meat inside), some french fries and some (admittedly delicious) fried onion strips for 30€ (read mediocre food for way too  much money.  Yay for captive audiences).

Ireland Pavilion

Finally, after everyone was fed, we began our journey into the Expo.  At first it didn't seem so crowded.  We walked through the Ireland pavilion relatively quickly.  We had been told to bring our strollers with the children in them in order to get ushered past the long queues and into the express lines.  Unfortunately, many others had been alerted to that trick as well and as we progressed down the boulevard, the "express" lines were sometimes as long as the regular lines and I couldn't find the end of them to even stand in.  According to a friend when the line for the Japanese pavilion was upwards of 8 hours, they finally closed it.  For a country where standing in line is something they don't seem to understand, having an 8 hour queue is mind boggling.

Belgium Pavilion

The expo was organized as one long "road" with the pavilions on either side.  Some smaller countries were grouped together for the coffee display, the fruits and legumes display, the chocolate display and other products.  I managed to take pictures of some of the interesting country pavilions.  Italy had the largest pavilion, but I don't think we even made it there before I turned to Aaron and said we should just leave.  I don't mind crowds when they are well organized and have a flow to them.  This crowd was insane.  People were walking up and down the main avenue on the left and the right.  They were crossing it to get to the pavilions for food and treats or bathrooms.  They were pushing aside our strollers.  At one point, I turned to take a picture of a pavilion, looked back ahead of me and Aaron had been swallowed by the crowd.

Vietnam Pavilion

Map of the Expo 

I wish I could tell you more about the Expo.  But all we saw was the entrance, some cool fountains, the Ireland pavilion and people.  So many people.  I am less dissapointed by the waste of a ticket than I am that I got to see nothing of this once in a lifetime (for an American) chance.  The Expo people should have conferred with Disney or some other company that knows how to manage huge crowds in tiny spaces.

Milan's Open Subway Trains

We did however get to ride the Milan subway and they have these amazing open trains.  You could see all the way down from one end to the other.  It made things much easier to traverse.

The line at Arnold's Coffee was out the door.
If you enlarge the picture, you can see all the
same Starbucks drinks you adore on the menu
at Arnold's.  

We also went to Arnold's Coffee Shop which is an American style coffee shop, basically Starbucks in Italy.  Italy doesn't have Starbucks yet, but it has been all abuzz for the past week as the owner of one of the soccer teams here has promised Italians that he will be bringing Starbucks here.  I cannot tell you how excited people are.  I had a chance to talk to an Italian who has done a fair bit of travelling and he said the novelty of Starbucks has people excited.  We decided that it is less about considering Starbucks coffee (we also decided that people won't give up their normal Italian coffee) and more about the drinks Starbucks creates that happen to have coffee in them.  If Arnold's is any indication, Starbucks is missing out on a HUGE opportunity here.

All in all, it was another opportunity to see Milan.  It's nice to get out of Bergamo and see new things.  Also, here's a cute picture of Emily sleeping.

Italians love street fairs and know how to do Street Fair Food

The Sunday morning crowd.

So we went to a street fair this weekend. Italians seem to love street fairs because there have been at least 4 in the time we have been here.  This one was the biggest by far, featuring food from around europe.  Gyros from Greece, pretzels from Germany and Austria, BBQ'ed meat from Brazil, Sausages and Bratwurst from Germany, Coconut puffs from Belgium and lots of other stuff.  And from the length of the lines, even at noon, (I say even at noon because usually Italians don't seem to eat lunch at noon.  It's closer to 1 or even later) Italians love foreign food.  

A Bratwurst with cabbage and mustard.

This was the crowd on Sunday.  And even though Sunday is the day to go to church, it doesn't seem like many people go.  Or perhaps if they do go, its early in the morning or late at night.  The line  for the Funicular to go up to Citta Alta was nearly a block long.  

There were stalls and stalls of cheese and salami.  Smoked meats, sweets and candies.  

The grill at the Gyro stall.  Everything was grilled fresh to order

So much meat!  Sausages, kabobs, gyro meat.

 I was lucky to be able to eat at the fair Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I had a German Bratwurst with homemade sauerkraut.  The saurkraut was the nice thinly shredded kind that I like.  The Bratwurst was "spicy" even though that seems to mean with spices and not hot enough to burn your lips.  I had a Greek Gyro with chicken that they sliced right off one of those big cylinders of meat.  You could choose between Pork or chicken.  They did not have one of those brownish-greyish cylinders of meat that we get in the US at the Mall Food Court Gyro place.  The Gyro came with fresh yogurt sauce, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, feta cheese and french fries.  I chose not to get the french fries on mine because that is just wierd.  French Fries stand on their own.  I don't understand this Italian predilection to put it on pizza, burgers, gyros... or anything else.

I also had a chicken burger that was OK, but the notable thing about the BBQ Burger stall was that they had real, American style bacon.  That is pretty rare to find here.  Like Cheddar cheese, the grocery store we shop at has one brand of American style bacon.  If you don't like that, you're stuck with prosciutto (which is delicious, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't crisp up like American bacon. Mmmm... Bacon).  And then today, since it was the last day, I had another Gyro.  I also tried a german pretzel, but I got a sweet one.  Technically, as Aaron said, it wasn't really a pretzel so much as a giant pretzel shaped donut.  Sprinkled with sugar, it was delicious.

Hand painted Italian ceramic vase

The other cool thing at this fair was the stalls of handmade items.  There are stalls of hand woven Italian wool ponchos, bags made from Italian leather.  There was an amazing stall that had German wooden Nutcrackers and those little things that spin around when you put a candle on them. Hand carved ornaments with Christmas scenes burned into them.

There was Sicilian pottery hand painted in bright colors.  Bags from India woven with rainbows of colors.  Cookware from France with every utensil one might need including a Madeline pan.  I finally found my spring loaded tongs at that stall.  I have searched many Italian cooking stores and only could find wimpy plastic tongs that can't grip anything.  I was so happy with my discovery, I bought two pairs of French tongs.

When we returned to Citta Alta, there were more handmade goods at little tents.  We bought Emily another handmade dress because they are just so adorable.  We found some really cool Christmas ornaments that were made out of recycled paper, plastic bottles, and cans.  There were beautiful Italian sun catchers, jewelry, carved wooden items.  There were other hand woven clothing that were really beautiful robes and full skirts, jackets and other old fashioned styled things.

All I can say is, I do not take enough pictures.

They love mayonnaise. And french fries. Together. It's an abomination.

I am terrible at blogging.  I always think I need some huge topic to discuss.  All these little bits have been going through my mind; all these little observations that I want to share with people so I'm going to just share a bunch of stuff I've observed about Italy.  Bear with me if some of it is repeated from Facebook or Instagram.

There is no salted butter.  You would think, no big deal right?  Except that you notice it in strange places.  Like on toast.  Also the grilled cheese tastes just a tad bit different because they don't put nearly as much salt in any of their foods, including the cheese.

Cheese.  There are only a few kinds of cheese indigenous to Italy.  Ricotta, Marscapone, Mozzarella.  I might be missing one, but I don't think so.  There is 1 kind of cheddar cheese available at the grocery store where we shop and it is so orange that a British woman I met won't eat it.  It didn't seem strange to me since most of our cheddar cheese in the US is colored.  I realized that in England most of their cheese is white.  Because its... *gasp* natural.  I forgive them for not having an abundance of cheddar cheese except when I'm craving a burger.  Also their Italian cheese is sooooooo good that it's hard to complain that its all you get.
A lot of their cheese is also lactose free.  They seem to be much more aware of allergies and intolerances here.

Salamella Mantovana, split open and grilled
 with gnocchi and green beans.

Meat.  I'm not sure exactly how to describe the meat situation here.  I don't think they eat very much of it.  Many of their cuts are very thin.  Chickens are much smaller here, which is fine, but there are not a lot of options in the store.  You can buy back quarters with bone and skin or skinless, boneless breasts.  If you want something other than that, you have to buy a whole chicken and do it yourself.  But let's talk about the sausage.  I have posted pictures of the sausage, however I mistakenly called it Salsicca.  The sausage I am in love with is the Salamella Montovana.  It's like what we think our Italian Sausage is.  Except that the only similarities are the shape and size.  This sausage is one of the most flavorful things I have ever eaten in my life.  I'm going to leave all my clothes and children's toys here and smuggle back suitcases of this sausage.
They also like veal, rabbit, turkey, and quail, and they are all available in the grocery store.  It's kind of crazy.
They love to grill their meat here.  There is an entire section of kebabs, skewers, sliced and seasoned meats that are made for the "griglia".

Pizza is everywhere.

Italians dress up to leave their house.  Except for a few teenage boys who, I think, were actually purposely dressed in sweat pants, no one is caught dead outside the house in anything but real clothes.  And shoes.  No uggs with shorts, no baggy pajama pants, no oversized sweatshirts.  Not even on the college kids who I frequently ride the bus with.  Girls wear cute tops with skinny jeans, leather jackets, tights, cute boots, blouses, sweaters, all kinds of real clothes that say, "I care what I look like".  You can tell who the tourists are because they wear yoga pants, jeans that don't fit, ugly shoes, sandals with socks (I'm certain no Italian would be caught DEAD wearing that), fanny packs, gym shorts (I'm talking to you, American Dad.  Yes, I heard you and I know you're American.  You're making us all look bad!) etc.
The men wear beautiful suits, shiny shoes, ties, button down shirts, and carry briefcases.  Even the adorable Italian Nonnas wear their suits and pantyhose to go grocery shopping.  It makes people watching really enjoyable.  It also motivates me to dress a bit better.  Although how these moms with kids find time to do their hair before they get them to school still completely escapes me.

Breakfast.  Let's talk about breakfast.  Americans have come to some weird conclusion that we should eat a huge breakfast full of protein OR... cereal.  Well, Italians say, "Just say no to boring cereal" (They might actually say "Dice non a cereal" or something like that).  They eat pastries.  Pastries filled with apricot marmalade heaven.  Or chocolate cream heaven.  Small, sweet, flaky pastries that make you close your eyes and say "Mmmmm".  And coffee.  Do you know what the secret is to getting the creamiest, smoothest cappucino?  Use whole milk.  It will change your life.  Just one day, when you go to Starbucks (I do miss you, Starbucks) don't get that Venti quad skinny half caff mocha thingie.  Just get a double tall whole milk latte.  It will change your life.  Just park further from the store if you're worried about calories.

They love mayonnaise.  And french fries.  Together.  It's an abomination.  I could go on and on, but I don't think there's really anything else that needs to be said.

Those are my bits for now.  I'll try not to let 2 months go by before posting again.

Italian Dinner Out Plus French Fries

So I finally got my Italian Dinner.  It's difficult to go out here because most places don't even open for dinner until 6:30 or 7!  And if you know Emily at all, that girl likes her dinner at 5.  Promptly at 5, sometimes a little before 5, but absolutely NO LATER THAN 5!  Here she is eating french fires aka pape fritte at our Italian Dinner.  They love french fries here.  Every place we've been to (except the exclusively pizzaria) has had french fries on the menu.  Their french fries are just the way I like them too.  Big steak fries that are crispy on the outside and nice and potato-ey on the inside.  They are also gluten free so a safe bet for the kids.

We ended up going to Citta Cooperativo, a local cooperative that gets local food and changes their menu regularly based on what is in season and what they can get.  They also have local beer and wine which I love.  Here is my "medium" sized beer, a local Belgium style ale that was very tasty.  Nice and light and great for a summer evening.  Aaron put Ryan's 6" Darth Vader action figure next to it for some perspective.

I decided to try and do a very "local" menu not just with food from around here, but choosing items that are from this region.  First we started with the Antipasta.  A selection of local meats and grilled polenta.  Polenta, apparently, is a northern Italian speciality and one that Bergamo likes to claim.  There is a "fast food" polenta place down the street where they will pull you a bowl of polenta out of a machine that looks a little like a soft serve ice cream maker and then they put your toppings of choice.  Salsicca, funghi (mushrooms), cheese, chicken, beef, and lots of other stuff.  This plate had three different kinds of meat (which of course I did not write down so I do not remember) a salami and two kinds of prosciutto.  There are many different kinds of prosciutto here.  I could do an entire blog post on just the different kinds of prosciutto.

Then we had some Casoncelli.  This is also a very typical Bergamo food.  It is a pasta kind of like a ravioli only it is folded over in half.  It has cheese, meat, and vegetables inside but also something sweet that kind of pops in your mouth at the end.  We've had two versions of it now and they were both good, but a little different.  In this version it was served in butter with prosciutto, sage, and Parmesan cheese on top.  The other one had fried basil on top that was AMAZING.  Casoncelli is also found in just about every restaurant in Bergamo.

They also served us bread.  Everything here comes with freshly baked bread.  And they don't give you a slice or two per person.  Here they gave us a heaping basket of freshly baked bread.  And when we got close to finishing it?  Replaced with another basket of freshly baked bread.  I thought I didn't miss bread.  All I can say is, Paleo is dead to me.  Bread is delicious.

For the main course, I had rabbit and buckwheat polenta.  I have never had rabbit before, but it was delicious.  They are cute, but they are also tasty.  It tasted like it had been slow cooked because the meat just fell off the bone.  There was no gaminess to it at all, but it had a unique taste to it.  Paired with the creamy, cheesy polenta brought out the meaty, savoriness of the meat.  I would totally eat rabbit again.

Aaron had a pork loin sliced super thin with a balsamic vinegar reduction.  He said it was incredibly tender and tasty.  I was too busy with my rabbit to steal a bite.

Ryan stole the camera so that he could take a picture of his dinner.  Peanut Butter and Jelly on gluten free bread and french fries.  I have to say, as a culinary commentary on his meal, the jelly here is amazing.  I don't think it is quite as sweet as our jelly and it has more of a fruity taste to it than a sugary taste.  And the peanut butter isn't too shabby either.  We'd been eating Trader Joe's unsalted, unsweetened peanut butter for a few years now, and to have peanut butter with both salt and sugar (not too much though) made my taste buds do a happy dance.

And what is the perfect finish to an Italian Dinner?  Tiramisu of course.  This version is not gluten free (we did find one that is and it was delicious too.  I posted a picture of it half way through our dessert destruction) so Ryan had a big bowl of chocolate gelato.  Emily and Aaron helped a bit, but Ryan was happy to dig in.

I wish I had taken a picture of our server.  He was probably 6 and a half feet tall with dark hair and a fantastic dark beard.  He completely fell in love with Emily.  She would bat her eyes at him and give him a coy smile and he would laugh and say adorable things in Italian to her.  After dinner, as I was paying the check and Aaron was getting the kids ready to go, he came all the way out to the front of the restaurant to say "Ciao".  It was really cute.

All in all, it was a successful night.  They are doing a Paella night on Thursday and I'm hoping we can get the kids to behave again.  I will bribe them with french fries.