I'm Going to Have to Take More Pictures

It is clear to me that I will be unable to fully describe what Italians do to food without pictures.  So yes, I am going to turn into one of those obnoxious Americans (which apparently is very obvious) who constantly takes pictures of their food.  Even the cappuccinos are picture worthy.  Yet, here, this is every day food for them.

Via Gambito, home of a thousand pizzerias (mostly kidding)
Courtesy of Wikipedia

Also, it is true that pizza is everywhere.  There are at least 3 pizzerias within walking distance of our apartment and most of the bakeries have pizza as well. Today for lunch I had a pizza with ricotta, arugula, tomatoes and olives.  The ricotta was very different from the ricotta in the US.  The first thing I noticed was that it had no salt.  It was much creamier and had none of that chalky texture that is sometimes found in American ricotta.  I got Aaron some kind of cheese and meat concoction.  I'm going with mozzarella and mortadella cheeses with prosciutto and salami.  I had to carry it home from the pizzeria and all i know is that it smelled amazing.

We are living in the upper city part of Bergamo which, according to our landlord was built somewhere around the 12th century and then the Venetian Republic fortified the city in the 16th century.  While we don't have A/C, we are living in a building that is older than the United States of America which is kind of mind blowing.  Our apartment is in a villa that is in the middle of the city.  We have a courtyard and a garden.  The upper city is truly built above the rest of the town, mostly built into the hillside with lots of steep cobblestone streets and walls.  While it might end up being slightly inconvenient for Aaron's commute to work, I'm not sure that we could be staying in a more picturesque "Italian" area or apartment.

Dining Room and current computer setup

From the Dining room into the living room

From my computer into the kitchen

The entire kitchen

Bergamo Cathedral
Courtesy of Wikipedia

The other thing that Bergamo has is bells. So many church bells.  And they ring them.  They must be quite large because they are quite loud.  We are right next to the Duomo di Bergamo (Bergamo Cathedral).  I thought they were ringing out the hour, but only if it was 20 O'clock this morning at dawn.  Someone in that church just enjoys yanking the chains, I think.