Home-cooked Meal and Gelato

I have pictures!  First, I would like to share our first home cooked meal in Italy. I managed to only blow out the power once!  Apparently I can only use 2 burners at a time.  I haven't even tried the microwave yet or the oven.  Our landlord just installed a brand new induction stove top in the kitchen so its been interesting cooking on it.  It heats up really fast and evenly and so far has been fantastic to cook on.

So I made some chicken with tomatoes, gluten free pasta and green beans.  All bought fresh from the market that day!  It was about a 6 ingredient meal (without counting salt and pepper) and it came out pretty darn delicious.

Earlier in the day, we went for gelato.  In the afternoon from about 2-5 everyone is walking around the streets with gelato.  So I have officially declared that "Gelato time".  So far we are 2 for 2 for fulfilling the daily gelato requirement.  Emily very much enjoyed hers and may have eaten about half of the cup I had.  I have included pictures because words cannot describe this scene.

We actually found a place that serves frozen yogurt, sorbet, and gelato out of soft serve machines and they have self - serve toppings just like at home!  I tried some little meringue drops that were very interesting and sort of popped in your mouth when we ate them.  I also put coconut, strawberries and almonds on my chocolate gelato and it was perfect.

Ryan got his candy selection, but I talked him into trying my chocolate and I think I have finally converted him because today when we went to get gelato, he ordered a cup of chocolate, no toppings and ate the whole thing.  Gelato, I learned, is made from milk, not cream like American ice cream so it is lower in fat.  However, there is a much lower amount of air in gelato so it is still very creamy.  The other nice thing is that they serve you just a little bit.  It's enough to take care of your sweet tooth or chocolate craving, but not so much that you can't be ready for yummy Italian dinner in a few hours!

We also took the funicular down to Cita Bassa or the lower city.  We had some errands to run and wanted to explore.  Ryan likes the funicular because it is basically a train.  It runs up and down a very steep hill and is very convenient to get from Cita Alta (Upper City) to Cita Bassa.  Bergamo is the only city to have two funiculars, one on the western side of the city and one on the southeastern side.  They are made of two cars so that back when they were first built, they would counter-weigh each other to pull them up and down the hills.  Now its motorized, but still pretty cool.  We also get to take it every day when Ryan goes to school since his school is right at the bottom and we live right at the top!

Once we were down the hill, we took the bus to the downtown area.  Aaron and I had lunch at a hamburger place and it wasn't bad.  They also had a bakery and coffee (of course) and Ryan got to have a chocolate gluten free muffin and potato chips.  This kid lives a hard life.  He did have to share his muffin with Emily though.

Then we took the bus back up to Cita Alta.  I'm really not sure which part Ryan enjoyed more, the bus or the train.  I think he really likes the big windows so he can look out and the fact that neither Aaron nor I have to drive.

Then it was gelato time once again.  It was also raining most of today so we got a bit wet while standing outside eating our ice cream.  Ryan decided he did not like rain that much because it made him wet.  He still managed to finish all his gelato so it couldn't have been that bad.

All in all a good day.  We got to explore the city a bit more running errands and just exploring.  You can tell a lot about the people who live here by looking at the store fronts. Living in an actual metropolitan city is also very different from Atascadero.  I really like the public transportation here and an so glad we did not try to get a car.  Driving is confusing and then add that all the signs are in a foreign language and I would do nothing but get lost.