Strawberries, Funicular, and Citta Bassa

Lots of pictures today.  This first one is of Emily eating strawberries.  I wanted to share this one because the strawberries here are very tiny and sweet.  If you've ever bought fresh, California strawberries, then you know that the smaller ones are the sweeter ones.  Well, I learned from a friend that we have actually hybridized (a natural form of modification) the strawberries in the US to make some of the huge strawberries that someone in America decided we liked.  They aren't actually the tastiest or the sweetest and sometimes I find that they have little to no taste to them, especially the super big ones, no matter how red they are.  These strawberries Emily is eating were approximately the same size as the raspberries and some of the biggest blueberries we had in the container.

On a side note, my children love berries and in California would go through about a pound of strawberries a day plus whatever other berries I had around.  It's not that much different here except the grocery store is two bus rides away so we have to ration them a bit longer.

 This is the funicular.  You can kind of see how steep it is.  We were in one car going down and I turned around backwards to catch the other one going up.

 Emily has come to love Leroy the Dinosaur.  I tried to take his picture a few times, but he was busy being slobbered on by the baby.

A few pictures of  Citta Bassa Bergamo.  The building with the green dome is actually a bank (you can see the same pink scooter riding across the road).

This building is actually the bus transit authority building.  There is a twin building across the road that houses a flower shop and a restaurant (I think).  This plaza we are in is a main shopping area in downtown.  It's also right on the route to the airport so its full of restaurants and shops that cater to tourists.

 Cookies!  I bought these from a restaurant here in Citta Alta for lunch.  They have three ingredients.  Hazelnuts, sugar, and egg whites.  I didn't purposely buy gluten free cookies, I simply bought something that looked tasty.  I thought they would be soft, but they are very crispy and terribly addicting.  I really like that they have just three ingredients.  No preservatives or "stuff" in them, just cookies like grandma used to make.  If your grandma was an Italian Nona, that is.

 This was dinner tonight.  I got to use a grill pan (I don't have one at home, but I will now!).  Those are each one chicken breast from normal sized chickens.  I sauted up some garlic and onions in (Italian!) Virgin Olive Oil and then added some little zucchinis (although they had speckled skin so maybe they were something else?) and diced up some fresh tomatoes.  Threw it all together and topped it with fresh basil and some kind of (Italian!) cheese.

I'm still very excited to be in Italy.  I'm going to have to figure out some way to make the kids behave long enough to check out a few restaurants around here.  There is an Artisinal Beer Bar just around the corner, not to mention all the restaurants just here in Citta Alta.  I was reading a tour book that the touristy places tend to charge more and we are definitely living in a touristy place so I may be able to wait on the very nearby places until its not tourist season anymore.

I think we are going to try the gluten free pizza restaurant again soon because Ryan really loves his pizza and I'm not sure he can live off of gluten free pasta with butter and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, or french fries all the time.