Verona in Love

  "There is no world without Verona walls, but purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence banished is banish'd from the world, and world's exile is death...." (Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet", Act III, scene III).

Verona, Italy:
Last week, we went to Verona for my birthday. I know, Tyson is the best. I've always been a huge fan of Shakespeare and three of his plays take place in Verona: Romeo & Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Taming of the Shrew. I loved seeing this beautiful city and all of the history it has to offer.

Verona in Love Festival:
Starting around Valentine's Day, Verona has a 5 day festival celebrating love. They have street vendors selling every kind of chocolate you can imagine: fudge, truffles, brownies, and much more.

Verona in Love Festival

Heart decorations for the festival

 

 

 

 

Via Mazzini (main shopping street)

Street vendors selling chocolate

Delicious, melty chocolate 

The festival also has fun events like concerts and activities with a love theme.

There's a little me in that heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food:
No, we didn't survive on chocolate alone, no matter how cool that would be. The first night, we tried a place called La Costa in Bra; I would recommend it.

Parma Ham appetizer

Tortellini

Margherita pizza with an olive

 My favorite thing was the parma ham, but the tortellini was very good, too. Tyson enjoyed his pizza and gave me his olive since he doesn't like them. I could only take one bite of the olive because for some reason it was 50 times saltier than any olive I've had before. You might think that would be a good thing, but it wasn't.

We did go to another fantastic restaurant while we were there called Ristorante Greppia, but I didn't take any pictures. I just wanted to enjoy the food. They have amazing steaks and chocolate mousse there. I would highly recommend checking out Greppia, it was suggested to us by our hotel.

Romeo & Juliet:
One of the first things we did was visit Juliet's balcony. You enter by way of a tunnel that is covered in lovers' graffiti. Unfortunately, there is now a fine for leaving graffiti behind, so we just looked.

Graffiti near Juliet's Balcony

After that, I bought a ticket to go through the R&J museum and Tyson stayed in the courtyard so he could take a picture of me on Juliet's balcony (thanks Ty!). Tickets were only 1 euro because of the festival.

Juliet's Balcony

Juliet's Statue (Rub her right breast for luck in love)

Lovers write their names on locks and put them here

Juliet's Dress from 1968 movie (Zeffreli)

Romeo's Outfit from 1968 movie

The bed from R&J movie

Star-crossed lovers

After the museum, we went to see Juliet's Tomb. We got to see a couple getting married at Juliet's Tomb while we were there! I'm not sure if that's the best idea or the worst idea? I do love tragic love stories, though.

"A grave? O, no, a lantern...for here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence, full of light." (Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet", Act V, Scene III).

Juliet's Tomb

Plaques depicting story of R&J

Chinese version of Romeo & Juliet

Sights in Verona:

The Lamberti Tower is found in Piazza delle Erbe and it dates back to the 12th century. The tower was built to alert citizens to fires or as a call to arms. You can climb to the top of the tower (or take an elevator), which we didn't end up doing on this trip.

Lamberti Tower

Santa Anastasia Church

The Duomo Cathedral

Verona Arena (in Piazza Bra)

The Palazzo Barbieri (Town Hall)

Piazza delle Erbe

 

Thanks for reading, everyone! The next blog will feature Bolzano (Bozen), Italy!

1. "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say goodnight till it be morrow" (Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, Act II, Scene II).

Carnevale

Carnevale in Trento

Carnevale Time-
 Looks like it's Carnevale (or Carnival) time in Italy! What exactly is Carnevale? Well, it's a lot like mardi gras: a winter festival with entertainment, balls, and parades that takes place before Lent. It's a time to eat fatty and delicious food while you still can. The official date for Carnevale this year is February 12, but the activities start up in late January. The picture seen above is Piazza Fiera in Trento, where some Carnevale activities are already taking place. This particular set up is mostly for kids-- they have a ferris wheel, merry-go-rounds, and other typical carnival games.

People of Trento enjoying Carnevale

 Despite the fact that this carnival seems set up for kids, they still have this horrifying clown ride:

"Hop on in kids...I promise I won't eat your face."

Venice is the place to be when it comes to Carnevale--they have boat parades and lots of cool masks and costumes. I'm not sure if we'll make it to Venice for Carnevale this year (we're definitely going in April), but maybe another year.


Food & Cooking-
Now that we're in Italy, I cook 6 days out of the week.  The 7th day is reserved for delicious pizza from a neighborhood pizzeria.  I'm getting a lot better at cooking just from getting so much practice.  One of the things that I found surprising here was how orange their eggs are!

Brightly Colored Scrambled Eggs

 I'm not sure this picture does justice to how orange the eggs are, but trust me, they are definitely a different color than U.S. eggs.  I'm told the reason for this is that the chickens here eat a more natural diet and it gives their eggs more Vitamin A, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I do like to think the bright color is indicative of being nutritious!

Tyson's Italian colleague taught us how to make a delicious authentic pasta sauce. The trick of it is to make something called a "soffritto", which is an aromatic base for the sauce. Soffritto means "to fry slowly" and you essentially heat up some olive oil with things like garlic, onions, salt, basil, etc. Tyson and I like to use a base of olive oil and garlic cloves.  After you make the base, you can add the tomato sauce and cook for up to 4 days!  I've only cooked the sauce for hours, instead of days, and it was still very delicious and flavorful.

Tyson's colleague also (very sweetly) bought us a giant chunk of parmigiano cheese.  He's from Parma, so he wanted us to try it.  It's very good! We grate it on top of our pasta.

Parma Cheese

Another thing we just tried is peach grappa, which is very strong and delicious.  It's kind of like limoncello, but with peaches.

Peach Grappa

Finally, we also picked up some Sicilian cannoli, which has candied oranges inside (yum!):

Sicilian Cannolo

*Trivia/Fact of the day: Cicero was a huge fan of the original cannoli.


Neighbors/Friends-
I've been getting Italian lessons from my neighbor, she just comes over and talks to me for hours.  It's a great way of learning a language.  Last week when we were talking, I mentioned to her that I'm working on writing a book.  She got excited and told me that she has a friend at work who is a published mystery writer in Italy!  She gave me two of his books and I'm working on translating/reading them now.  In Italy, mystery books are called "giallo" because of their signature yellow covers.

Gialli

Reading the book is time-consuming for me, but it's teaching me a lot of vocabulary and grammar already. My neighbor thinks her friend will be pleased that I'm learning Italian through his books. :)

Johnny Texas-
Last week we had a repairman over to fix our heating and we made some small-talk and I told him that I was from Texas originally.  He got excited and told me that his friends call him "Johnny Texas." hahaha. Apparently the reason his friends call him this is that Johnny is an American name, not commonly used in Italy.  I think this name is completely awesome and deserves to be a character name in a book someday.  The funniest part is he asked me, "How do you say Johnny in America?"  And I was all, "Johnny."  His family taught him to say it correctly, after all.

Miscellaneous-
When Tyson came with me to the Questura to get my permit of stay we saw this:

Sexy Soda Machine

....and that is all! :)

The Biggest Goose in the World

Howdy folks,
I had hoped that we would have Internet by the time I wrote this blog, but alas our modem has not yet arrived. So I'm writing yet another entry on my phone; perhaps the next blog will be written luxuriously on my lap top.
Parks or "Parchi"
The weather was fairly nice this weekend, so we took a long walk to a park near Piazza Dante. This park has some neat statues, cute ducks, and a giant goose made out of wicker!
Here's a statue of the typical family in Trento:




The typical family in Trentino (as of 2007) has a father who is 44, a mother who is 38, a daughter that is 12, and a son that is 6. According to my analysis of this statue, they also have a dog that looks suspiciously like a pig.

Here's a monument to Francesco Chini:




He was a missionary and explorer who was born in Trento.
Here are the aforementioned cute ducks:








And here is the biggest goose (l'oca) in the world!!




That's right people, I live near the biggest goose in the world. Top that. It reminds me of Nicolas Cage's wonderful role in The Wicker Man remake.
Next to the park, on top of the Doss Trento hill, you can see a monument to Cesare Battisti:




Battisti was a member of a movement that fought for Trento to become part of Italy, back when Trento was still part of Austria-Hungary. Austria sentenced him to death for treason and he was hanged in the courtyard of Castello del Buonconsiglio.
In the spring, when the weather improves, we plan to visit the Battisti monument.
Upcoming Trips
Our next door neighbors are the friendliest people I've ever met. Last weekend they invited us over for coffee/sweets and we practiced our Italian and they practiced their English. They also invited us to go on a day trip with them to Venice in February! So it looks like we'll get to scope out Venezia for the day. Exciting!
In February, we're also going to Verona for the Verona in Love Festival. It's one of my birthday presents from Tyson! I'm a huge Shakespeare fan, so I can't wait to see the house of Juliet, along with everything else Verona has to offer.
Stay Permit or "Permesso di soggiorno"
In order to stay in Trento, we have to apply for a stay permit, which involves quite a bit of paperwork. Luckily, Tyson's employer streamlined this process for us. They filled out much of the paperwork. Ty already has his permit and I have my appointment on Wednesday. Originally, I had planned to give details on this process so that people moving here would be less confused. However, I didn't realize much of it would be taken care of for us. So I can't help there, unfortunately.
On Being Polite in Italy
I found this picture and thought it was funny:




So, politeness gets you everywhere. Coffee truly is that cheap here, usually around 1 euro.
On Bruschetta
Bruschetta, how I love thee. I first discovered bruschetta because of my dad, who also loves it. I was visiting and trying to decide between two rival colleges for undergrad and my dad took me out for lunch near campus. This place just happened to have the best bruschetta of all time. So did I choose the college that had the best bruschetta? No, but Tyson may have influenced my decision because he was attending the other college. :)
Anyway, I've yet to have any bruschetta here, but I definitely will. I already attempted a homemade version here:




It was so good, but I burnt the bread because I wasn't used to a convection oven. Mission: find awesome bruschetta soon.
Addio, amici!

Christmas in London

For Christmas this year, we decided to go to London! We chose London because we knew it'd be nice to hear English again and we figured the muse of many of Charles Dickens' stories might know a thing or two about Christmas.

The Pubs
No visit to England is complete without a visit to a traditional pub.
The first pub we tried was called The Blackbird Pub.





It was festive and warm inside and their ales were very good, though a bit hoppy for my tastes.
I ordered the bangers and mash:



While Tyson ordered the fish and chips.



They were both "lovely jubbly" or great, as we say in the U.S.

While we were there's I also got to try Pimm's, both the winter and the summer types. Winter Pimm's has a base of brandy, with added apple juice and orange peel. It can also be served cold with ginger ale and lemonade. Summer Pimm's has a base of gin and you add either ginger ale or lemonade to it. Both drinks are refreshing and quaffable. A Pimm's cup:


Another beverage I got to try for the first time was Rekorderlig's strawberry and lime cider. This is a sweet beverage and barely tastes like alcohol at all. It's like drinking a delicious soda that has a bit of alcohol in it.


We also got to try an English fry-up for breakfast while we were in London and it hit the spot:


Tourist Sights
Here are pictures of some of the touristy things we saw.

Big Ben:


Buckingham Palace:
This is the Queen's least favorite residence, apparently.



Trafalgar Square:


Westminster Abbey:



I enjoyed how creepy and gothic Westminster Abbey was, especially on a dark and rainy day.

Covent Garden:


Christmas Day-Charles Dickens Walk
For Christmas Day, we went on a walking tour of London and a guide told us about Dickens' life in London.

Dickens regularly walked around London, typically walking 10-20 miles at a time. During these walks he would gather inspiration for his books from the city.

This door knocker may have been the inspiration for Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) seeing Marley's face in his door knocker:


Here is the Lamb and Flag pub that Dickens frequented:


Here's "The Old Curiosity Shop" (maybe). Named after the Dickens novel, they thought this antique shop may have been the inspiration for the shop in the book:


After the tour, we had to find a place that was open on Christmas for dinner. We finally happened across a French restaurant:



I got the coq a vin, which was excellent.




Tyson got the steak frites and he thought it was very good also.

Jack the Ripper Tour
I don't have any good pictures of this tour because it was dark out, but this made for a spooky atmosphere. Our guide was an awesome Scottish man. He was very respectful of all the victims of the ripper and he painted vivid pictures with his words. He was a great story teller; I felt like I was walking the streets of London in Victorian times. Here's a dark image I captured of the Ten Bells Pub, where some of the Ripper's victims would drink. You can't see much, but maybe you can imagine how scary it would be at night.



Here's a picture of the gas lights one would expect to find in the Victorian era (the city keeps up some of the gas lights to this day):



Friends
One of the coolest parts of this trip was that I got to meet my mom's longtime pen pal, Tracy. They had been writing letters and talking on the phone to each other since I was a little girl. My mom would show me and my sister pictures of Tracy's sons and tell us that we would marry them when we grew up! I regret that my mom passed away before she and Tracy could ever meet in person, but I'm so thankful that I was given this opportunity to meet her. She is a sweet person and a wonderful friend to my mom.

Farewell for now!
P.S. if you want one of the most delicious burgers of your life, go to a place called Byron's.