Bassano del Grappa

 

Yesterday, Sunday, was a very Italian day! First thing in the morning, I went to church with my host mom. We went to a smaller church just outside my small town, and it was smaller than the last time I went to church. It was the priest's birthday, and there were many people inside the church. The people at church sang beautiful songs, said scriptures (that I couldn't understand!) and it was a comfortable temperature- not too hot or cold. I enjoy going to church. Even though I can't understand everything, it is relaxing and good way to get a sense of the Italian culture.

 

After church, we went back to the house to help Nonna prepare Sunday lunch. Earlier in the week, it was two of my cousins' birthdays, and so lunch was a big celebration for them. We had a huge lunch- risotto and mushrooms, meat in a delicious olive oil sauce, polenta, potatoes and butter, cabbage salad, cooked peppers, fruit, and this delicious cream cake I had never tried before. I was so full for the rest of the day that I didn't even eat dinner that night! We gave our presents to our cousins, and they loved them. The littler cousin turned 10, and we gave him a cute little sweater for the winter. My older cousin turned 19, and we gave him free phone cards so that he had unlimited calls and texts. I also felt more comfortable joining in the conversation because I could understand more Italian! Yay! :)

 

After lunch, it was time to leave for Bassano del Grappa. Paola and I said goodbye to our family, and we drove to pick up one of Paola's friends. He came along with us because he knew Bassano very well and could be our tour guide, and also because he had nothing to do that day! :P We drove about 30 minutes, parked, and began a tour of the beautiful city. Bassano is very old- it was founded in the 2nd century B.C. and it became a part of the Vicenza region in 1175. Much older than anything in America!! Bassano is also known for Grappa (hense the name!). Grappa is an alcoholic drink usually drunk in the northern part of Italy after dinner. Grappa is made by distilling the skins, pulp, seeds, and stems (or the pomace) left over from winemaking after pressing the grapes. It was originally made to prevent waste by using these leftovers. Now, it is very popular! I still haven't tried it yet, but maybe I can in the future. After a description of the city by Paola's friend, we met up with Anika, some of her family, and Lauren. We then toured the city until it began to rain. Here are some photos! (I should also mention that I did not find my camera, but my host mom was very gracious and is letting me use her old digital camera. I better not loose THIS one too!!!!)

 

This is what grappa looks like- very light in color. Most Italians only drink a very little amount after dinner as well- it is used more for the after-dinner flavor and to "warm the belly" in the winter months.

 

This is a beautiful "chiesa" of Bassano right outside the city center.

Front entrance of the church.

Walking to the city center on a bridge- what a beautiful day it was! :)

Graffiti and tagging are very common all over Italy, but I thought this wall looked very interesting. It was so colorful! This was under a bridge.

Old Italian houses and apartments.

Streets of Bassano- Italian streets are so colorful compared to America!

A small shop that sold ceramics- very picturesque.

A statue famous for the telling the story of the bridge near it- as you cross the bridge, you kiss your lover!

Another shop selling the best products at the moment for a lower price.

This is the old bridge of Bassano- it has been around for a very long time and from it, you can see beautiful views of the river and city.

 

A farther away look at the beautiful, old bridge! You can only walk across or bike ride- no cars allowed.

 

 

A statue street performer- sorry, but no kiss for you! :P

The beautiful view from the old bridge. It was cloudy that day, but that did not take away the beauty.

Old houses and apartments, right on the river.

One of the most oldest building in Bassano.

Here is an up-close view of the oldest building in Bassano. All of those holes in the wall are bullet holes from a war many hundreds of years ago with the French! I am impressed the building still stands! It is a piece of Italian history.

This is inside the oldest building with the holes- it was the first place that made and sold Grappa in all of Italy. 

Some bottles of Grappa.

The first Distilleria's sign outside its door! 

Up a main street of Bassano- so Italian! 

This region of Italy is also well known for the beautiful ceramics that it creates.

Inside a ceramics shop! So pretty and well-made works of art.

One of the copper distillers used to make Grappa.

Part of an old look-out tower.

Old look-out tower- many cities in Italy have at least one look-out tower. It kept the city safe back in the old times.

Old fish caught from the river of Bassano, and how the locals cook a fish delicacy.

A little Italian girl talking to another statue performer. (Am I the only one that thinks they are a little bit creepy?)

Anika, Lauren and I, exploring Bassano! :)

A street performer. Every once in a while, there are a few street performers that stand out better than most. In Vicenza, there is this man who plays guitar so vigorously and jazzy, and you can tell he really just loves to play guitar whether he gets any money or not. This man was another really great street performer. Harps are not very common (at least in Vicenza), and the songs this man were playing were intricate and very beautiful. All of us stood around him to get out of the rain for a while, and we enjoyed his music very much.

After it began to rain, we said our goodbyes to Anika's family and Lauren, who lives very close to the center of Bassano. It was a beautiful little afternoon trip, and I would definitely want to come back and explore some more.

Bye for now!! :)

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!

Hello! :)

This week has definitely been a lot easier for me in a few ways: I can now hear most of what people say to me and understand it (speaking Italian is another subject, but I am still improving!), I am getting closer to my school friends, exchange friends and family, and I am beginning to feel much more comfortable in Italy. There are still things that confuse me a bit, but I am learning to accept them and be easy-going with everything that comes my way :)

Last night was Saturday night! And this very weekend happens to be a ginormous CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL!!!! It was called CioccolandoVi. I was so excited to see what this commotion was all about, because I am definitely a choco-holic. Around 8 o-clock, I met with a few of my school friends and we went to a small place to get food. I would not call it a restaurant- it was less expensive food, and they were trying to be more American. There were turkey sandwiches, burgers, French fries, etc. I ordered a turkey club. It was not terrible tasting, but it was different from the American version. This sandwich had 3 pieces of toast with some cheese, turkey and pancetta (similar to bacon), with a small amount of lettuce and tomatoes. Even the burgers looked different, with different buns and sauces. It was interesting to try "American food" in Italy.

Then we started walking around in the city center, and it was PACKED full of people. It was very difficult to get to the actual center of Vicenza where the Basilica is, because that is where all the booths were. There were probably around 40 different chocolate booths, all with the finest, homemade chocolate. The booths were professional chocolateers, and they were from many different parts of Italy-Verona, Venice, and so on. But because this was very nice chocolate, it was very expensive. I did end up buying a chocolate bar that had an orange flavored tint, and I will share it with my family tonight! It was only 4 Euros for one bar... ;) My friends and I walked around to all the booths and found many interesting types of chocolate. There were original bars, chocolate ball coated in nuts or sugar or more chocolate, HUGE chunks of chocolate that would last any person 6 months to eat, and lots of different shapes and colors of chocolate. My favorite booth had chocolate shoes, chocolate I-phones, and chocolate animals. You could tell there was a lot of effort put into these chocolate items- would anyone want to actually eat them? They were works of art! Here are some pictures of the event. (I do have a confession though. I lost my camera and I have not been able to find it, so these are all pictures on Google. :( They are exactly what the event looked like though! And I hope to get a new camera or replacement soon so I am able to take my own pictures!!)

This is what most of the chocolate in the booths looked like- simple but delicious!! :) Of course, the "nocciola" chocolates were always a hit. Nocciola is Italian for hazelnut, so any hazelnut chocolate tasted like Nutella!

Chocolate shoes!! How AWESOME!

The name of this event!

This is what many of the booths looked like- they were all quite large and had many different things to sell. There were the workers constantly cutting more chocolate and making sure everything was nice and perfect. This was also the perfect time to have a chocolate festival because it was not hot out at all, and so the chocolate could lay out and not melt in the slightest.

It was definitely an experience to go to a big event like this, and it was fun to see how chocolate is made in Vicenza! I always enjoy going out and getting a taste of Italian culture. Today is Sunday, and I have heard word that I will be going to Bassano del Grappa in the afternoon! It is a city near me, so that will be very exciting to see a new city. Talk to you soon! :)

Two More Weeks in Beautiful Italy! (Part 2)

And now for Part 2!! (I really must try to blog more often!! :P)

This weekend was another adventure with my exchange student friends. All of the exchange students in the 2060 region (up in the northeastern part of Italy) get to go on a lot of trips together. A few weeks ago, we all met at the large conference with all the exchange students, and we got pretty close. After this weekend, we got even closer! :) What did we do? We went to Trieste to watch Barcolana- a huge year event in Italy where thousands of boats race, on a really fancy boat ourselves, and had a fantastic lunch! But I have to start at the beginning of my weekend!

On Saturday, we all had to go to school because we are exchange student, and school is a very important part of our exchange. Saturday afternoon, Anika, Lauren and I went to the train station, and we wondered where Brock was. We realized he had taken the wrong train!! Thankfully, it was to the Venice train station where we would all meet, we hoped that we would stay there and not take another train. Us three girls took the train to Venice, and met up with Emily and Maddie- two girls from our district. We were very concerned for Brock and wondered where he went. We then went to McDonalds, had an ice cream, and walked into a few street vendors while we waited for our train. We then walked back to the train station and Emily told us "Uhhh guys? We missed our train!" We all freaked out and scrambled to find out if we really missed it and when the next one was! It was terrifying! We did end up finding a train that was an hour later, but we figured out it was a train that stopped at every single station!!! What should have taken only 2 hours to get to Trieste was actually 4 hours. We were very, very late for dinner that night, but all the kids already there found things to do. It was definitely an experience, and now I know not to ever leave the train station while waiting for a train!!

This is the train group- at least we bonded on the long train ride! From left to right: Emily, me, Maddie, Anika and Lauren. :)

That night, it was so crazy beautiful in Trieste, but also very busy because of the festival the next day. We went into a yummy pizza restaurant with all the exchange students, and we talked and had a good time until we had to go home. The exchange students who lived in Trieste hosted some of us who lived farther. I went to Alisa's home (the Finnish girl!). Alisa lives in the outskirts of Trieste, and this is the view of the city as we drove up into the hills. But by the time we got home it was 1 in the morning! We were exhausted, and so we crashed and burned.

Ahhhh, Trieste :)

The next day was even more beautiful. Alisa and I woke up, went to go get a coffee in a little café, met up with Emily and Maddie, and we got picked up by the President of Rotary in Trieste. We drove through the city while the sun was rising, which was so pretty!!! We also picked up Lauren and Anika and we went to where the boat was for us to get in for the day. The coolest part though was that the boat was in Slovenia!!!!! I WENT TO ANOTHER COUNTRY! Only for a few minutes to get on a boat, but it was still really exciting!

We met up with all the other exchange students (there are about 18 of us?) and we all sat by each other on this very large boat. That day, there was no wind and it was very warm, so the boat race with the thousands of boats was quite slow. That was all the better for us, then we got to be together longer and have fun on this boat. It was quite exciting though, when the first boat pulled away and was in the lead. It had been maybe 2 hours, and finally some excitement with the boats was fun. We were actually very close to the buoy where the boats had to turn around, so we got all the action! Here are a few pictures from the trip:

This is my friend Julian, who is from Mexico! He is very fun to be around!

 

A beautiful picture, taken by Anika, of a boat that was not racing but just watching the race further on ahead of them.

Here are me and some of the girls in the boat! Left to right: Sarah, Anika, me, Alisa, Emily and Maddie!

 

 

This is the view when the racing boats got a little bit closer to us and we could see all of them! It was crazy how many participated in the race, and it was a fantastic view.

 

This is what the boat looked like that we were on all afternoon.

 

During that boat ride, we got to eat delicious spaghetti and trout and veggies and fresh bread with olive oil and chocolate. The food was fantastic (as I have said before, there is never a bad meal here!!). After a few hours of watching the race, we went to the shore and had to return to the train station. It was sad to say goodbye to our friends and to leave the fantastic city and weather, but it was a fun weekend. We also get to see each other soon in Vernona! Another trip to look forward to, and I cannot wait!

 

So those were my two weekends! They were very interesting and busy. I wonder what this weekend will hold for me? :) Write to you soon! :)

 

 

Two More Weeks in Beautiful Italy! (Part 1)

What a crazy two weeks! Wow! Where to start? :)

On October 4 and 5, Anika, Brock and I had a very interesting adventure with a Rotary tour group from Florence. Friday night, my host mom told me that us three would be going with a tour group on Saturday and Sunday to see the sights of Vicenza and near Vicenza. I was excited for a few reasons- I got to be with my friends, learn about my city more in depth and of course miss Saturday school! :P Saturday morning was a rainy day but the rain made the clouds fantastic. Anika, Brock and I met the Rotary Club from Florence and then we started our tour around 9. We first began at the Teatro Olimpico. I learned a few new things about the outstanding theater- that there is a perspective painting in the background of the theater to make it look like the stadge is part of a city and goes on for forever, yet it is only a few meters long. Also, every single statue and piece of wood and seats and everything is original and hundreds of years old. The only part that was refurbished was the stage floor and some hallways to enter the theater.

 

 

This is what the inside of the theater looks like...it is so pretty and more interesting when I know some facts about it!

 

After the teatro, we took a stop to a small coffee shop (which had amazing brioches!!!) and the next stop was to the Basilica Palladiana- the famous building in the center of Vicenza. (To be honest, the tour was in Italian, and Brock, Anika and I couldn't understand everything the tour guide was saying, but we got the picture that it was really old and really famous for its fantastic architecture for this time period!! :P)

This is the view of the Basilica from the town square.

 

After this stop, we went to smaller visits. We stopped at a corner in Vicenza and saw old palaces that have been turned into banks, churches with fantastic inlaid marble statues, and to a corner in Vicenza that showed all the types of architecture.

 

Then it was lunch! (Of course we were the most excited for this part!) We had a huuuuuge lunch- antipasto, creamy pasta with loads of cheese, thick pork with mushrooms, and a tiramisu dessert. It was fantastic.

 

After lunch, we visited a few more very important places, which Anika and I had already visited, but it was Brocks first time. We visited a very famous church called Monte Berico, which is famous for it's architecture and for the fossils inside. There were fossils there is sea creatures that were millions of years old! It was quite interesting how there were science things mixed with the church.

This is Monte Berico, which also faces a fantastic view of the city.

 

 We visited La Rotonda, the famous villa known for having four identical sides. Although this time, we got to go inside the building, and it was fantastically beautiful, as most villas here are! The villas are usually covered in art and intricate fabrics and furniture, and this one was no different.

 

We visited a few more villas and more art, and then it was time to go home to freshen up before we had a large Rotary dinner that night. I quite enjoyed the dinner- got to meet new Vicenza Rotarians and also got to talk more with the Florence Rotarians. We mostly spoke only Italian to them, but there was one British woman who lived in Italy who was very nice to us and talked to us quite a bit. It was a fun night to meet new people and have a fantastic dinner. Never have I had a poor meal here in Italy yet! The food is fantastic!

 

The next day was Sunday, and we headed off to visit more villas farther away, closer to Venice. One villa was called Villa Pisani, and it had 114 rooms. The owners were fantastically rich, and there is even a tale that Napoleon Bonaparte slept in one of the rooms for one night. All the rooms had art and decoration and big furniture! Just imagine playing hide-and-seek in a place like that... :D

Villa Pisani- it was ginormous!

 

We even took a boat to visit a few more villas, because they are only accessible by boat. One villa was really creepy for me- it was called Villa Malcontenta. It was a villa owned by a rich man who rarely lived there. One day, he found out his wife was unfaithful to him. He then locked her in this huge house by herself until she died. She could only go outside in the backyard and that was it. It was really a beautiful villa, but the thought of someone suffering and lonely in there until she died made it seem eerie and sad to me.

 

This is the front entrance...even it looks creepy!!

The inside of Malcontenta- most villas looked like this- beautiful art and old furniture in a very large house.

 

After visiting all the architecture and villas and eating delicious food, we said our goodbyes to the Rotary club from Florence. They were so sweet to us and included us in everything they did. I will miss them. But the good part is that they liked US and have invited us to visit their home in the spring! To Florence!!!! How exciting!!! :) I will look forward to that. It was a really fun weekend and very interesting to see all the villas and cool places that are so close to my home here.

 



This was all the weekend before, and the end of Part 1! :)

 



American Dinner

Ciao a tutti! :)

As I had said earlier, at my school we have 6 exchange students (including me!). Anika and I are from America, Tim is from New Zealand, Matias is from Argentina, Nam is from Thailand, and Nicolas is from Ecuador. After being with exchange students all weekend long, I wanted more! I invited everybody to go to lunch after school on Wednesday to the city center. Of course, us being exchange students and none of us have any homework or responsibilities, we could all go! It was actually a lot of fun- they are all fun people and interesting to talk to. We first walked to the city center from our school which is only a 15 minute walk or so. Then we went to a pizzeria (there has to be about 40 in Vicenza, I always go to a new one!) and then to get gelato (the same goes for gelaterias too!). I love how fresh the pizza and the gelato is- I could eat it every day! :D

Here are my exchange student friends! :)

So that was fun to try to get to know them more. Then for Thursday's night's dinner, my host mom really wanted me to make dinner for her and Leonardo again. The first time I made dinner, I made breakfast for dinner: pancakes and scrambled eggs and fresh-squeezed orange juice. They definitely thought it was a strange dinner mixing sweet and salty together. I told them that is the kind of dinner a lot of Americans like because it is quick and easy to make. So last night I made them something similar (why not try to get them to like American food as well as Italian food?).

This is the dinner that I prepared for them: cornbread that was slightly sweet, fried potatoes with parmesan cheese (my family calls them "Uncle Bob's potatoes") and fruit salad with apricot yogurt.

 

 I thought the dinner was quite delicious- this is something my family cooks often and it reminded me of home. However, my family still wasn't quite used to the idea of sweet mixed with salty. They tried some cornbread with honey like I insisted, but they preferred to have salami with the cornbread and the fruit in the morning for breakfast. They adored the fried potatoes though. The next time I make my family, I will only stick to "dinner food", and nothing sweet. I will try to prepare meat or a salad or something else American...I will be looking at recipes for the next few days! :)

 

Usually an Italian dinner consists of meat such as chicken breast, pork burgers, or liver (Leonardo loves liver! I tried it once, and it wasn't bad!). We also have cheeses, bread, and maybe some veggies. No fruit and nothing sweet until after dinner. For lunch, we always have pasta in different forms and maybe some fruit with it. Everything here is so fresh and delicious! I love everything they have here! :)

 

That is all for now...hopefully my weekend will be full of interesting activities!

 

Ciao! :)