Just Back from Italia.......

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welcome home Michel     I imagine it will take you a while to get over the jet lag and all, but don't forget your teammates here are counting on you to get back in the game

It is going to be so difficult to get back into it...the food was so darned good there! I must have gained ten pounds!! I still just want to sleep......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Welcome Back!

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Lara, eating is what we did a lot of on the trip. Breakfast is mainly coffee, juice, and crossant; I usually had a few café-doppio (double espresso). I would stop off at one of the numerous coffee shops for a shot of café-doppio while Agnes shopped for shoes, clothes, or ceramics...I hate shopping! The evening meal, usually some time after eight, consited of antipasto, followed by a first platter consisting of a pasta dish, then a second platter consisting of meat; of course there is always a bottle of wine and a bottle of water (cannot drink the tap water) as well as paninina (bread). The portions are, for the most part, large and very tasty. A dinner plate is usually the size of a hubcap! One fine restaurant we stopped off at between Ravenna and Venice was especially memorable. We had spent the afternoon on the beach and were cauight in traffic so it was around nine and we were quite ungry. The meal started out with a complimentary glass of Proseco (simialr to Champagne but in my estimation better), followed by a huge plate of fried calimari (squid)....mmmmmm delicious....then a plate of thick pasta with clams which were to die for. For a second plate, I had assorted seafood which was extraordinary as we usually get very little here at home; it consited of a (hubcapped sized) plate full of langoustini, clams, muscles, big shrimps, and fish. Of course we ordered a half liter of wine and got a full bottle along with a complimentary glass of Limoncello for desert. You would think that this was a huge meal, but the people all around us were eating far more. Agnes, who is fluent in Italian, asked if there were a celebration going on and was told that the people in that area always ate such huge meals...our meal was considered an extremely small portion. The waitress admitted that she thought we were not particularly hungry because we ate so little!!!! And the cost??? Believe it or not that whole meal came to 28 Euro which would be approximately 50CND or 40AMD! And if you order ministroni soup, it is not the watery tomato based stuff with alphabet pasta; you would get a huge (and I mean HUGE) bowl of very thick bean soup with meat that is so tasty you will never eat the home style variety again.

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Of course I am taking you along on my next trip Lara.....