Chocolate Festival!

This is one of the many reasons I love Italy - a little thing called a Chocolate Festival.  Yes, it is as amazing as it sounds. 

Basically, the main square had a bunch of different vendors, each selling assortments of all the chocolate you could imagine.

My friend Jessica and I had to do several walk-throughs before we could decide what to buy.  To help our decision making, we had to take the edge off our chocolate cravings.  We started with a yummy little treat that was like a triple-layer mousse, with dark, white, and milk chocolate.  Naturally, that disappeared before I had a chance to take a picture.  The next bit of deliciousness though, strawberries with chocolate and cream, lasted long enough to snap a photo.

I didn't come home with as much chocolate as I thought I would, which is probably a good thing, but here's what I didn't eat for breakfast.  Just kidding, sort of...

 Now off to decide which one to eat next...

Adventures in Rome: Colosseum and Roman Forum

For our last day in Rome, we explored the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum.  It was incredible to stand in the places where so much history happened and try to imagine what life was like several thousand years ago.  

Adventures in Rome: Pantheon and Sunset

After a quick break at the hotel to recoup after our long day at the Vatican, we headed back out.  Our first stop was the Pantheon, followed by a leisurely stroll that took us to the top of Capitoline Hill to watch the sunset.

Adventures in Rome: Vactican Museum and St. Peter's

Our second day in Rome was spent exploring the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica.  It's so hard to pick a favorite moment, since everything was breathtaking.  The Vatican Museum has a truly incredible collection of art, and while the interior of St. Peter's was amazing as well, the highlight was definitely the Sistine Chapel.  It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, to stand there and try to take it all in. 

Adventures in Rome: Day One

When Lucas and Amanda decided to come visit, one of the first things we started planning was a trip to Rome.  They were very excited about it, and so was I, because despite living in Italy for over a year, I hadn't made it to Rome yet.  It was definitely time to change that!

We took the train, partly for the experience but mostly to avoid driving in Rome.  Our hotel was in a great location and we were able to walk pretty much everywhere with only a couple rides on the metro. 

We started our sightseeing as soon as we were checked into the hotel.  First stop was the Capuchin Crypt.  It was kind of a morbid way to begin our trip, but was oddly fascinating at the same time.  Basically, the Crypt holds the bones of around 4,000 Capuchin friars.  The bones are arranged in artistic displays which are meant as a reminder of the swift passage of life on earth.  Photography wasn't allowed, so I'll just say that it maybe wasn't the most pleasant type of art to look at, but it was definitely thought-provoking. 

After the Crypt, we made our way to the Spanish Steps. 

And then on to the Trevi Fountain.  We fought our way through the crowd and threw in our coins, ensuring a return trip to Rome.  Later on, once it was dark, we stopped by again.  It definitely feels a little more magical at night and was the perfect way to end our first day in Rome.

Bonamini Olive Mill

Today I had the pleasure of accompanying some fabulous ladies on a tour of an olive oil mill.  Our tour guide did a wonderful job of explaining how the olives are harvested by laying out nets under the trees and raking the olives from the branches, then walked us through the process of extracting the oil. 

We also had the chance to taste three different olive oils, as well as an olive tapenade and the most delicious pesto I've ever tasted. 

 Another amazing day in Italy!

Ca'Bruzzo Cooking Class

 
Several weeks ago, I had the chance to attend a cooking class held at a winery.  The winery is up in the hills about 45 minutes from Vicenza and was absolutely gorgeous.  We started our visit by helping the owner and his son finish the last of the harvest.  And by helping, I mean we all picked a bunch of grapes and posed for pictures. 

After our little jaunt through the vineyard, we headed inside to get down to the real business of the day - cooking!  We all pitched in to help make a soup, homemade pasta, a meat dish, and a cake.  And of course we sampled wines while we chopped and stirred. 

Cooking the food was certainly fun, but eating it was even better.  We started with the pasta, which had a fabulous sauce made of chopped walnuts, garlic, basil, and heavy cream.

The next course was the soup, which is typically served before the pasta but because it needed to simmer a little longer we had it for our second course.  The soup started with a "soffritto," which is carrots, celery, and onions.  After that had cooked for awhile, we added tomato sauce, beans, and water and let it simmer for a couple hours.  At the end, we added some spelt wheat. 

The meat dish was simply a beef loin that we put in a roasting pan with mushrooms and onions, added some water, and cooked in the oven for a few hours.  The mushrooms contributed a ton of flavor and it was delicious served with polenta.

The best part of the meal though was dessert.  My friends and I had a tough time thinking of anything to compare this cake to, but it was basically a dough that was chilled, rolled out, and baked with a layer of cream (almost like a custard) in the middle. 

It was an amazing meal, and the fact that we had helped prepare it made it even better.  The winery holds classes like this once a month, so I'm thinking another visit might be in order!

A Long Overdue Update

Ciao ciao!  I know the blog has been pretty quiet lately, mostly due to an unfortunate computer crash that left me without a functioning computer for several weeks.  But thanks to my genius brother who conveniently happened to be visiting shortly after, I once again have some semblance of a working computer.  So now that the blog is back up and running, we have lots of fun things to catch up on.

Everything has been going really well here in Italy.  I've been staying busy and the time has been flying by.  The highlight of the last couple months was my brother and his fiancée coming over to hang out with me for a couple weeks.  We crammed in as many day trips as we could, spent several days exploring Rome, and pretty much just had a great time.

I'll be posting lots of pictures in the near future, including Lucas and Amanda's visit, our trip to Rome, and some fun fall activities I've been enjoying with my friends here.  To kick things off, here are some photos from a harvest festival I went to a few weeks ago at my new favorite winery, Le Pignole.  We tasted a few delicious wines, snacked on yummy food, watched some folk dancing, and picked some grapes.