Day 11: Randomness

This week has been pretty uneventful. It rained Monday and Tuesday, so we couldn't harvest. Instead we were stuck inside labeling bottles...and labeling 500 million bottles can be very monotonous. I think Hillary got high from the rubbing alcohol from cleaning the bottles. So I spent many hours humming songs and playing some great music from home. It got me thinking about all of my friends at home and I started to miss them! I wish I could just package you all up and bring you here. For all my musician friends...there is a stage set up by the pool for the music festival that is held here every June...just sayin'...

We did get to go out one night in the village to get gelato and beers. I was so stoked. Oh how I have been craving a great microbrew...but turns out I ended up with a whiskey sour instead because none of the beers at the bar sounded appealing. The great thing about the gelato cafe's here is that they are also wine bars. So you get your gelato and alcohol of choice. But first we got gelato. Then we went for an adventure through the village. Giovanni showed us the house he was staying at (which is Daniela's but it's just her summer home). I should've taken more photos of the house but I was distracted. I tried my very first Grappa, which is a distilled liquor made from grapes. The house is beautiful and has a great view of the surrounding valleys and villages. We could hear band practice across the street (a group getting ready for the festival). I snuck over and peeked in. They were playing Al Green's "I love you baby"....which is one of my favorite songs...it was great. Then we went to a bar (The Fashion Cafe) where I couldn't find a good microbrew so i settled for a whiskey sour since they didn't have gingerale. The place was weird. Again I probably should've taken photos but I was just so confused I didn't even think about it. The upstairs has this funky club feel to eat. Purple walls, zebra photos, and barbershop/space chairs. There was another wall with some sort of pyschadellic indian mural. It was all rather confusing. And the music..the music was like instrumental karoke...and every other song was the complete opposite genre from the next. It was strange but we enjoyed some good conversation. Then Corrado met up with us and we had another drink back at the gelato shop. Here is a photo of grappe and Corrado's reflection. I also found some weird chips on display that I took photos of here: I'm sure what the second bag is advertising. It looks like a frat party or something...
Once the weather was suitable, we played the make up game and spent some long days harvesting. Above is a photo of freshly opened walnuts that Giovanni taught us how to harvest and open. By Friday, we (the girls) were spent. My allergies kicked in like crazy at a new vineyard we went to. I spent the next 6.5 hours sneezing and wanting to rip my nose off. Luckily we did not go for a second harvest that day. We came home early and I pretty much just went straight to sleep for a nap. We were all exhausted. All three of us were nodding off at the lunch table so maybe that's why Corrado had I us go home a little early.

Oh man the food here has been so amazing. The other day Valeria made a lovely pie pastry with fontina cheese and zuchinni! Drool...The other day, Corrado picked us up a treat that is unique to the area. It's basically a fig cake. Pressed figs with licorice and anice spices. I am not a fan of licorice so I didn't enjoy it as much but it was still very interesting! I love to try new foods...especially when they are unique to the area. Having 3 course meals twice a day has been a bit overwhelming. Last night I kept talking about how I would be happy with mac and cheese from the box and then Valeria ends up serving this amazing creamy shell pasta dish with peas and sausage. Followed with a pastry stuffed with gorgonzola, motzarella, and piccolio cheese. There is barely room for veggies!

So that's what I've been up to during the weekdays. More to come soon. Ciao!