June 4th 2008

Today was Susan’s first day of being away. Shawn, Victoria, Joanna and myself were in charge of teaching the class.   We met during lunch time to prepare. Joanna and Victoria set up a list of questions that we all spoke about from the reading.  Shawn made a short speak on salami and how it was prepared.  I was in charge of the field  study.  I researched places to find meat and cheese throughout the city.  There was so many scattered all over the city!  After the questions were over and Shawn did his speech I took a vote with the class and asked what they felt would be more beneficial to break up and visit several places or all go as a class together.  The class felt it would be more beneficial to visit several places.  We talked about what we thought we would see when we went out.  I shared a little more about my experience with meat in Bologna.  Me and Erin took off to a butchery that we had found our first week that was close to our apartment.  The man there had let us sample parmesan cheese and we bought some from there.  The meats smelt delicious when we walked in.  The same man was working.  We believe he is the only one that works the shop.  We tried to communicate with him about the meats but hespoke little English.   He cut us several pieces of brochette to try.  I felt that the least expensive one tasted the best.  Erin liked on that was redish in color.  There was also several other kinds of red meat as this deli.  We plan to return later in the week and by some fresh sausage.

            After going to the deli I wanted to get some gelato.  We walked through town and did some casual shopping and then went to a gelatoria.  I got dark chocolate gelato.  This was a flavor  I had not seen before.  It was extremely rich in flavor.  I was very full of sweets after I ate a one scoop.

            For dinner I was not feeling very well.  Erin and I tried to take a nap but for some reason the church next  door to our apartment had a bell that kept going off.  It went off for an hour straight.  It was ridiculous.  We got up and decided to make dinner.  Erin tried to cook pasta.  She did not like the sauce so she added some garlic.  From there I added some balsamic and then some of the vegetables that went in the pasta the night before.  The chef let me take the pure home.  We added it to the red sauce.  I also added some capers.  They did not taste very well.  I mixed the pasta and sauce together then melted mozzarella cheese with it. It was good.

            After dinner our Italian friends came over.  We spent time in our apartment together then Gina, Erin and myself went with them to a bar named Piper. It was absolutely beautiful.  The bar overlooked the city.  There was two patios on the outside and then a beautiful restaurant and bar inside.  The inside had chandeliers all over it and neat furniture.  The boys treated us to drinks.  We were unsure what to order.  Erin got a drink that Andrea likes very much.  It was a very sweet spritz that was garnished with a lemon peal that went through the entire glass.  I was tired so I got a red bull at first.  They added fresh strawberry juice to the red bull and garnished my class with a strawberry.  Our second drink Geovani, Mataeo and myself got local red wine from Verona.  It was by far the best class of wine I have had on the trip and probably the best glass of red wine I have ever had!  At the end of my class I got a lot of the remnants that were left  over from the grapes.  It was very hard.  I had never experienced this and spit it out confused to what was in my drink.  This was the only downfall to the wine and I was told it was the bartenders fault.

            Once we left Piper (the bar on the top of the hill)  we met everyone else at the college bar.  There we socialized for a little while with everyone from Fitchburg.  The doughnut place that Peter said was amazing was open. Many of my classmates got doughnuts.  I tasted a bite of Erik’s. They were fresh and hot, sprinkled in sugar and filled with chocolate or vanilla crème.  They tasted like fried dough to me.  I was not a huge fan but they were ok.