When I first got to Italy, I met up with my partner in crime Helena, who promptly filled me with pasta. Then I set off to the IUC to surprise everyone! It was so fun to see everyone's faces. That night I had aperitivo with some friends, and of course ate even more pasta.
One of the perks of visiting friends was that everyone cooked for me. My Italian friend Luca made this delicious pasta, my Chinese friend Fei cooked me noodles and beef, and my Vietnamese friend Tra shared this traditional savory pastry eaten for the lunar new year (filled with eggs and meat).
We took a day trip to Ivrea, where the town holds an annual orange-throwing festival to celebrate Carnevale. The orange-throwing thing has some historical explanation (as everything in Italy does), but I'm not totally clear on it - I'm pretty sure it has something to do with an evil tyrant raping local women, but I'm not sure how that ties into oranges. In any case, the festival is celebrated by people throwing lots of oranges at each other in an extremely violent manner. To show that you're not participating, you're supposed to wear a red hat, but I still got hit by a couple rogue fruits. We enjoyed a sausage sandwich and watched the proceedings. There were so many oranges!
I of course HAD to indulge in some gelato while in Italy - can you tell how happy I am? Pictured here is Crema di Grom and Salted Caramel.
That night I was treated to a delicious home-cooked meal by the lovely Luca. We had soup with tortellini (traditional in northern Italy) and a delicious spinach pie, with a prosciutto side dish. Thanks Luca!
I set off on an adventure to Bologna with Helena, Fei, and Georgina. Bologna is a beautiful city that's home to the world's oldest university, and stern taskmaster Helena made sure that we saw every monument that the city had to offer.
We went to a church that had 7 churches inside it, which was really beautiful.
For dinner I had an artichoke salad with walnuts, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese, plus ravioli stuffed with pear and served with gorgonzola cheese sauce and nuts, all followed with crispy lemon cookies.
I especially liked all the street art in Bologna.
We took a day trip to Reggio Emilia to see one the hometown of one of my favorite Italians, Tommaso. You've probably guessed by now that I think the best way to get to know a place is by eating its food, and we ate a lot on this trip - so I think I know it pretty well now. Tommaso took us to a bakery for breakfast, where I tried a sweet pastry filled with lemon cream and rolls stuffed with cream.
After breakfast Tomatino showed us all the sights of Reggio Emilia, and we had an amazing lunch in a beautiful square. I had erbazzone, which is a flat pie filled with spinach, plus I tried Tommaso's foccacia with pancetta on top. For dessert we shared salame al cioccolato, which is basically just delicious chocolate and cookies shaped to look like a sausage!
After lunch we drove up through the hills, climbed up an old and gorgeous castle, and had an impromptu snowball fight.
Okay. Are you ready for my best meal in Italy? EVER? Really, it was that good. Pretty much heaven in the mouth. We went with Tommaso and two of his friends two a small restaurant in the country near his house and ate.. well, pretty much everything. We tried: spinach ravioli, pumpkin ravioli, boar ravioli, pork shank, guinea fowl made with balsamic vinegar, and fried fish patties (I think it was cod). Our side dishes were roasted potatoes and little onions marinated in balsamic vinegar. Plus we had dessert with sweet mascarpone and chocolate shavings and some sort of cake. This was probably one of the top 10 best meals of my life.
We passed our last day in Bologna by walking around and eating some more. I had lasagne, a local specialty, Fei had pappardelle, and we shared bruschetta - plus dessert!
On my last night in Torino, my friends and I got together and cooked a big meal. It was so wonderful to have the people I care about in one place enjoying my favorite thing - food! I made macaroni and cheese and a copycat version of the artichoke salad I had in Bologna. Thanks everyone for coming and sharing food and drink with me!
Then we went out and celebrated!
I made this video to commemorate my visit.
Untitled from Randi Nolen on Vimeo.
Thank you to everyone who made my time in Italy so special. It was so wonderful to see everyone again, and I'll cherish the memories I made the second time around. Love you all!
xo
R
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