Visiting Alberto!

Wow it is finally here, we were visiting our best friend, an italian exchange student from year 11. All those years ago we promised to visit and here we are heading straight for bolonga.

Our bus left from lauterbrunnen at 8am and by 1:30pm we were in lake como. We were going to spend a bit more time here but with our backpacks strapped on we were feeling less than enthusiastic! The only good bit of information that stuck was that George clooney owns a house here. The town was nice, great views, big lake / cove, surrounding mountains, but we needed to make tracks.

Here we caught a train to Milano, again we decided to keep moving. It would have been nice to have a good look at the fashion capital of the world but we would prefer to have that bit more time with Alberto!

We eventually got to bologna at 8pm and here we met our old mate. It was fantastic to see him again, it is just like we never had any time apart. We jumped in the car and drove to Ferrara.

As he studies in ferrara, he has a little appartment here that he shares with 2 mates, marko and andre. We made introductions and both parties afterwards went back to Alberto to catch the names again haha luckily they both speak a little bit of English otherwise Alberto would be translating non stop.

We all went out for dinner and grabbed a beer and some pizza's. Afterwards we all took a walk around town, saw a couple of the sights, got some gelati and headed home.

Day 2, this was going to be a rather large day! It is Guilia's birthday tomorrow (alberto's girlfriend), we had some sights to see first and then had to shop for a present for her!

Apparently they don't take photos together very often, so he found pictures of a few places which they spend time, are special to them or where arguments have happened. He then found pictures online of the two of them and photoshopped them in. It was funny, the thing was he finished at 3am :p! Sounds like the way I do these sort of things, real last minute.

Day 3, We woke up early the next day and bought her a bike, threw it into the back of his car and drove towards Venezia (Venice). Apparently parking at Venezia is ridiculous so we parked a couple towns over and trained it in! Lucky for us Guilia was from Venezia and the four of us walked around, saw the sights, stopped into a bar, tried a spritz, moved on for dinner. We tries these deep fried local specialties, mozzarella and purcuitto battered and fried, cannelloni fried, aroncini, meat stuffed olives crumbed. we then headed towards the cars.

Alberto gave Guilia her present and she loved it, somehow presents for the ladies always seem to work themselves out regardless of how late you leave it :p. I'm just as guilty!

Day 4, we headed out for the standard breakfast, a pastry and cappuccino. Today it was time to meet Albertos parents. They live about 40mins away from Ferrara in a town called Cento.

Instead of a big sunday lunch like we have back home with a roast and all the trimmings here we had something a bit different, something italian haha. To start off we had tortolini e panna (tortolini in a creme sauce), next we had (beef fillet with olive oil and balsamic vinegar), we also had a little parmgiarno with balsamic vinegar (20 year old). With all this we shared a bottle of chianti vino rosso (red wine from the chianti region). Next came dessert, we had gone down to the shop earlier that day to buy a bucket load of gelato. We shared this with a glass of dessert wine from the cinque terre region! Wow spoilt! To finish off we had a caffe (expresso). Wow, we were so full and had tried some delicious meals. Being fed and now feeling pretty lethargic we were sent to bed for our afternoon nap haha!

Lunch seriously went from 2:30 to around 5:30, we restrung Albertos guitar, played a little then went for a walk into town.

Cento like many other towns / cities has a castle as well, we took a walk through, checked out some markets and went for my favorite, aperativo time! Haha I love Italy! We sat down for a couple hours chatting whilst sinking a few beers, what a life!

Tonight we were going to be meeting a couple more of Albertos friends! Back at his house his parents had set us up for dinner. We had the 3 of us and here we met some new faces, edoardo, francesco and bernadetto. They are his good friends from scouts and together we ate our way through a delicious sharing type dinner! It was like a bread type piklete that you cook then cut in half hand place your rocket, purcuitto or pancetta and cheese into, delicious and something I will definitely do at home! We had a few beers, played some foosball and of course had some gelato :)! It was a great night and although there was was a bit of a language barrier we all had a good chat and a few laughs. They all really try to speak english and if they don't know a word we get through it easy enough! I think they enjoy being able to practice. It has really inspired me to want to learn another language even more!

Day 5 we headed off to bolognia. Alberto shows us around this great city, we did the tourist route then a little clothes shopping. Lunch was amazing!

We had bread with mixed cheeses and meats from the region to start. For mains Ross and I had tortolini ragu (larger than tortilini) yummy! This was obviously accompanied with a glass of red and to finish off a caffe like always!After a bit more browsing and shopping we headed back to cento!

Again being spoilt rotten Albertos parents had a feast ready for us again! Tonight it was meat, and man was there a lot of meat haha. The basting was a garlic and rosemary infused oil and when served you squeeze some lemon juice over the top. We had some great cuts of beef and pork, absolutely delicious! Again more fantastic wine, man do I love wine haha, and for dessert we had another type of dessert wine served with some hard biscuits, nom nom!
We then did some research for our trip to fireze (Florence) the next day!

Albertos parents have over accommodated us, we truly have been spoilt rotten, they are such genuine, kind, generous people and we are so thankful for everything! Roberto spent a lot of time going through guides for us to map out what we needed to see! We were so relaxed even though we saw so much in our time here, we have the bolletta family to thank for this!

Day 6. Onto firenze we go! What an amazing city! The churches were beautiful, completely covered with marble and on the inside and out were fantastic detailed statues, paintings and various other types of artwork. We went for a walk up to the top of the famous dome on one of the churches. It was a long way up, tight little staircase in-between the inner and outer dome. The artwork/painting on the inside of the dome was great to see! I certainly couldn't see myself dangling up there, upside down, painting for hours! Florence was beautiful and lunch was even better again haha!

We started with bread and cold meats, freshly made pate. Mains were 4 types of pastas! Delicious! Again more red wine, after the food came the dessert wine, followed by the routine caffe to wake you up for the rest of the tour :)!

We then headed off to see an old pharmacy and look for a jacket for Alberto! We stopped in a little store selling all sorts of great stationary! After seeing a bit more of Florence we left to head back to Ferrara!

Alberto gathered a few of his friends and we all had pizzas and beers whilst watching a game of football! For dessert Ross and I helped Debbie prepare a special type of tiramasu , it was markos favorite. Caffe soaked biscuits layered with a marscapone/egg/cream mix, it was topped off with the two most over used words of the trip haha graze Mille and salute! We later went out for a couple beers and a stroll through town as this was our last time in Ferrara! What fun we have had with this group! Alberto has a great bunch of house mates/best friends and they have all been so great to welcoming us into their group and house! That night we had to say goodbye to elena as well!

She has been lovely, first day she bought us a couple books on Ferrara! She joined us for the tour around Ferrara and when we said goodbye she bought each of us a little gift, aww. Haha we went into this alternative sort of shop and there was a yellow submarine tea leave dunker that caught my eye which she bought for me and a little vespa badge! Honestly everyone is too kind!

Day 7 and we were off to lake of Garda! We stopped off at andres house in Verona first and then headed out to the lake. Here we took a little walk around, soaked in the view, went for a swim and some cliff jumping then soaked up the sun! Wicked afternoon just relaxing. Obviously next came aperativo time which were a couple beers at a bar along the lake. From here it was off to the shop to buy everything for dinner!!

We then drove up to Andreas farm type house up in the mountains of lake of Garda. It was beautiful up there, absolutely relaxing, gorgeous views and a very cozy / homely feeling house! It was a bit cold so we got the fire place in the kitchen cranking, on the hot plates we cooked up some potato chips. We started with beers all round and the conversations started to really flow from here haha. Andreas and edoardo decided to go the rest of the night just speaking English. They really are a great bunch of blokes and we had a fantastic nite talking crap haha. Once the fire died down to coals we grilled the meat right there, I love it!! Once dinner came out it was the end of the line for the beers and out came the wines! We had some great beef and pork! These blokes know how to cook, again they keep it simple with marinades and all but they do such a good job at it, fantastic!

Day 8 we had a slight hangover but not too bad, we had breaky out on the balcony and headed to Verona!

Andreas had to nip off to the dr in the morning and met us later on in town. Verona is the home of Romeo and Juliet. It was a beautiful little town, some very old buildings and just a place with a lot of character really! In the courtyard we took some photos, edoardo and I took one together holding one of the love locks attached to one of the gates. The two of us and Ross also got one with a statue of guiliet, apparently if you touch her right breast you get good much :p who were we to argue!

We went for some lunch and afterwards Andrea met up with us with his girlfriend along side, Francesco. Edoardo had to leave us to go back home by train. We went and saw a bit more of the city and stopped off for aperativo time where we grabbed a couple Spritz's :)

Francesco had to leave for a bit afterwards and the 3 of us went to a hidden little wine bar/ restaurant. We slowly made our way through a few delicious wines and had a good chat. Later we walked a bit more to see Verona by night and met up with Francesco again! From here we left for dinner and did Andreas have something special planned for us. We took a fair drive out of the way to this hidden little restaurant, his favorite. Apparently the owner here sources all the meat and produce from local farmers in the region. He was so excited to see us as well!

Dinner was delicious we started with bread, meats and cheese. For mains we tried both pastas on offer and afterwards grabbed a shnitzel and some roasted veggies. We also got a nice chunk of fresh parmesan cheese with balsamic vinegar!! Yum! Obviously we shared some good wine with our meal as well.

Italy has been an amazing experience and it is all thanks to alberto, his family and friends. I cant thank them enough. We have experienced italy from a local point of view, eating what and how they eat, drinking their great wines, going about our day as they do. Italians are so generous, family orientated, they have so much time for each other and ensure they take regular breaks to sit with each other to catch up, enjoy a meal and maintain their relationships. The country has an amazing history behind it (something I want to look further into), fantastic wines, great food cooked simply, on top of this everyone is so proud of their country and it makes for a fantastic atmosphere.

I love Italy and will be back once again to soak in its beauty, cuisine and to revisit a great friend as well as many new ones we have now made! Thank you one again!!

Chow

-Ryan