Places and people and food oh my!

Practice was canceled today because of rain so I am going to write a little about places, people, and food.

Ice Cream Cake

For Ila’s birthday, the girls bought her an ice cream cake to celebrate after dinner. We sang happy birthday in Italian. It went something like “Buon compleanno a te! Buon compleanno a te! Buon compleanno a Ila! Buon compleanno a te!” The ice cream cake was like any ice cream cake in America and they had the same ritual of making a wish and blowing out the candles before we all devoured the entire cake within 10 minutes.

Tiramisu

One of my teammates, Mara, made us homemade tiramisu. I've only heard of it because they always make it and talk about it on all those cooking shows my Mom watches. It was delicious. It had chocolate chips in it, and that won me over immediately. I’m glad that 8 people had to share it because otherwise I would have eaten way too much of it before practice.

Lampone

This means raspberry in Italian. It is my favorite gelato flavor but I always forget what it’s called. Fede was trying to help me remember what it was called because she knows it’s my favorite and she had to take out her English Italian translation app. But I couldn't figure out how to spell raspberry! It was a huge ordeal spelling it rasberry or rasperry but eventually I figured out it included both a p and a b and we solved the mystery. I wrote down lampone in my phone so I will always be able to order my favorite gelato flavor.

Nutella Crepe

Some of us went to a Gelatteria yesterday afternoon and I noticed they also sold crepes there. I haven’t noticed this yet because I've been so infatuated with the gelato my previous 4 times. I made the bold decision to say no to the gelato and yes to the Nutella crepe. I do not regret my decision. I just hope I don’t disappoint anybody when they see my Gelato Tracker at the end of this blog is still at 4. But don’t worry… I can see a Gelatteria from my window outside of my room so it won’t stay at 4 for long!

Coke

The only soda (or pop for my Midwestern readers) they have here is Coke! No Dr. Pepper, no Pepsi… just different forms of Coke. Diet Coke, Coke Zero…. But not even Cherry Coke! Oh, and they have that sparkling, fizzy, carbonated water.

Chinese Food

Friday night after practice we got Chinese Food. It was hardest to read a Chinese Food menu in Italian. What is equivalent to chow mien noodles is called spaghetti. There wasn't any orange chicken, but I got some sort of mandarin chicken with peanuts in it which tasted good. Overall, it wasn't my favorite thing I've eaten in Italy, but it was an interesting experience.

Mall Food Court

We went to a mall yesterday which was like any mall I've been to before. A lot of the stores had everything labeled in English so it didn't feel different at all. Some of the stores had American music playing. I noticed that in these stores and on the radio, when these songs are playing in English, they are not edited and there are cuss words that everybody can hear! As for the food court, there was a giant TV showing soccer and different food places like Japanese, McDonald's, Pizza, gelato, and a coffee bar. There was also an American food place that served fried chicken, finger food, and Tex Mex!

Club

I went to an Italian club on Friday night! There was loud techno music, strobe lights, lots of people, and a lot of dancing.

Two things I found interesting:

1. You did not need to show an I.D. to get into the club or order drinks.
2. There was smoking allowed inside. 

Elda

This past week at practice, I talked a lot to a girl on my team named Elda. She has played softball in Seattle and Michigan and her English is really good! She is new on the team this year as well, but she doesn't live in the apartments that I live in. She is from Milan, but lives about 20 minutes away from Forli. I want to take a trip to one of the bigger cities in Italy this coming weekend before our games start, so I was asking Elda about some of the cities and if she would be my travel buddy! Hopefully we will go to Florence on Sunday together!

This is a text that she sent me about her input about some of the major cities in Italy. This is the exact text she sent me.

“Florence is amazing, kind of the heart of renaissance in Italy. One of my fav cities.

Venice is magical, surreal!

I've never been in Rome (shame on me!!) but everyone says it’s the best city in the whole world, the eternal city.

Milan it’s not so amazing. It’s interesting only if you want to go shopping. More polluted than any other in Europe I guess.

I've heard that even Naples is wonderful (not considering all the trash).

The south of Italy is also stunning if you consider the naturalistic point of view.

We have so many wonderful things in Italy that are left out…

Do I sound like a tourist guide?”

I still can’t believe that English is her second language! Besides how well she speaks English, I thought it was interesting to get one native’s point of view of popular cities in Italy.

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I have taken so far on my trip. Some of them I have already shared in previous blogs. All of the architecture and parks I took when I have explored Forli. I will hopefully take more interesting pictures when I go to bigger cities!

GELATO TRACKER

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