Italy – Day 1
- Drove to Chicago
- Stuck in rush hour traffic
- Made our flight to Frankfurt
- Didn’t sleep well, but that turned out to be ok since we were able to get over our time difference very easily.
- Changed planes in Frankfurt (airport was under much construction and reminded me of something from the cold war).
- Arrived in Turin (where we immediately brushed our teeth! We had left our tooth brushes and deodorant in our checked baggage).
- Met by Gabriella and Andrea Allice who drove us to Gabriella’s house in Nole where we showered. Our power converter did not work, so I couldn’t flat-iron my hair!
- Went to Levone to the Town Hall, where we met a lady who helped in finding records of relatives born after 1850. There were a lot! This lady apparently has the same trisnonni as Gabriella and Kevin (Great-great-grandparents)!
- Drove to Rivara (I think) to the Bed and Breakfast. Met by a very nice lady who offered us everything she had to eat! Chocolates from Turin (very good dark chocolates), chips, acqua frizzante (San Benedetto) and nuts. The room rate was only 25 Euros!. We dropped our bags and then headed off to dinner.
- Dinner was at ‘La Tradizione,’ a restaurant owned by the godfather of Letizia (daughter of Monica Allice- 3rd cousin of mine). This was an event!
o First Course: Prosciutto with fresh basil – less salty than what we get in America – very fresh tasting.
o Second Course: Rabbit with fresh basil – similar to chicken salad in flavor
o Third Course: Spinach – with a parmagiano cream sauce
o Fourth Course: Wide, flat egg noodles with sausage and cabbage and a yellow creamy sauce. The sausage tasted a lot like German sausage.
o Fifth Course: Beef stracatto (over-done) with polenta.
o Dolce: Tiramisu (unbelievably good!!)
o Wine: Dolcetto, Pinot Nero, Canale (white), 2001 Barolo (all but the Barolo are around 3 – 5 Euros in the market!!)
o Water: Still and Frizzante (Valverde) – all mineral water in bottles
The dinner was great! Letizia and Andrea kept running around the restaurant. There was a guy there who looked like Kevin's Uncle Butch. Alberto, Gabriella’s husband, was our translator. He makes aluminum doors and windows. Luigi, Monica’s husband, kept bringing out more to drink (the Barolo, the after dinner liquor (Pattisso), the cow’s jaw to eat!! It tasted like meat jello!) We left around 11:00 (we started at 8:00) – completely full, but not stuffed – happy for having such a great time.
- Andrea and Maria dropped us off at the B & B, where we finally were able to get a good night’s sleep!
