Ho Mangiato come una Principessa

Our group returned to San Polo D’enza recently, to a hotel we’ve stayed in several times before. The hotel was nice enough, but having had a mediocre meal at the train station on a previous trip and doing several loads of laundry, we felt sure we’d seen about all there was to see of San Polo D’enza. On Sunday night, Jason did a Google search to find a restaurant nearby that might be open (Italy is closed on Sundays). He found a restaurant called Mamma Rosa, and we called. In an effort to ask if they were open, I made a reservation and we were on our way. Upon arrival, we were greeted on the street by a very small chef in a very big hat. He led us upstairs and inside to the swankiest little restaurant. We looked around and noticed we were the only guests (they basically opened just for us), and also assumed we couldn’t even begin to pay for a meal at this place. We sit down and are presented with a menu that has a 70 euro fixed price dinner (MAMMAMIA). However, the chef comes to explain Sunday prices are different, and then says, “This is not a restaurant, this is my home. I’m happy to have you here in my home. If you want to order just a pasta, that is no problem.” So, feeling relieved, we did. After a small wait, Antonio (the chef) comes out to present us with appetizers. We each got what might be described as a fish mouse, containing marinated sardines and mint. Sounds gross, eh? I thought so. But it was delectable. Oh it was good. I almost cried. Then he brought us smoked salmon, from Aberdeen (home of the infamous Kay Brown) and cured by Antonio himself. Delicious. Next he brought us the only part of the meal we actually ordered—a delicious fish pasta course. THEN he brought us each roasted tuna fillets! The tuna was absolutely amazing, and Kerry-Lea, who hates fish, both ate and enjoyed it. Antonio was pleased. Following dinner, Antonio brought us each a delicious crème brulee, along with a dessert menu. We of course needed no dessert, but when he told us he had some fresh homemade strawberry gelato, we ordered that. It came out with spun sugar and pastry and oh it was good. Then his son brought us a tray of homemade chocolates with exotic and delicious fillings. With every new dish presented to us, Antonio reminded us that this was his passion, and he doesn’t do it for the money. Some people don’t understand, he says, and it makes him sad. But a person should do what he loves. We loved him. He made us cry. Also, I had some local wine and Jay had the best beer in the world. It’s called Noel du Sanglier. It’s brewed in Fidenza (where we scored a 150 euro parking ticket. We hate Fidenza. Who knew it could produce such a treasure?).

We’re expecting to pay quite a bit for this amazing meal, and are quite happy to do so. Antonio brings us the check, and basically only charges for the very few things we ordered. Looking at the bill, he writes at the bottom, 25 x 3, and won’t accept a penny more. We had maybe the most extravagant meal of our lives for 25 euros a person. Unreal. Luckily for us, Mamma Rosa is closed on Monday and Tuesday, so Antonio was cleaning out the kitchen….

If you ever have the misfortune of finding yourself in San Polo D’enza for a weekend, do yourself a favor and visit Antonio at Mamma Rosa on Sunday night. It might just change your life :)

Generosity

Caroline and I went to Lake Como one Sunday when we were staying in the Milan flat. Faye told us to go to this brewery and ask for “Brava” which apparently is the best beer in the world. So we went to Lake Como, and it was gorgeous! It was a bit of a rainy day, so it was quiet there and a bit eerie. We could imagine how nice it would be on a sunny day! Along the lake front there was a little market going on with some delicious cheeses, meats, and sweets. Each booth was from a different area in northern Italy, and they were giving out SO many samples. Every booth we went to had the nicest people, and they were all so eager to tell us about their homes and share their food with us. They didn’t really care whether or not we bought anything—they were happy to share the best foods from their home towns! We just walked by a booth and someone would say, ahh try these olives!! Have another! Isn’t this apple strudel great! Try it! This cheese is delicious!! And here it is smoked! You have to try it with the salami! Seriously, I ate my weight in cheese.

Later we went in search of the brewery. It was nowhere to be found. We did, however, find one in Milan (thanks Garmin). When we got there, it was closed! This was no great surprise…everything in Italy is usually closed, especially on a Sunday. But there were a couple of men outside. We asked if the brewery was open at all on Sunday, and one man said, ah, wait one second. So we did. And then the owner of the brewery comes out and invites us in! We asked if we could just buy some beer to take with us, and he asked us what kind of beer we liked. Then he comes with this huge bottle of beer, and we’re thinking, hm, how much is this going to cost? We didn’t really want to spend a ton of money on beer…so he says, no, take it—it’s free! Then he takes us outside to a cooler, and gives us another huge bottle, and tells us all about the different beers they make and breweries in Italy. Then he gave us these really cool beer mugs (mugs?) with the name of the brewery, and invited us back for aperitivo that night. So we went with our group, and the food was excellent. It was super crowded, but the owner kept coming with beer samples because he wanted us to taste all of the beers he told us about. It was such a cool day. I just kept thinking how amazing it was that people were so happy to give us things and were less worried about making money. It was more like, “look at this thing I made with my hands! Try it! I know it’s good, and I want you to have it because I know you’ll love it!” And they were right, because it all was really, really good.

Update.

So, obviously I haven’t written anything in a while. In fact, I’m going to be hard pressed to remember the names of the towns we’ve been to recently. I’ll do my best. After Rome, we went to Milan… We were NOT excited to go there, but I’m so glad we did! We gave Milan a second chance and it did not disappoint. The duomo there is really amazing, and we found a fun little English Pub were Jay and Kay spent most of their time…they showed soccer and rugby games, like England v. Scotland. Jay is from England and Kay is from Scotland, so you see, it was a good rivalry. Caroline and I also took the train to fair Verona and had an excellent day! We heard about this pass on the train that costs 10 euros, and then you can get into tons of museums and attractions for free. We went to the arena, to Juliet’s house (she’s a fictional character. I still don’t quite understand why she has a house, but we took some great pics on her balcony! I also sent her an email. Ha.), some ruins with an amphitheater. Then we went on Sunday to Lake Como (see below) and then north of Milan to a small town I can’t remember. But we stayed in a B&B called Magnolie. It had the BEST beds, and the most hilarious owner. She actually had a OCD problem I think. She was really upset when we were moving in, and kept telling us where to put our bags, etc. We were there for 4 days, and the first day we came back and found she’d gone through Kay’s bag to find what she thought were better PJs for her to wear, and folded them on the bed for her. She picked throght our dirty laundry and folded it for us. Weird. Which is why, on the last night we were there, it was particularly bad that I spilled RED WINE on my white sheets. Ugh. But we found a magical bleach product that took the stains right out. Dried and ready to go in the morning before checkout! Then I’m not entirely sure where we went…Maybe back to Milan for a few days…Then eventually we went to this amazing B&B also called Magnolie in Civitanova. It was on a hill overlooking the sea! We were there for the weekend, and it was about a 5 minute walk to the beach. The owner was a young, super friendly woman who was so helpful and cool! Then we went to a place somewhere near Bologna maybe…can’t remember. But then we had a longgg drive to Rome because it was time for SPRING BREAK! Which should probably be it’s own post.

Tommy

Sorry no updates in a while...we've had no internet! So sad to us. I'll post the cities we were in once I remember them :-)

I've had a bit of a cold this past week, and one afternoon dreaded my workshop because I wasn't feeling that great vocally. But my class ended up being SO cool. I played a game with my kids called Bang. There was a boy named Tommy who is autistic in the class who had a special aide. It's cool in Italy because most kids with physical and mental disabilities are in the classrooms with everyone else. I've seen that go poorly in the States, but here it's great because the other kids really do want to see the kids with difficulties succeed. They help explain things and cheer them on and their aides are usually very involved. Anyway, we were playing Bang and Tommy had to be eliminated. I looked at his aide, and he acted like it would be fine, but Tommy freaked out and had to be taken out of the classroom. I was bummed because I thought he wouldn't come back. But he did come back once he calmed down, right before I started explaining the rules to the more complicated version of Bang. So I made sure he understood the rules and let him get the hang of the game and he got pretty good at it! In fact, he ended up being in the final round--the big shoot out between him and this other kid. I was so nervous. I have never wanted anyone to win a game like I wanted Tommy to win Bang. The whole classroom was cheering him on! So it's the last round, and I say, GO! and they were so close...in most cases I might call it a tie. But the whole class, even the kid playing against Tommy are pointing at Tommy, saying he was faster. So I say, Tommy, you are the CHAMPION!!! And I have never seen more excitement come from a child. He's screaming and jumping and his face looks like Jon's on Christmas morning when he got his first electric guitar and the whole classroom is cheering and piling on Tommy and the teacher runs to the middle of the circle and picks Tommy up and spins him around and kisses him a zillion times (these things are fine in Italy). It was so cool. It was amazing to see how happy he was, but just as cool to see how encouraging and excited his classmates were.

So then we all pulled ourselves together and carried on with the workshop. It was awesome because Tommy was really engaged for the rest of the workshop and really good at the games we played! Such a bright spot in my week!!

ROMA

Quick story I forgot to mention about Rimini…After the conference we did in Rimini, a teacher came up to me and asked if I could sing the first song I taught them (it’s from Robin Hood). I said, sure, and she pulled out her cell phone to record it! Ha. She said she wanted to let her daughter listen to it. So, I’m officially a recording artist now :-)

So last week in Rome was supposed to be pretty easy. No sketches, a half day on Thursday and Friday, etc. The English days we did were hilarious. We usually don’t do English days with young kids, and we had Wednesday and Thursday booked for English days with 1-3 Primaria (Kindergarten through 2^nd grade). The first class I was in was 3^rd Primaria, and I expected it to be fine. I was even with another girl in my group. However, our kids were INSANE. I physically had to pull them off of each other because they were in full on brawls. And our teacher left as soon as we showed up. So after that we convinced the teacher to let us do Three Little Pigs for the youngest classes. But the next day we had more English days. So we show up to the classrooms Thursday morning, and they’re THE SAME classes we had the day before! Not only were they crazy classes, but we had only prepared one 2 hour workshop for their age. We had to just improvise a 2 hour workshop. Interesting day…

We also found out Wednesday night that Caroline (one of my tourmates) has vocal nodules. She may not be able to finish out the tour! Since last Wednesday we’ve been performing in 3 instead of 4. It’s been fine, but challenging and sometimes hysterical. Challenging because, for example, in the show Three Little Pigs I have to play pig #1 and #3. I have to do about a million quick changes. Literally for the whole show I’m either on stage or quick changing while also doing music cues or set cues. We did that show twice today, and I was also the storyteller both times because now Kay has laryngitis. AND I had to give a workshop to 45 5 year olds in a gym. Now I’m chugging tea and honey like it’s my job.

Hysterical because, for example, we do an opening song for all the fairy tales that introduces each of us. Usually the song goes, “Jason, Kay, Caroline, too, I’m Rebecca, how do you do?” In three, we’re supposed to sing, “Jason Kay, Rebecca, too. Theatrino, how do you do?” Well, the first time we did it, it went, “Jason, Kay” and then I sang, “Caroline, too!” I don’t know if that’s clear. But basically I introduced myself as Caroline because that’s how I’m used to hearing the song…

I’ve been getting to see Rome a bit in the afternoons and on weekends, which is SO fun. I’ve been to the Vatican City a couple of times now (even went for Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday! It was cool because I got to go into the main dome of the church where you usually can’t go if you’re just sightseeing. I didn’t really understand much of what was being said—just the occasional catch phrase—but it was still nice to go to church!) I’ve tried to go to the Sistine Chapel 3 times now, but it’s always closed when I go! Hopefully I’ll make it sometime this week…I also went to the Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, Coliseum and Forum (but not inside…saving that for when Michael comes!), and general shopping and gelato eating :-) I’m hoping to go to the Villa Borghese before we leave, too! Last weekend we were going to try to scalp tickets for the Rome v. Milan soccer game. How fun would that have been? Turns out tickets sold out in an hour, and would have been mad expensive. Furthermore, then game ended at 0-0 (how does that work?). So I bought a 3 euro Roma tee on the street instead.

I also went to see Alice in Wonderland (in English) last night. So good! See it! We met up with another Theatrino group that is in Rome now, which was really cool. We hadn’t seen anyone else since January, so it was fun to get back in touch! We head out from Rome on Friday (we’re depressed) and to Milan (we’re depressed). We’re not sure how long we’re going to be North, but we’re trying to get over ourselves and promise to do lots of sightseeing there, too!

When In Rome...

Some facts: 1. We have a kitchen in our Rome flat. 2. They don't do real cookies in Italy. 3. Cookies are one of my favorite foods. 4. I am one facebook message away from the recipe for the famous Beth Bridge cookies (the melt-in-your-mouth-cry-your-eyes-out-they're-so-good chocolate chip cookies).

So what do I do? Make cookies of course!

Exhibit A: COOKIE FAIL.

Why? I don't know. But I'm SAD about it. For starters, along with cookies, here in Italy they don't do brown sugar (a key ingredient to the above mentioned cookies). When I asked for it, I was shown brown cane sugar, which is basically just regular sugar that looks dingy. However, in glorious Rome I found a specialty shop selling special English foods--for a very special price. In that shop I found brown sugar! Hooray! So I bought it, and all the other ingredients I needed for the cookies. However, in our kitchen we don't have important tools like measuring cups or hand mixers. But I made an educated guess about a cup of this and that...and beat 4 sticks of butter with a wooden spoon until my arm almost fell off. The resulting "dough" looked, and tasted like chocolate chip cookie dough! Tragically, baking the dough produced Exhibit A, the crispy cookie pancake.

Moral of the story? Eat more gelato.

One thing I've noticed about Romans is that they like big hair. This makes me feel right at home. Just like the sign in Tracy's Hair on Main says, "The bigger the hair, the closer to God." Well, there must be a lot of saints in Rome. I got my haircut near our flat the other day, and post styling I fit right in there with the best of them. The stylist blow dried my hair upside down, and made it enormous. It was hilariously big, and strangely square shaped, and everyone in the salon went BELLISSIMA and sent me on my way. Good news is, post wash I look less like Carrot Top and more like me again.

So Long Emilia Romagna

Week 5--our last on the road for a while! I'm in Rome in the ACLE flat right now. I've unpacked my bags and bought some groceries. I did some laundry. Jay's making dinner and Kay is ironing. And we're all so happy about it! We're also all sleeping in the same room. And we're not complaining. There's a running/bike path that runs right outside the flat with a park and farms and horses on one side and a river on the other. I went for a run this morning! In shorts! Ahh spring is coming friends.

So last week: Monday was hard. We did three back to back sketch shows and workshops, with only 5 minute breaks in between. We were also set in a corridor, and in the middle of our last sketch the janitor opened the double doors behind us, allowing cold air to blow in and almost knock our curtain over, and students and parents started exiting the school, right through our curtain! Yikes. Not our best day. The school closed early and wanted to squeeze 3 shows in, but it was just difficult. Tuesday we also did three sketch shows (guh) BUT they went so well! The kids loved them and the workshops just flew by because the kids were totally into it. Wednesday morning we had sketch in the morning, then a 1.5 transfer to Bologna for the Oxford Conference. It was a conference about, well, I'm not sure. But Theatrino had a booth there, and we were supposed to do 2 sketches. We got there at 12:30 even though the show wasn't supposed to start until 2. And the guy in charge said they were running behind and said we'd have to start late. Which we did. And halfway through our performance, he walks on stage and motions for us to wrap it up! So ridiculous. We finished our show, but as soon as we were off stage they started introducing the next speaker and we just collected our props and speaker and slipped away. So bizarre. We were annoyed. Which is why we LEFT OUR SPEAKER IN THE PARKING LOT. Idiots. We got to our school on Thursday morning, started unloading our stuff, and said, who has the speaker? No one. Because we left it in the parking lot. In Bologna (an hour away). Luckily the school had an amazing sound system. Backing up--after the Oxford Conference we went to Bologna for some sight seeing. It was really beautiful. We were only there for a few hours, but had a nice walk around, did some window shopping, and had a nice dinner. Lasagna alla bolognese. In Bologna. Mmm. It's known as the Fat City. Good thing I didn't stay for long :-) After Bologna we drove to Cesena to our favorite B&B Mama Ro!! We were so excited to see Lucky they dog, but on arrival learned he'd been poisoned just the day before. SO sad. But we had a glass of wine with Carlo and Mama Ro made us our favorite cake. Mm. We were in a really nice school on Thursday and Friday, doing fairy tales! Hooray! We did three Wizards on Thursday. Caroline and I switched roles in the last show because we couldn't handle doing the same thing 3 times in a row. I was Dorothy and she was scarecrow. We decided right before we went on. Ha. Then we did 3 Robin Hoods on Friday. So many Robin Hoods. But it is our favorite. We also got free lunch in the school cafeteria. On Thursday we had the best pesto pasta I've had since being in Italy, followed by some amazing beef dish of sorts. Friday we had pasta, followed by calamari. That's right. Calamari. In the school caf. And it was GOOD. It was also served on real plates. To 7 year olds. And they all waited patiently for their tables to be served before they ate. So civilized.

Friday night we drove to Rimini, which is a beach town! Right on the sea! We performed for an ACLE conference on Saturday. We went out Friday night in the center. There were so many cute little bars! Then we had a great breakfast in our posh hotel on Saturday morning, followed about 2 hours later by an AMAZING and ridiculously heavy lunch. Then we had to perform. Ha. The conference was full of teachers and we did some warmups with them. We performed a scene from Robin Hood and a sketch called Dr. Doolittle and they went really well! The teachers loved us! Which was good because Arigo, the creator of ACLE was there. Also between lunch and the performance we went to the beach to play frisbee. It was warm enough to take off my shoes. Mmmm. SO nice. It was just so fun to be barefoot on a sandy beach playing frisbee. Then after the conference we set off on our 4 hour drive to ROMA. Yippee. We have no sketches this week, which we're so excited about. But a lot of English Days. Wednesday I get to be locked in a room with 5 year olds who barely speak Italian, teaching them English for 2 hours. Yeahhhhhh.