White Orchid Melody Blog

We’ve been in Italy for nearly 3 years now! Hard to believe. It has gone by so quickly. But at the same time, our old life seems a world away.

I’ve learned so much here about slowing down and enjoying life. I don’t think I’ll be the same as I was when I go back to that “old life”. There are a few ideas I hope to bring back with me from our time here in Italy: fresh food, a pedestrian lifestyle, and a more relaxed outlook on life.

The biggest change for me here has been my idea of good food. The food here, both raw staples and cooked meals at restaurants, is simply amazing. It’s fresh. It’s local. It’s delicious. I now love vegetables that I always thought I hated. I’m willing to try many more new things now, because I haven’t experienced many fresh foods that aren’t fabulous sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic. I’ve learned how to cook with fresh ingredients, which were so intimidating before. And my standards are much higher now! I can’t just go back to the states and fall back into processed food and month-old flavorless veggies. Yuck! That’s not to say I won’t indulge in my favorite fast food occasionally. But I’m now accustomed to eating fresh and my body craves fresh. When we get back to St. Louis, I’m going to work harder to find quality local food, and hopefully next summer we’ll have our own garden again! I want to learn to can and preserve food for the winter. I want to be more self-sustaining.

The other thing that has spoiled me here is being able to walk from our house to get basic necessities–fresh fruit and veggies, milk, pharmacy, post office, restaurants. That isn’t going to be quite as easy back home. St. Louis is not known for it’s walkability, though the neighborhood we live in gets a 63/100 on Walkscore. Not too bad for the energetic. We have great parks nearby, an okay grocery store less than a mile away, and several restaurants. The library is just under a mile and a half. There’s a big Target near there too. So, really I can get everything I need in less than 2 miles (each way!). That isn’t exactly close, but it’s doable. We were doing some walking to restaurants, and even to Target before we moved. Now that our habits have changed so much, it will be even easier for us. Our goal is to only use the car for special trips, like stocking up at Trader Joe’s or maybe a weekly trip to the farmers’ market. Brian is planning to bike to work, so we really won’t be using our car much at all. At least, that’s the plan. We had been discussing the possibility of buying a Prius. But when it comes right down to it, we’d be wasting our money. Sure, getting 50+ miles to the gallon would be nice, but if you simplify your life so that you aren’t relying on a car daily, you can save way more money by just not buying as much gas for your regular car. Even factoring in long trips to visit family doesn’t add up to as much as we’d spend on a new (or even used) car.

It’s good to take a step back and ask yourself, “what do I really need?” Life here in Italy is not focused on stuff. It’s about family and community. I will say this is becoming less true with the younger generations, where you see more American style consumption. However, family is still of utmost importance. Sundays are about going to “Mamma’s” and eating for 5 hours. That’s entertainment!

The idea is to relax. Stop going so much. That is what being here has taught me. Driving isn’t easy and tends to be stressful here, so I’m less motivated to get in a car and go somewhere. But that’s a good thing. Without all the running around, I found time to read, paint, and write. I want to preserve that as much as possible when I get back. I don’t want to get caught up in the hamster wheel again. A disclaimer: I tend to be a little anti-social. But when activities are just stressing you out, it’s time to cut back. With small kids on a schedule, you don’t really have a lot of time for running around anyway. Kids need downtime, oh, and adults do too! With downtime, you can do things that add to your real quality of life–spending time with friends and family or making healthy food for your family.

It’s no coincidence that I dropped off the face of this blog after a mere 10 days of the Crazy Sexy Cleanse. Brian says we “conquered it” in half the time it takes most people. But we quit. It did make a positive influence on our meal choices afterward, but for whatever reason (we’re undisciplined people, maybe?) we just weren’t able to stick with it. Maybe because the wine flows like water here

But anyway, I won’t dwell on that too much. We recently returned from a long vacation through the Eastern Mediterranean. It was awesome, but also exhausting! So, I’m in recovery mode from that still. But hopefully I’ll be on a more regular posting schedule now (says the most undisciplined girl ever).

Goodmorning! It’s a beautiful day in Italy!

Today is day 11 of our 21-day Vegan Indulgence. We are over half way through and no cheating! Hurray!

It has been surprisingly easy. I am much more prepared this year than I was last year. I have good vegan substitutes for eggs and milk, plus the key ingredient–a proper mindset. It is a wonderful opportunity to see how my body feels dairy-free. The only thing that has been hard is not having my morning cappuccino with delicious organic Italian whole milk. I’m actually having dreams of cappuccini at night! Soy milk just doesn’t compare. So, clearly that is something that will return to my daily routine at the end of this 21-days.

But cheese? Haven’t missed it. At all. We even bought some Amy’s frozen dairy free mac-n-cheeze dinners, in case of a dairy craving emergency, but we haven’t needed them yet. Last night we ordered pizza–marinara with eggplant and peppers for me and Brian and margarita (cheese) for Alex. I can’t speak for Brian, but I don’t miss the cheese pizza. The crust and fresh tomato sauce and roasted vegetables are all so good! Of course, I’ve been eating the marinara for a few months now when we order pizza, so this wasn’t a new thing for me.

The one thing I was not prepared for was not being able to eat our soy meat-replacement products. I kind of have a love/hate thing going with all of that anyway. I love how easy it is to simply replace meat in chili, spaghetti sauce, tacos, etc, with soy crumbles. I hate that it’s a heavily processed food. Other than the soy products, we don’t eat processed food. So, in the back of my mind I have been wanting to cut back on those anyway. Well, surprise, surprise, I read the labels and all the Morningstar products that we buy have milk and egg products in them. So, that eliminated a few of the meals I’d planned for the 3 weeks. I’m going to try spaghetti with just lentils tonight. I’ve made it before, but it wasn’t exactly right, so I’m hoping to improve my recipe to a more convincing meat-replacement sauce.

I love the book, Skinny Bitch, but I was disappointed with the Skinny Bitch in the Kitch cookbook because it relies so heavily on processed meat and dairy replacements. I like to consume as much natural food as possible. I’ve often pondered whether it isn’t better to just eat meat than some complicated, processed meat replacement food. This, of course, would only be acceptable if you could guarantee the quality of the meat–free range, organic, and local. Conventional meat is just too risky.

One thing I do like about the Skinny Bitch approach to healthy eating is the morning routine. They suggest that when you wake up you only have water, or perhaps decaf green tea if you need a hot drink right away. Give your body a chance to wake up. Let your digestive system get going. Then, when you actually FEEL hungry, have fruit.

I’m not actually a big fan of fruit, outside of berries, but it is undeniably good for you, so my version of this is to make a big-ass smoothie (see photo above). I was doing this regularly during the summer, but then it got cold and I got back in the habit of wanting warm food in the morning. But I have to say, I felt really, really good when I was starting the day with fruit. It reset my appetite for the whole day. I didn’t snack as much, instead listening for my body to tell me when it was actually hungry, so I ate healthier.

With not loving these soy-cappuccini so much, I figure I should go back to the smoothie breakfast again. The bag of blood oranges my Italian neighbor brought over helped convince me that this was a good idea!

Wake-Up Call Smoothie

1 banana
2 small oranges
5-6 frozen strawberries
1 cup water
1 tsp honey

Combine all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a big crystal goblet and feel special as you treat your body to a healthy and delicious breakfast!

This weekend we went camping. Camping and I don’t get along too well. I’ve only done it a handful of times, and it’s never been what I’d call pleasant. From sweltering heat to rain to cold, from a hyper baby crawling all over me to a pasture of cows that just won’t shut up, from peeing in the woods to sleeping on the ground–it’s just not my thing.

The last time we went camping was when Alex was about 8 months old. He’d just started crawling and trying to keep an eye on him and set up camp was challenging, to say the least. It was hot and the campsite we’d chosen was full of flies. We’d planned to go biking on the tandem, but when we got there, we realized that it had a flat tire. So, the whole thing was kind of a bust. I was bored, hot, miserable, and annoyed. I was pretty sure after that I’d never volunteer to camp again, particularly with a small child.

Then a few weeks ago, we drove up into the mountains to the north of Naples. It was really beautiful. We had a picnic on this perfectly blue mountain lake. It was awesome. On the drive home through the national forest, we saw some campsites. We briefly discussed the possibility of coming back to camp. One of those, “oh yeah, that’d be nice (you know, if camping wasn’t camping!)”.

In Naples we live right on the coast with a gorgeous view of the sea. We enjoy the temperate climate provided by that sea breeze, but we don’t get the dramatic seasons I’ve always loved stateside. I’ve missed my favorite season–fall. I love to see red and yellow leaves glistening on trees or hear them crunching underfoot. I love the brisk breeze–that tangible change in the air. So, while waxing romantic about fall, I managed to convince myself that we should go camping up in the mountains and actually get to experience fall weather and scenery.

I should have just made it a day trip.

Don’t I know myself better than to think I would enjoy camping? Well, I had a positive attitude, and everything was going pretty well. The campground was really pretty with open space for Alex to ride his bike. We got a nice fire going and cooked our dinner. It was colder than we expected though. I’d packed warm clothes, but I was still chilly. Brian only had short sleeves, having forgotten to pack his fleece or jacket. But he’s not one to complain.

I packed a couple of bottles of wine hoping to facilitate the process of falling asleep on the hard ground. But all that did was keep me from being able to bail in the middle of the night like I wanted to. We tried to put Alex to bed before us in hopes of him falling asleep before we got in there. He sleeps alone at home. He’s never slept in our bed. So, trying to get him to go to sleep with anyone else around is virtually impossible.

So there we are sitting at the fire, sipping wine, and listening to Alex chatter away in the tent. (Did I mention that the rental place gave us a tent for 6? Yeah, can we say “romper-room”?!) Next thing I know, I see a foot sticking out of the zippered doorway. “Alex, go lay down!” A bit later, a head and two arms…he was attempting to crawl out through the bottom edge of the doorway, where it was unzipped. He’s clearly not interested in laying down and going to sleep, despite the fact that he only had a 40 minute nap earlier in the day.

So, I got him out and he sat with me by the fire until we finished our wine and were ready for bed (in hindsight perhaps I was sharing my wine with the wrong guy). We all got under our blankets in the tent, at which point, romper-room resumed. OMG. I tried everything to get that kid to lay down. Finally I gave up and left him to his father. I went out to the car and laid the seat down and attempted to sleep. It was actually much warmer in the car. I heard Alex carrying on for a long time after. I think I dozed off a bit. I awoke and it was quiet, so I figured he’d finally fallen asleep, at which point I started to worry. (This is what you do as a mom–when it’s quiet, you worry.) Well, I know that Brian is a very heavy sleeper and I could just see him rolling over onto Alex or just hogging all the covers and my baby freezing. And I couldn’t have that, so back into the tent I went.

Sure enough, there he was sleeping soundly with absolutely no covers. The poor child. His face was buried in his stuffed bear. This was not Brian’s fault, of course. Alex just would not stay put under the covers. So, I covered him up and laid down with them. I was freezing. I kept trying to snuggle up to Brian, but laying on my side was painful due to the aforementioned hard-ass-ground. We don’t have any of our camping gear here. It’s all in the states in storage. So, I packed a couple of down duvets, sheets, and a blanket. I put the larger duvet underneath us thinking it would pad the ground a bit. It was a futile effort. Nothing short of a Sealy Perfect Sleeper would have made that ground soft.

I tossed. I turned. I tried to sleep. I listened to the traffic on the road, which was surprisingly frequent for the middle of the night in a national park. Two or three times, cars pulled into the campground and circled around. I could not sleep. Also, there were cows. Yes, cows. This is Europe. There are no predators in the forests, only cows and sheep. The cows wear bells, so you hear them walking around “clang, clang”. And they moo. Or maybe I should say they bray. Something like “heh, heh, heh, heh, heeeeehhh”. It sounded like they were in pain. At one point a cow may have gotten into the campground, because a dog started barking and freaking out over near where the cow-screaming-sounds were coming from.

Then about midnight, or so it seemed in my mind, a camper pulled in, headlights blaring, and parked right across from our tent. There were 3 other campers at the campground–2 British, and one German. I said to myself, these people are Italian. They have to be. No one else would pull up to a campground at midnight and then park that close to other people. Italians like to be close to other people (witness traffic here). Sure enough, the morning light verified the Italian license plate, though of course, not the people, as they were sleeping soundly until long after we had departed, I’m sure.

Alex was up at the break of day, which in the mountains may have been as late as 6:30am. I had managed to get a couple hours of sleep in between tossing and turning and naming the screaming cows. But I was in pretty rough shape that morning. I had a serious kink in my back and I was still cold, of course, and tired. I am clearly too old to sleep on the ground.

That will most likely be our last camping trip as a family. I prefer hotels with good mattresses and high thread count sheets. Maybe with a view of the mountains?

Life is good. And so was the delicious pasta salad that I’m eating in the photo above! So for you, my friends, a picnic or boat day friendly recipe:

Kickin’ Pasta Salad

8oz small dried whole wheat pasta (I used Ditali)
1 – 15oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
6 sundried tomato halves
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
2 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted
generous amount of fresh ground pepper and sea salt

Cook pasta to al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. If you are using dry packed sundried tomatoes, as opposed to oil-packed, the chop them up into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces and add to the boiling pasta for the last minute. To toast pine nuts, place in a dry skillet over medium heat until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, mix oil, vinegar, basil, red pepper, salt, and pepper. Add chickpeas, pine nuts, and pasta. Toss well to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The vinegar has a strong flavor at first, but after marinating overnight, it was perfect! I used approximately 1 tsp of crushed red pepper, (but of course I didn’t actually measure) and it definitely had a kick. If you don’t like much spice, use a 1/2 tsp instead.

Buon Appetito!

After a couple of gluttonous months, I’ve been feeling a little…er…fluffy. Hmm. Less than toned, shall we say? We’ve had visitors off and on since May, which means we have been eating out much more than normal. And as I’ve mentioned before, I fell off the running bandwagon, got amnesia, and forgot that I have to run in order to eat whatever I want. The scale hasn’t really moved much, but I can tell by the way I feel that I need to readjust.

I thought about joining WeightWatchers online. I have had success with that in the past. But really, I know what I need to do–eat more fruits and veggies and less pasta and bread and dairy. I just need the motivation to do so. So, last week, I re-read Skinny Bitch. I read this book years ago and loved it then. Before we moved to Italy, I was near vegan. I’ve never really been a huge fan of dairy products, except for cheese on my pizza. I drank soy milk in my morning mocha and probably only had cheese in our dinner once or twice a week.

Here it seems like I have been eating gobs of dairy products–a cappuccino (or three) every day, pizza at least once a week, pastas with cream sauce or cheese…the list goes on. And I have not been feeling very healthy from it. No surprises there, dairy isn’t very healthy. Reading Skinny Bitch again reminded me that dairy is, in fact, addictive, and is, in fact, crappy for your body. Even if you buy organic dairy, it is still addictive and fattening. I’ve been feeling the need to cut down on dairy for awhile now. My little soul voice has really been hounding me about it. I’ve just been lazy and ignoring it. It is hard to break an addiction after all. And I tend to be an addictive eater anyway…I love food and I sometimes eat out of boredom or to cheer myself up. It is a wonder I haven’t developed a serious weight problem.

The authors of the book suggest cutting out all dairy for 30 days before you allow yourself to be tempted again (also, all meat, but I’m already vegetarian). I tried the cold turkey thing at New Years, but wasn’t prepared and failed miserably. I also didn’t have much support with Brian making fun of me and asking me why in the world I’d want to give up dairy in Italy?! Yeah, well, it comes down to this: I don’t feel good. I want to feel healthy. But knowing I’m an addict, I didn’t want to go cold turkey again. A month or so ago, I found a bunch of vegan dinner recipes and began incorporating those into our monthly dinner plan. That has helped me be less reliant on quick cheese-based meals. So, I focused on just having vegan meals for dinner, but still enjoyed my cappuccino for breakfast and sometimes cheese at lunch.

So, now I’m down to one cappuccino in the morning and no other dairy. It’s good. I haven’t really craved any dairy, and I’ve made some great new recipes. And honestly…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but…my cappuccino didn’t even taste that good the past two mornings. So, I may be able to break that habit sooner than I thought.

I know cutting out the dairy will be great for my health and my weight…but I still have to look at the rest of my food consumption. I’m the kind of girl who is perfectly content to have a muffin for breakfast, a sandwich or wrap for lunch and pasta for dinner…carbs, carbs, carbs. First of all, let’s make no mistake, whole grain complex carbs are GOOD FOR YOU! Okay? This ain’t no carb bashin’! But alas, what our bodies need is lots of fruit and veggies along with those carbs. And I have a nasty habit of ignoring that, more so the fruit than the veggies. So, one thing that is already helping me in this first week of adjustment since reading Skinny Bitch is their suggestion to have only fruit for breakfast. First of all, I’m not really a big fan of fruit. But lucky me to be in Italy during peach season! I have discovered that I do actually like fruit, when it is fresh, local, and in season…something you rarely find in supermarkets stateside. ANYway…they suggest having fruit first thing in the morning because fruit is so easily digestible when eaten alone on an empty stomach.

What I have found is that it sets me up to eat less throughout the day. I don’t eat anything until I actually feel hungry. Then I have a piece of fruit. Then when I’m hungry again, I’ll have my cappuccino. Then when I’m hungry again, lunch (usually around 11am). By limiting the amount of food I eat at one time, I’m both shrinking my stomach capacity and boosting my metabolism. After only a couple of days, I noticed that what I would normally eat for dinner felt like too much. I was uncomfortable. That’s a good thing! Well, not that I overate, but that my “normal” amount felt like overeating. I’m reseting my internal gauges. That’s key to eating less without feeling deprived. So, I’m feeling better already! Viva vegan!

Last week I started reading Vegetable, Animal, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It was so good I even took it to Istanbul with me. And yes, I had time for reading while there. Traveling with a toddler is very different than on your own. Naptime is mandatory. So, while he napped, I napped a bit, then read.

The book is the story of one family’s decision to eat locally for a year. They planned to feed themselves from their own garden, local farms, and the farmers’ market. This means no bananas from South America, no apples from New Zealand. Do you know where your food comes from? If you are like me, you probably never really thought about it.

I have thought about it insofar as to say that while living in St. Louis it was more important to me to eat organic food than local food. This is because of Monsanto, of course. In that neighborhood, if it isn’t organically certified it’s probably genetically modified. But anyway. That was as far as I thought about the issue.

Fast forward to 2010: I’m living in Italy. I buy a lot of my food locally, all my produce for sure. But I’m still making these mammoth shopping trips to the base once a month for “staples.” Staples, really? Are they really staples if people here don’t buy them? Well, partly it is a financial thing, with some foods being cheaper. Partly it is familiarity, not having to figure out what is the local equivalent. Very little of it is truly unavailable here. I’ve just been lazy.

In reading this book I realized the true price of my laziness. Not only does going shopping at the base stress me out and leave me in an ill mood, it also costs enormous resources, both in fossil fuels and tax dollars. That food is mostly priced the same here as in the states. In reality it is much more expensive for having been shipped overseas. Who pays the difference? The tax payer, of course. This was all the motivation I needed to kill those monthly trips. Truth be told, I can live without cheddar cheese. And that is about the only thing that is truly unavailable at the local stores.

So, I feel kind of stupid. I mean I know I’m only human, and we are all notoriously naive about all sorts of things. But one of my motivations for being vegetarian is caring about our planet and being opposed to factory farming. Meat is definitely the big boy when it comes to detrimental farming practices, but shipping regular food staples all over the planet instead of getting them locally is just as bad for the environment. So, I am confessing my idiocy and pledging to do better.

The book talks about how detached we have become from our food sources. We, as Americans, have no idea where our food comes from or when it is in season. If you actually buy fresh fruit and vegetables and not all processed crap, you are that much closer to your food, but still. You probably buy South American bananas every week, not just as an occasional treat. I have heard stories from when our parents were small about getting citrus fruit for christmas. This sounded crazy to me. (Fruit? What about toys?) But winter is citrus season in the US, so it makes sense. It was a winter treat. The fact that we now have bags of oranges year round isn’t natural.

Moving here, I have been so amazed by how good everything tastes. I thought it was the volcanic soil, but now I realize it is the difference in eating with the seasons. I bought fresh cherries today that are just to die for! I hated cherries in the states because I’d never tried any that were good, probably because they didn’t grow near where I lived. Same for sweet peppers. We have the most amazing red and yellow peppers here. They really are “sweet” peppers, not bitter like the ones you buy in American supermarkets.

I love good food. In my opinion, life is simply too short to eat food that doesn’t taste good. We aren’t designed to eat food that doesn’t taste good. Factory farmed food that has been shipped halfway across the country started out with less flavor and then lost what it did have in shipping. In nature, flavor equals nutrition. When you detox from processed crap and start eating real food, you realize your body craves certain flavors based on what nutrients you need. Your body craves heavier food in the winter to keep warm and lighter food in the summer when it is hot. Your body knows what it is doing.

Not only have we forgotten where our food comes from and when it naturally appears, but we have also forgotten what to do with it. What do you do in January or February when (you don’t live in southern Italy and) there isn’t fresh produce? You eat the food you preserved in the summer when it was abundant. Preserving food is a lost art. I have a date with my mother-in-law for sometime in the future when we are stateside to show me how to can food. Even if you don’t have your own garden, you can go to the farmers’ market and buy a boatload of whatever is in season and put it away in bags in your freezer or canned in the basement. Don’t think you have space? Stop buying things in cardboard boxes and you’ll find you have more space in your freezer (and probably more dollars in your wallet).

While living here, I will continue to eat whatever is available at the market whenever it is available, rather than trying to preserve things. I don’t think there was any point this winter that we didn’t have relatively local produce at the corner market. Sometimes from Sicily, but that is still pretty close. But whenever we move back to the states, I will certainly be planning ahead for winter when produce is not available locally. This week I’ll be venturing out locally to see if I can’t check off the items on my shopping list without wasting all those resources. It’s just one more thing I can do to make the world a better place. Every little bit helps!

My last post was kind of whiny. I really don’t have much to complain about. Living in Italy rocks. I guess I just get a little bored sometimes. I feel like all I am is a mom since that is how I spend most of my time. But that is only a part of who I am, not the totality. My darling husband was kind enough to point out to me what I already know–that I’m not doing “nothing” over here. I’m actually doing quite a lot to grow and develop myself during this quiet time in my life. I’ve been making art, and improving at making art. I’ve been reading a ton, both classics and personal development books. I’m constantly self reflecting and searching for how I can be the best “me” possible. It’s just a quiet kind of work. And so sometimes I need to make a little noise.

Living here has shown me so many new things about how I want to live. Even if I went back to St. Louis tomorrow, I’d live a very different lifestyle than I did before. It is amazing how much a person can change in a year. There have been a few pivotal times for me. I think my senior year in high school and the transition to freshman year in college changed me enormously. Then, going out into the real world and working pushed me out of certain comfort zones. The year Brian spent in Iraq did, too. But moving here has surpassed even both of those, simply because I’ve nothing to distract me from myself. That can be intense at times. There are highs and lows, but I’m growing everyday…growing closer to being Who I Really Am.

Sunday we took a day trip down the Sorrentine Peninsula to the town of Ravello. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, up crazy winding roads. The biosphere is so different there! It actually looks like fall! We have olive trees, pines, and palms here on the coast, so not too much has changed. It was nice to see some fall beauty. It has always been my favorite time of year. Alex was great. He slept on the way there and on the way back home. Yay! No screaming car companions!

Ravello itself is perched up on a very steep mountainside over the Amalfi Coast. It was really beautiful up there. The views were stunning. We have the long-view from our house in Monte di Procida, we see endless ocean, islands, etc. This was pretty in a different way, as you are looking out at the coast below and the mountains alongside.

There is a big garden/ancient villa there, but we decided not to visit, as it would have been 20 euro. We figured it would be better to save that for when the garden is at its peak in Summer. So we just walked around and explored. We walked up a narrow winding road (alley) all the way to the top edge of town. We talked to some locals, two old guys who wanted to pinch Alex. Then they wanted to talk about soccer. The one guy said something to the effect of Italy and Brazil having the best teams in the world. I wouldn’t know.

Alex chased birds in the piazza. We saw no other Americans, a few Italian tourists from Naples, likely, but otherwise it appeared to be mostly locals. We had a nice cheap lunch at a trattoria where the Nonna (grandma) was doing the cooking. We were ordering our plates from the guy who was probably her son. I ordered bean soup for me, fusilli with tomato sauce for Alex. Meanwhile, the Nonna brings out fettucini ragu for Alex. The guy says, “no fusilli for him, he get ragu.” Okay. So, then Brian orders baked macaroni. The guy says, “you like some pasta with zucchini and smoked mozzarella.” Okay. I was the only one to get what I ordered! But it was all very good. And a very good deal at 20 euro. Nonna took a liking to Alex, brought him two clementines to take with us. Then while I was waiting on the check, she brought two tiny slices of chocolate cake for us, just a taste. She was so sweet. I love being spoiled in Italy!