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| Our waiter's shirt |
At 12:20am we started the antipasti with olives, provola, fried mozzarella, crocchette, salami, and prosciutto.
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| We had wine too! |
Overall, it was a fun experience and it made that much more fun being with a group of people.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Trattoria Nennella
Last night, I went out with the group, there were 10 of us. We went to a typical Neapolitan restaurant called "Trattoria Nennella." It is located away from the main road in a small alley. It is well known by the locals for serving traditional Neapolitan food as well as being insulted by the waiters. They only speak the Neapolitan language too. Although, our waiter spoke a few words in English to me :)
There were many people at the restaurant. Very popular! We arrived in two cars. The first car got there probably 30-40 minutes before we did to put our name down for a table. We arrived around 11. We didn't sit down until around 12. In the mean time though, there was a wine shop next to the restaurant and we got wine to hold us over until we sat down. :)
At 12:20am we started the antipasti with olives, provola, fried mozzarella, crocchette, salami, and prosciutto.
Then we started on the first course, pasta. There were no menus. Only 3 selections to choose from. Pasta with potatoes and provola, pasta with seafood, or pasta and tomatoes. I had the pasta with potatoes and provola. I was told it is a traditional Neapolitan dish. I also can tell that this dish is definitely a comfort food dish. I think I have to add it to my comfort food list!
Afterwards, there was a second course, but I was too full to eat anything. Others ate pork, sausage and french fries. But, I noticed they squeezed lemon on to the meat. I was partially shocked because I had never seen that before, only on fish. Interesting.
After the meat comes the fruit. But, for some reason the fruit bowl was not in a fruit bowl but a plastic smaller version of a toilet bowl. We were all full but they insisted in showing me how they prepare the banana. If you think about it, you can probably figure out what they do with a banana. They wanted me to post the video so here it is.
Overall, it was a fun experience and it made that much more fun being with a group of people.
At 12:20am we started the antipasti with olives, provola, fried mozzarella, crocchette, salami, and prosciutto.
Overall, it was a fun experience and it made that much more fun being with a group of people.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
FORZA NAPOLI
Last night, I had another first. I went to my first soccer match ever! Amazing, I know! I went to Naples' San Paolo Stadium to watch Naples play against A.C. Siena in the Semi-Final match of the Italian championship. I will tell you now that Naples won 2-0. Forza Napoli!
I am not a true fan by any means but last night I was a Naples fan. I was excited for days leading up to this game. I told everyone I knew that I was going to the game. Most people were very excited for me as well, I even had one of my teen classes clapping and cheering for me like I had won the golden ticket!
I left after work with my friends and headed for the game. Everyone said that there would be traffic and we would miss part of the game but luckily for me, my friend took the long way around and avoided most of the traffic. When we arrived I asked where we were going to park. They said it was difficult. But, then I heard a phone conversation that proved otherwise. And sure enough, my friends have connections and we had a parking spot waiting for us. We parked and walked quickly to the stadium (I jogged). :) I told my friends I wanted to buy something of the team Napoli. They suggested a scarf. So I bought a scarf for 5 Euro. In America, any form of memorabilia would cost significantly more! We continued on our way and made it to the stadium but we had to wait in line to enter. We waited about 10 minutes and then made our way inside the stadium. I could hear the music playing and the crowd going crazy. I was so excited!!! We found our seats and sat down. The first thing I noticed was that everywhere I looked I saw blue, light blue (Naples colors). I didn't see any other colors. I thought where is Siena's fans? Finally, I spotted them. There were only a few of them. I'd say less than 100 people. Whereas, the rest of the stadium was filled with Napoli fans (around 60-65,000 people). Chants started and the noise never ceased.
What I enjoyed most about this experience was learning the culture behind the sport. At the stadium, thousands and thousands of people were there but not of one particular age group. All ages were proudly represented. From the grandparents all the way down to the little toddlers. And never did anyone miss a beat. If the crowd stood up during a chant, everyone stood up. Everyone participated. Children were fun to watch. They would randomly stand up and cheer not knowing if there was actually anything going on. I learned that they like to yell "SCEMO"which means stupid. Also when someone makes a goal, the crowd cheers their name. I didn't realize this until later when I realized that there was a player with the same last name as the cheer they yell when they make a goal. I thought it was just a cheer they say when they get a goal. And the same player made the goal twice so I didn't think anything of it. If a different player made the goal then I would have figured it out, I hope! ; )
I learned about their food culture too. At the stadium, there isn't food vendors inside the stadium like in America. There are a few guys who walk around and sell boxes of crackers and coke, but there aren't booths or places to go for something to eat. Instead, all the people bring sandwiches with them and eat either before the game or during halftime. When my friends busted out the sandwiches at halftime, I looked around us and many other people were pulling out sandwiches that looked very similar to ours. Outside of the stadium there are vendors with food but inside there was nothing. I enjoyed the experience very much especially because you didn't have people constantly getting up and down to get food like in America. People brought their own sandwiches and own drinks.
I noticed there wasn't a scoreboard anywhere within the stadium. I guess it is a good thing they don't score that often otherwise it would be difficult to follow. But, I enjoyed not having the scoreboard. Sometimes the scoreboards distract me and I watch it instead of watching the actual game. Instead, I was able to watch the game, follow the ball and watch the players. I was also able to look around the stadium and admire all the flags, scarves and chants. They even had a guy screaming into a megaphone to get the crowd going. One section of the stadium kept setting off a form of a firework, so smoke kept filling up that area. And, as each goal was scored the crowd went wild. Everyone was screaming and cheering! It was fun sharing that joyous moment with everyone.
After the game, we made our way back to the car and went to a cafe to meet up with the rest of the group. We sat and talked for a little bit then headed back home. I was exhausted but had a wonderful time. I was worried that today I wouldn't have a voice from screaming during the game. I kept saying "GO, GO, GO!"- I figured they understood some English :) Thank you to all for taking me to the game and letting me experience another first!
Forza Napoli!
I am not a true fan by any means but last night I was a Naples fan. I was excited for days leading up to this game. I told everyone I knew that I was going to the game. Most people were very excited for me as well, I even had one of my teen classes clapping and cheering for me like I had won the golden ticket!
I left after work with my friends and headed for the game. Everyone said that there would be traffic and we would miss part of the game but luckily for me, my friend took the long way around and avoided most of the traffic. When we arrived I asked where we were going to park. They said it was difficult. But, then I heard a phone conversation that proved otherwise. And sure enough, my friends have connections and we had a parking spot waiting for us. We parked and walked quickly to the stadium (I jogged). :) I told my friends I wanted to buy something of the team Napoli. They suggested a scarf. So I bought a scarf for 5 Euro. In America, any form of memorabilia would cost significantly more! We continued on our way and made it to the stadium but we had to wait in line to enter. We waited about 10 minutes and then made our way inside the stadium. I could hear the music playing and the crowd going crazy. I was so excited!!! We found our seats and sat down. The first thing I noticed was that everywhere I looked I saw blue, light blue (Naples colors). I didn't see any other colors. I thought where is Siena's fans? Finally, I spotted them. There were only a few of them. I'd say less than 100 people. Whereas, the rest of the stadium was filled with Napoli fans (around 60-65,000 people). Chants started and the noise never ceased.
What I enjoyed most about this experience was learning the culture behind the sport. At the stadium, thousands and thousands of people were there but not of one particular age group. All ages were proudly represented. From the grandparents all the way down to the little toddlers. And never did anyone miss a beat. If the crowd stood up during a chant, everyone stood up. Everyone participated. Children were fun to watch. They would randomly stand up and cheer not knowing if there was actually anything going on. I learned that they like to yell "SCEMO"which means stupid. Also when someone makes a goal, the crowd cheers their name. I didn't realize this until later when I realized that there was a player with the same last name as the cheer they yell when they make a goal. I thought it was just a cheer they say when they get a goal. And the same player made the goal twice so I didn't think anything of it. If a different player made the goal then I would have figured it out, I hope! ; )
I learned about their food culture too. At the stadium, there isn't food vendors inside the stadium like in America. There are a few guys who walk around and sell boxes of crackers and coke, but there aren't booths or places to go for something to eat. Instead, all the people bring sandwiches with them and eat either before the game or during halftime. When my friends busted out the sandwiches at halftime, I looked around us and many other people were pulling out sandwiches that looked very similar to ours. Outside of the stadium there are vendors with food but inside there was nothing. I enjoyed the experience very much especially because you didn't have people constantly getting up and down to get food like in America. People brought their own sandwiches and own drinks.
I noticed there wasn't a scoreboard anywhere within the stadium. I guess it is a good thing they don't score that often otherwise it would be difficult to follow. But, I enjoyed not having the scoreboard. Sometimes the scoreboards distract me and I watch it instead of watching the actual game. Instead, I was able to watch the game, follow the ball and watch the players. I was also able to look around the stadium and admire all the flags, scarves and chants. They even had a guy screaming into a megaphone to get the crowd going. One section of the stadium kept setting off a form of a firework, so smoke kept filling up that area. And, as each goal was scored the crowd went wild. Everyone was screaming and cheering! It was fun sharing that joyous moment with everyone.
After the game, we made our way back to the car and went to a cafe to meet up with the rest of the group. We sat and talked for a little bit then headed back home. I was exhausted but had a wonderful time. I was worried that today I wouldn't have a voice from screaming during the game. I kept saying "GO, GO, GO!"- I figured they understood some English :) Thank you to all for taking me to the game and letting me experience another first!
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| Doesn't it look like something is on fire! No, it's just fireworks... |
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| Can you see the megaphone? They mean business! |
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| He is one of the younger fans... :) |
Sunday, March 18, 2012
My first visit to Salerno
Today I went with another student to Salerno. I had never been to Salerno before and she was meeting her friends and asked if I wanted to join her. We had a great day! I will tell you all about it! :)
We left around 11:20am. It took us about 1 hour to get there. As we started to drive towards the city I started to get excited because I could tell that I was going to like this place. I saw the sea and I was very happy! I love the sea, well I love water! We met my student's friends and decided to go and eat near the sea but not right on the water. We made reservations at the restaurant and then went across the street to the Villa, I think, which is a beautiful park filled with many plants and flowers. It was a beautiful day to be there. The sun was shining and everyone I saw had a smile on their face. In the park, there were the older gentlemen talking amongst each other, children playing, and others meeting and conversing in a wonderful atmosphere. I enjoyed walking around and taking pictures. It was quite relaxing. I love parks though :)
After the park we walked back across the street and ate outside at the restaurant. We were starting to figure out what to order when I had to drop the bomb on everyone that I don't eat fish. You could tell just looking at their faces like "omg, what are we going to do..." but I always can find something to eat. It is just a shame because if I had liked it, I would have been able to eat fresh and delicious fish and seafood since we were next to the sea...Anyways, I had pasta with zucchini and provola (smoked mozzarella). And for an antipasti we had fried zucchini, croquet, bread, calzone with ricotta inside, mozzarella, etc.
After our meal, we walked to the sea. It was beautiful. It was hot! The sun was out and the temperature was high! We walked along the coast before stopping for some delicious gelato! It was a popular place! It was packed. When we got there they were on order number 1 and we were order number 31! The line went fairly quickly and we got our gelato. It was my first gelato since the fall when it was still fairly warm outside.
We continued on our way and met back up with some of the friends. We then went separate ways and we headed for the historic area of Salerno. It is very quaint and cute. All the streets are cobblestone and there are little alleys everywhere with the classic Italian look. I kept pinching myself because I thought, Angela, you are on vacation, but wait... no! Angela, you LIVE here! I have small cute alleys at my disposal all the time! But, it didn't stop me from taking millions of pictures though :) I saw one alley go up a little hill and I saw steps. My student told me it was the Duomo. She asked if I wanted to go and I said sure. It was beautiful. And we got there just in time, mass had started. I felt my mother would be glad I got to church today.
Afterwards, we were both quite tired from walking all day that we decided to sit in a little cafe and have something to drink before we headed back home. At first I saw all the options for tea and I got overwhelmed with the choices, then I saw the hot chocolate list and felt like I was in heaven. I went for the white chocolate with amaretto. The hot chocolate here is nothing like the hot chocolate in America. Instead this was more like pudding. It was still delicious though :) Afterwards, we played a game with sticks, they called it Shanghai but I think we call it something different in America. The objective of the game is to get as many sticks without moving any of the others. Then we took out the fortune telling cards and looked into our fortunes...Everything seemed to be positive :)
We left the cafe and started walking towards the car. But on our route back, I saw a bookstore and asked to go in it. I have run out of books to read and thought I could use a book to read at night. We went downstairs to the English section of books. I saw Eat, Pray, Love but I bought it this summer and left it home because I didn't have room for it in my suitcase. I scanned to another book. It sounded interesting. I read the back and realized it was the sequel. So then I found the first one. The second one sounded funnier but I didn't want to buy the second and be confused so I grabbed the first one as well. When I went to the cassa to pay, the lady behind the counter asked me if I wanted to buy an Italian cookbook for 3.90 euro. I said what the heck, yes! I love cookbooks and it is only 4 euro, I'll take it! So what ended up being a one book deal ended up being 3 books. What can I say, I find bargains :)
I am now home and exhausted from such a wonderful day in Salerno. On the way home, my student asked me if I was tired and I said yes. But I explained that it was a good tiredness. It was a tiredness created from exploring the city as well as the heat and sun that shone on us all day, something we longed for all winter! Again, as I stated in my previous post, spring is here and I am very very happy! And everyone else seems to be as well! We also saw fireworks on the way home! Happy Spring! Thank you again for such a wonderful day!
We left around 11:20am. It took us about 1 hour to get there. As we started to drive towards the city I started to get excited because I could tell that I was going to like this place. I saw the sea and I was very happy! I love the sea, well I love water! We met my student's friends and decided to go and eat near the sea but not right on the water. We made reservations at the restaurant and then went across the street to the Villa, I think, which is a beautiful park filled with many plants and flowers. It was a beautiful day to be there. The sun was shining and everyone I saw had a smile on their face. In the park, there were the older gentlemen talking amongst each other, children playing, and others meeting and conversing in a wonderful atmosphere. I enjoyed walking around and taking pictures. It was quite relaxing. I love parks though :)
After the park we walked back across the street and ate outside at the restaurant. We were starting to figure out what to order when I had to drop the bomb on everyone that I don't eat fish. You could tell just looking at their faces like "omg, what are we going to do..." but I always can find something to eat. It is just a shame because if I had liked it, I would have been able to eat fresh and delicious fish and seafood since we were next to the sea...Anyways, I had pasta with zucchini and provola (smoked mozzarella). And for an antipasti we had fried zucchini, croquet, bread, calzone with ricotta inside, mozzarella, etc.
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| Fruit of the Sea Pasta dish |
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| My pasta dish- zucchini e provola |
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| Some fish pasta dish |
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| The gelateria we went to for gelato |
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| They had 36 flavors! |
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| noccella e bacio bianco |
After eating the gelato, we continued walking. We passed many people. Old couples, young couples, middle aged couples, children from all ages, and many dogs! We passed people selling sunglasses, toys for the children, musicians, and a Mickey Mouse look alike even though it looked nothing like him :) I took many pictures. On our way back we also saw a train and a puppet show featuring the pulcinella. When I saw the puppet show, I ran towards it like a little kid. I wanted to see it and take pictures. I even pushed and shoved my way through so I could get a good view to take pictures :) After I got the pictures the show finished, so perfect timing! We continued on our way and I heard a loud "SQUAWK, SQUAWK." I thought immediately, "What is wrong with them (the seagulls), they sound awful, it sounds like they are trying to stop a wedding. Where is Ariel???" Yes folks, the first thing I thought of when I heard a seagull squawk is the when the animals are trying to stop the wedding of Prince Eric to Ursula in the Little Mermaid. Maybe a little too much Disney? Nah, :)
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| A market next to the marina |
We continued on our way and met back up with some of the friends. We then went separate ways and we headed for the historic area of Salerno. It is very quaint and cute. All the streets are cobblestone and there are little alleys everywhere with the classic Italian look. I kept pinching myself because I thought, Angela, you are on vacation, but wait... no! Angela, you LIVE here! I have small cute alleys at my disposal all the time! But, it didn't stop me from taking millions of pictures though :) I saw one alley go up a little hill and I saw steps. My student told me it was the Duomo. She asked if I wanted to go and I said sure. It was beautiful. And we got there just in time, mass had started. I felt my mother would be glad I got to church today.
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| A shop window with Easter gifts |
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| American and British flags have become popular in fashion here and this is just one example... |
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| My books :) |
I am now home and exhausted from such a wonderful day in Salerno. On the way home, my student asked me if I was tired and I said yes. But I explained that it was a good tiredness. It was a tiredness created from exploring the city as well as the heat and sun that shone on us all day, something we longed for all winter! Again, as I stated in my previous post, spring is here and I am very very happy! And everyone else seems to be as well! We also saw fireworks on the way home! Happy Spring! Thank you again for such a wonderful day!
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