Having just returned from a trip in which Ms. Planet met with her collaborators in Italy, the brain is spinning with the plethora of information garnered during this time. This information was not merely “what we will do, when, why, by whom”, etc, but also the information that people like Ms. Planet tend to accumulate during any sort of visit to a new culture.
Ms. Planet thinks that the information may possibly be put into five general categories, off the top of her head, but, like The Spanish inquisition, this may bear recalculation as this post goes on. Hold on to your hats, readers!
Category 1: the food. The eating. The hospitality thing.
When Ms. Planet was a child, she could not eat enough noodles. Having been raised in a family with a germanic heritage, everything that was made of semolina and put into boiling water is a noodle. Sure there were different sizes, shapes, etc, but they were all “noodles”. “What kind of noodles do you want” was answered by “long and skinny, long and fat, long and flat, bow ties, macaroni, egg” and that was pretty much it. Ravioli was something that came in a can and was pretty disgusting. Ms. Planet went on to marry into a Sicilian/Irish family, with the Irish family being in another state and so the predominant culture was Sicilian. As a result, the Alpha Slacker and Wanderlustette would answer the question with large words generally ending in a vowel, like “fettucini, ziti, spaghetti, cappelini, farfalle, gnochi, tortellini” usw (at the bottom of the page is an excellent reference tool for figuring out these pasta names). Of course, Ms. Planet had no idea what these were but even then she had some capacity for learning. After the birth of Wanderlustette, Ms. Planet was not so keen on noodles. Wanderlustette got all of that craving and continues to this day to love love love pasta.
On to the present. Italy. There is the appetizer course, the noodle — ok, pasta, just for the sake of my kind Italian colleagues — course, the main course, the desert course and of course, the coffee course. So there was a lot of pasta eaten during this trip. Homemade for lunch with pesto, the long sort of fat stuff — maybe officially called spaghettoni. Made German style with spinach and cheese (spaetzle — which Ms. Panet really enjoyed, actually). Stuffed with stuff for dinner (ravioli). The totally oddball thing about all of this is that once Ms Planet returned home, the next day she made pasta (five colored capunti ortolano, actually, recipe might be forthcoming here or on facebook).
Dinner time was a two hour + affair. Lots of talking, no hurry between courses, not a lot of food for each course but always enough to be full. On the last night, the Collaborator treated to a local, organic-based, vegan/vegetarian Slow Food affiliated place. Ms Planet made the mistake of saying she was “really hungry” (she was) but that added a course and whoa. Too much food. Amazing, delicious food — except, to be honest, she is not a fan of cooked radish. Things to learn. Really loved these stuffed ravioli with asiago and mushroom and on a small swathe of pumpkin sauce. The welcome taste of prosecco, poured as a welcome and provided with bread or breadsticks, was a nice touch. Even though the ability to read a menu in Italian is something Ms. Planet is somewhat adept, it was much nicer and easier to let the host pick the food. With the exception of the radish, this worked out well in all cases!
Category 2: Italian.
Medical background can be a bonus. Destro and Sinister come to mind as immediately useful directive words. Grazie, Prego, and Alora (sic) are nice to know. Other than that, as with many languages in this ex-linguists history, the written word is generally easier to follow than the spoken.
Category 3: the research
So much potential! That’s all for now. See the professional page for more details, if and when they are posted (thegreattomatowoman.com).
Category 4: Sleep
Not much of that going on. As my readers know, Ms Planet has an issue with being awake in the dark. Ms. Planet also has a general fear of sleeping through alarms. The days started at 7 am and ended back at the hotel just an hour shy of midnight. Ms. Planet loves to sleep on airplanes heading home!!!
Category 5: the bidet.
What sort of post on a culture that uses this would be complete without at least a brief reference! Ms. Planet has decided this is really cool. Why not have a sink for cleaning up one’s nether regions post-business? She will admit that she avoided the need for such an item except for the hotel where she could experiment with water pressure in the privacy of her own “home”.
There are other things just flying around in the mind of the Planet Lady, but frankly, she is tired of sitting in front of a computer and may, perhaps, return to this post and add additional information.
Alora!
http://www.charmingitaly.com/images/what-kind-of-pasta.jpg
