TGIV....!

Ciao ragazzi!

What can I report? It is Friday here in Bologna, which means that it is also Friday in the United States.......good news for both of us.

The past few days, I have been...well, I guess I have been eating and drinking as ususal. Check out the photo of "Swinebar," a rather posh wine bar not far from my house...think the porcine reference is intentional?

The other night, I believe I mentioned that we were going to have a dinner party at Alessandro's house, which ended up being a lot of fun.

As it turns out, Franceco is an excellent chef, and, to start, prepared some gamberetti (shrimp) with zucchine which we ate with some rustic style bruschetta, as well as a sort of gamberetti ceviche, Italian style with lemon juice and olive oil. To follow, we had squid stuffed with mozzarella, which was tender and really tasty!

For me, the piece de resistance was the strazopetti with pesce di spada (swordfish). I'm not sure if I am getting the name of this pasta totally right, but it is kind of like a cross between a fusili and penne, and was cooked just perfectly (much more al dente than we are accustomed to in the States), and to tell you the truth, I am not even sure what was in the sauce, but it was definitely good enough for two large platefuls! We washed this all down with several bottles of white wine, among the eight or nine of us, and, to finish things off in the eating department, we had some gamberoni (prawns).

After a healthy shot of grappa di moscato, I was ready for beddy, to the chagrin of more than half of our group, who were off to a disco until the wee hours of the a.m.

For me, finishing dinner at 2:30 AM was a novelty and accomplishment in and of itself, considering I am often in bed by 11:00 PM in the States.

As for Tonight, I will probably head out with some of the Siciliani as well as Mario, a Colombian with whom I am studying. Oh yeah, almost forgot, a pic of the current students at Modern English (our scuola).....