Ready for the weekend!

Amici, state bene? I hope so!

Today is Friday in Italy, and it looks like the markets have taken another big tumble in the States, and for that matter elsewhere in the world. Without having followed the chaos closely, I am not qualified to make any intelligent comments, but, what I can do is report on what is happening in Bologna.

I thought this was a nice picture of the street located near my language school. You can see that the leaves are starting to change, though it has been quite warm the past week. The little stand with the green awning is a flower shop, where I bought a few bouquets for the teachers today since it was our last day of class. They really treated me well and I am sure that they work for very little, so I wanted to get them something to say thanks....they were very grateful.

I really enjoyed my little class, meeting the other students and teachers, so to put an end to this brief chapter was bittersweet. I feel like I learned quite a bit of Italian and am definitely glad to have taken the one month course. For the remainder of my stay, I think it will be a question of practicing and learning more vocabulary since we covered most of the grammar. Fortunately, there will be plenty of time to practice!

Other than that, no huge plans for the weekend. Tonight, I am going to meet up with Mario, my Colombian classmate, with whom I may also travel a bit later during my stay.

We will probably grab a beer or three and see what is going on. My main partner in crime, Francesco, is out of town, visiting a friend in Ireland until Sunday. In any case, we may also meet up with Alessandro and some of the other Siciliani.

Tomorrow is Stefano's 30th birthday, and he has invited 50 of his closest friends over for dinner and drinks....should be a lot of fun and I will be sure to snap a few photos. Speaking of which....Stefano and I had lunch the other day, his treat, as I am helping him translate his web site from Italian to English.

Below is a close up of our dish, tagliatelle alla bolognese (meat sauce), the most typical and famous dish from Bologna, appearing in Italian restaurants throughout the world.

It was really good, especially when accompanied by a mezzo litro of vino rosso between the two of us (which, unfortunately did not make the translation easier). I was this close to having an espresso or two after lunch, but my previous afternoon espressi followed by sleepless nights reminded me why it was not such a good idea.

Other than that, my family arrives on Sunday and we will spend two days in Bologna before heading to the mountains. Sunday we will also see Adam's good friend Vittorio and his wife Chiara, who are driving from Vicenza to spend the afternoon with us.

Have a great weekend and we will be in touch........ciao!