All posts tagged: Italy

Bye Bye, Bra

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Both the Dean and the Spiritual President (definitely his official title) were out of town, so the guy on the right here (Michele Fino, a UNISG Food Law professor) made a joke about having to bring out the B team for the graduation. The guy on the left (Slow Food International Secretary General Paolo DiCroce) was not amused. I did it! I have a Master’s degree (in Food Culture and Communication with a focus in Representation, Meaning and Media) with a title almost as long as my undergraduate degree (International and Global Studies with focuses in Political Science, Latin America, and Spanish)! After wrapping up my internship commitments here in New York at Saveur and Food Tank, launching a personal website, starting a new stream of stories for Contemporary Food Lab, turning in my thesis (a blend of personal experience and theory), I embarked upon a much needed week (or two, let’s see) of resting priority-resetting (as well as immune system-resetting). This meant good, nourishing food (chestnut and pumpkin soup!), not waking up at 5:30 AM, spending leisurely afternoons and evening drinking …

June 2015: Part One

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Well, maybe this isn’t your idea of summer beach reads, but this selection very much reflects some of my current interests: writing, responsible meat consumption and the curious country that is Italy. Four years at a liberal arts college trained me to be a (very) speedy reader. While I no longer settle down with a big mug of coffee (fat chance finding one in Italy) to accompany 150 PDF pages about American foreign policy during the Cold War, I can cruise through a Kindle book (however many pages that actually is in the real world) in a few hours. My staycation so far has given me the opportunity to polish off four (yes, seriously) books. Here are some thoughts on what I’ve been reading as of late, in no particular order other than how I managed to sandwich the screenshot images together. Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott A stream-of-consciousness, hilarious, but also very sincere book about writing and life that has been sitting on my nightstand for a few months in the hope that I would pick it up rather than reading …

A Bureaucratic Triumph, Part 2

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All of the lights are green. All of the lights are green?!? Two months ago (give or take a few days, I’m not into math), I moved into my little appartamento in Bra. Today, I have internet. Seem crazy? Benvenuto in Italia! This process is so weirdly complicated that it comes up in conversation about as often as the weather. Just because it was such a long/windy/loopy road, as was the process of obtaining a residence permit, I thought I would, again, share with you all some highlights (really, more like lowlights) of this virtual journey. 1. You are informed by your chosen internet service provider that sometime, somehow, someday, you will receive a mysterious text message from the sky telling you (read: you do not get to choose) when an appointment will be scheduled for a technician to come to your house and install the modem. 2. Two weeks go by, nada. You go in the store and chastise this person who really is not responsible for the lag time but you do it anyway. Then …

Home for the Holidays

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The yearly “I really didn’t use a filter on this” Lake Tahoe photo. (Really, cross my heart.) So I made the journey home from Italy back to California/Nevada for three weeks of holiday break. But the funniest thing is that I can’t seem to shake Italia! Or perhaps not shake, that sounds rather violent, but I seem to be more like casually bumping into reminders of my gastronomic adventures thus far. Take, for example, this. How is this even possible?! After managing to successfully avoid buying one of the darn things despite their prominence in every single last store window in Bra throughout December, here they are at Whole Foods. I laughed out loud and proceeded to fill up my basket with hummus and almond butter and Siggi’s yogurt and other things I yearned to be reunited with stateside. There is no photo evidence of this encounter but I promise it’s true. At the annual Harris family Christmas Eve dinner at Lone Eagle Grille, I spotted bagna cauda on the menu, AKA the fishy garlicky …

A Bureaucratic Triumph

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Do I have to learn the national anthem now? Guess what, guys? Today, after about 6 months of paperwork, stamps, photocopies, more photocopies and general confusion, I have finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. I am now a legal resident of Italy.  Just so you have an idea of the twists and turns and loop de loops that I have gone through with my fellow non EU-citizens, here are the top 10 greatest hits. 1. Proving to the Italian Consulate of San Francisco that I did indeed graduate from high school. Seems quite obvious… 2. Receiving an appointment for foreigner assistance in Bra (the legal process is so complicated that the Immigration Office itself actually recommends using this independent service) at the same time as three other classmates. When is the last time you had a dentist appointment with 3 other people at the same time? Exactly. 3. The foreigner assistance employee remained on her iPhone with both headphones in throughout the duration of all four appointments. Rude. Strange. 4. Trying to walk through the bulletproof (why are …

A Weekend in Torino

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The two main themes of my Torino adventures: food and tea. Anyone surprised? It feels a bit silly to put a post about Torino (1 hour away on the train) under the Travel section, but I actually felt like I was gone from Bra for about 2 weeks even though it wasn’t even 48 hours. I know I’m not good with numbers, but take not bringing warm enough sweaters + walking about 9 miles per day (thanks Fitbit) and that adds up to perceived travel hours quickly. First of all, major shoutout to my classmate Giulia who acted as an absolutely lovely hostess/tour guide/knower of all places hip/resident Italian speaker. Anyhoo, Torino. As you may or may not (if you have been living under a rock maybe) know, the Winter Olympics were there in 2006. It was the first capital of Italy in 1861 and the home of the ruling Savoy family. Impressed by my historical knowledge? Ok, maybe not. Moving on. One of the many reasons we wanted to escape from the little hamlet of Bra for a …

The Lowdown on Study Trips

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This section of my blog hasn’t seen any action until now…given that we had a presentation this afternoon by the Tutor Office (what I think is a bad English translation because they’re not actually tutors but more like a lively group of individuals who sort of work as travel agents at a university) of the five study trips on our horizon. In these 5-7 day trips, we will meet producers, seek to understand local food traditions and the challenges that communities face in preserving those forms of knowledge today, learn how to make certain dishes, visit markets, get to know people from the Slow Food network, make videos to share our findings and much, much more. As someone who has the travel bug quite badly at this point in time, I could not be more excited for these trips. At the same time, the tutors stressed that this is a different type of tourism because it’s not like we’re going to jet around on vacation. This is experiential learning. I’m in school. This is learning how and why people prepare food the way that …