My Explorations class combined with my Italian Cuisine and the Mediterranean Diet class to travel to Bomarzo. We spent the afternoon at an Olive oil factory viewing the production facility as well as sampling the factory's various olive oils and, as all my cooking field trips end, of course there was a wine tasting segment! Thankfully our professors and Simone provided us with lots of delicious breads, cheeses and meats to sample with the oil and wine.
An average Monday studying abroad might equal the only two classes you have combining together for an olive oil field trip and a night time archery session, just saying. My Explorations class combined with my Italian Cuisine and the Mediterranean Diet class to travel to Bomarzo. We spent the afternoon at an Olive oil factory viewing the production facility as well as sampling the factory's various olive oils and, as all my cooking field trips end, of course there was a wine tasting segment! Thankfully our professors and Simone provided us with lots of delicious breads, cheeses and meats to sample with the oil and wine. Monday night was rather spontaneous! Right after the field trip I joined my friends Risa, Jen and Eugenio for an archery session in Viterbo. I had done archery as a unit in P.E. when I was in 8th grade, so I hoped to remember some of the skills when we arrived. I'm no Katniss Everdeen but after two rounds of shooting I can successfully say my last arrow hit the bullseye (yellow) right on the edge. The instructor informed me of my shot by saying, "Bene. Yellow!" I hope to participate in more of the archery sessions before I leave. It was quite the adrenaline rush and after shooting a few arrows I wanted to keep going.
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Halloween in Italy is one day I will never forget! From 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. I spent the day at Parco Regionale Della Maremma with my Explorations class for a field trip and the evening was spent at a Villa, within the walls of Viterbo, drinking wine and celebrating Halloween with some of our Italian friends! I was really happy to spend lunch soaking up the sun at the beach and it was great to return to Viterbo and see the Halloween spirit come alive with adults and kids dressed up for the night time festivities! This evening I had my second field trip with my cuisine class at a Cheese Factory! I absolutely love cheese and Italians make the freshest cheese I’ve ever had. We got to watch the production of ricotta cheese, something the small factory was known for and I got to try fresh ricotta. When I say fresh I mean the owner literally scooped the ricotta into its mold and we got to taste it within three minutes of it being ready! An opportunity that my professor Sergio said would and could only ever happen in Italy! The owners Antonia and Francesco were very nice and after we got to tour the chamber where the cheese is produced we all sat at a huge dining room table and they brought out large baskets of pane (bread), different cheeses for us to sample and no tasting would ever be complete in Italy without 4 bottles of delicious red wine. Francesco is a shepherd and he’s one of the last shepherds to produce cheeses with raw milk. We got to sample cow cheese, 6-month-old sheep cheese and the fresh ricotta we watched Francesco produce during our tour. My personal favorite was the cow cheese. It was a much sharper cheese than the others but it really complimented the wines we drank. My professor said that one thing Italians recognize as Harmony is eating good cheese complimented with good wine. I could not agree more with his statement! Today, I had the privilege of eating the best salami I have ever tasted and as our professor said, "THE BEST MEAT IN LAZIO." One of the courses I am taking while abroad is called “Italian Cuisine and The Mediterranean Diet” and this afternoon we had our first field trip to a meat factory not to far from Viterbo. My professor Sergio met us at the factory and he was our tour guide – along with the owner of the factory (who mostly spoke in Italian and our professor would translate.) Here are some fun facts I learned throughout the tour: · The best meat - and the tastiest parts of animals - are the working parts such as the cheeks, neck and legs. · Molding is part of the salami process. · A horse bone is used to stick in the meats to smell the meat and make sure it’s ready. · Salami is a sack of intestine with the meat inside. · Pepper and garlic are used for seasoning and they also prevent fermentation. · Salt is used to help dehydrate the meat. · In Italy there are 350 different kinds of salami. At the end of the field trip we got to taste: · Two types of bread - one made with durum wheat and one with white wheat · Various salami and prosciutto · Two authentic Italian red wines I even got to purchase some salami to bring back to my apartment for only 5 euro! One of the best purchases I think I've made thus far in Italy! (Especially since it's triple the price at the stores!) |