Italia 2011: Notte Due (Night Two)

Yesterday was my second day here, and after I had a much-needed hot shower and a delicious lunch of risotto di carciofi (artichoke risotto), Katie (the other intern) finally arrived from Virginia!

After settling in, Elena (one of the two Romanian housekeepers) drove us to a nearby grocery store where we bought la cioccolata, la pasta, i pomodori (tomatoes), il carne (meat), le patate, la mozzerella, and some other things (oh, and I stocked up on white wine since the fattoria Celle only produces red, which I am gradually learning to like, but am not generally a huge fan of). When we got back, we got to know each other over a few glasses of wine, and I set out to make dinner. Surprisingly, I made a decent spread of pasta & sauce and beef stew, considering I had no sharp knives, no cutting board, and only a hotplate that switched off every 2 minutes because the breaker kept going (or whatever electrical terminology is used in such a case... you all know what I mean though). The electrician is there today and we're hoping to have more reliable electricity now...

This morning we arrived at the office and promptly set out onto the property with Miranda (the manager and overall driving force behind the organization) because her daughter's 2nd grade class was doing a visit of the collection and she had to go say hi. The collection normally only offers entry to adults, but they've recently started a program where school classes are taken around the collection by a mime who presents opportunities for them to interact with the art works. It's pretty awesome, since it allows them to develop their own narrative surrounding the works, rather than simply hearing "this is the title, this is the artist, this is what it is". One morning next week Katie and I are hoping to go along with one of these mime-led tours.

Upon returning to the office, Katie and I learned some of the basics regarding requests for visits, responding to emails, scheduling, etc. We planned out our May schedule, and then broke for lunch. Lunch in Italy is sacred. No one works over lunch. No one. All the electricians and workers working on our apartment are super industrious, but in the late morning if they're asked to do something asap, they'll respond with "well... it's lunch soon. I can start it at 2:30". There are these brothers who recently opened a chocolate shop near the front gate of the property, and they've been talking to Miranda about working something out since morning visitors to the collection are usually famished afterward. But the brothers are reluctant to provide some sort of lunchtime service/snacks since, well, it's lunch! Personally, I thought it was fairly self-evident that if you are in the food service industry, you should probably expect to be working when everyone else is eating...

But anyways, back to OUR lunch. The housekeepers made us a fantastic lunch of homemade pasta (closest to tagliatelle... very wide flat noodles) with tomato sauce, spaghetti with pesto, pork, and potatoes. For the rest of the day we are going to do some reading about the collection, and maybe get out to take some more photos.

Below are a couple more shots I got of the property, just around the area near the villa/fattoria (btw fattoria means farm, not factory).

Ciao a tutti!