Falling in love with Italy

I’m falling in love with Italy! Austrid, our sponsor’s wife from the Netherlands, and I walked back down to the town square to check out the Friday market. Ferrara has at least 2 markets each week. The Friday one is mainly clothing and the Monday one is mainly produce. There were all kinds of booths with different clothing items – everything from underclothes flapping in the breeze to beautiful tailored jackets to scarves in every pattern/color imaginable. Scarves are huge here…and skinny jeans and leggings. Scarves I’ll do…probably not skinny jeans and definitely NOT the 80s leggings with the long shirts –unless all this walking does an amazing number on my thighs. Eek! Overall, the people are much more formally dressed here. Nearly everyone is wearing a jacket, nice shoes, a scarf (of course) and the woman are usually wearing nice jewelery. They look ready for church and are peddling down the road bikes! I’m not sure my poor feet would ever go out walking in heels, no matter what anyone else is wearing!

Anyway…we also went inside the Cathedral. It was breathtaking. First of all, it was HUGE…there were two separate areas for mass, a baptismal area, and several others areas that looked as if they were dedicated to different things. One looked like a burial place for a Bishop (?) who was important in the city several hundred years ago and another seemed to be a shrine to the apostles. There was even a confessional booth and a Priest there hearing confessions! The stained glass was lovely and the ceilings just blew me away. I can’t imagine how they got such intricately carved panels and paintings so high up. I definitely need to get an art history book so I can better understand/appreciate what I’m seeing. It’s Renaissance and that’s as much as I know.

We had hot chocolate/coffee and pastries in Austrid’s favorite outdoor shop and sat watching the people and looking at the beautiful buildings. Then she took me down a side road that looked like a movie set for Italy. I keep pinching myself because it’s just what I pictured…little shops with fruit or pastries or gelato. There are modern things, too, like the cell phone shop and the bookstore. There’s a livestage theater, as well, that does all kinds of shows, including the local school play in December! As we walked down the movie set road, she had me turn to the left and look down an alley that was framed by arches. I was kicking myself for not taking a camera…maybe tomorrow I’ll make it back down there to photo things!

Meanwhile, The Linguist and the kids were at the park. I was shocked to hear that Deep Thinker (a.k.a. Mr. I’m-not-learning-Italian-because-they’ll-all-speak-English) was the one trying to speak to the Italian kids in Italian! Of course, all he wanted to say was, “I’m American.” But hey, it’s a start! The Linguist also said that Claire was speaking Italian to her little friend. Unfortunately, the little girl is Ukranian, so didn’t understand her!

The Linguist and I shopped in the pastry shop across the road for lunch items. Well, I should qualify that -- I was there. The Linguist did all the talking and actually understand most of what was said. I caught a few words – like macaroni and biscotti. Everything I’ve learned flies out of my head when someone actually addresses me in Italian. I managed to say “one” and “goodbye” and that’s about it. I have never eaten/seen as much pasta and bread as I have eaten and seen these last few days! We bought ham sandwiches…heavy on the bread, extremely lean on the ham (like a 30:1 ratio), fungi pizza (that’s what they call mushrooms…appetizing, eh?), a croissant that was rolled around what looked like a hot dog and get this – macaroni that was rolled into a croissant! I did take a picture of that one. It was actually my favorite! We also bought an assortment of biscotti (cookies) that tasted surprisingly like the ones you can buy in the U.S.

We made a foray to a grocery store after deciding that man/woman/child cannot live on carbs alone. We came home with meat and salad and potatoes and broccoli – trying to remedy the veggie deficit! It felt very European to walk to and from the store and return with our recyclable grocery bags. Now I just need a bike with a basket! Or maybe next time we’ll take all of the kids. If everyone carries a bag we could shop for 7 days instead of just 2!

The rest of our evening was spent at our first Italian/American party. The Linguist’s commander is being promoted, and the hotel owner here offered to host the promotion party. His apartment is amazing. The ceilings are all painted…the kitchen and second living area had cherubim or putti? (I should’ve looked closer) on it. I don’t know if they’re technically frescos, which Wikipedia says are paintings done when the plaster is wet, but you get the idea. The main living area had tiles painted with flowers and a gigantic chandelier. The ceilings are really high so the rooms feel really large. There were hardwood floors, a big fireplace, beautiful architecture with lots of arches, wide and intricate moldings and paintings done in the 1700s and 1800s –one of which took up an entire wall! It would be like living in a museum.

 He had a live band playing mostly American music (which the Americans enjoyed more and more as the level of alcohol consumed increased) and a spread of Italian and Japanese food, since he knew many of the Americans liked sushi. The chef who prepared the food used to work at the Italian Embassy in New York. It was lovely to look at, and there was tons -- a huge, oval table covered in all kinds of bread, fruit, cheese and other appetizers kind of spilling everywhere. I’m going to have to try that at our next gathering! Shrimp were served on skewers on a tray that looked like it was made of grass and there were plates of sushi. Near the end, the chef brought around red Jell-O served with blueberries with a white light tray underneath so that it was red, white and blue and another tray with a blue Jell-o and strawberries with the white light tray underneath. No carrots in the Jell-o here! Even the roses decorating the table were red, white and blue. Right before we left, they brought out the cake that looked like a flag with a huge lit torch in the corner. By that point it was midnight, the music was cranking up and since a number of Americans had already left, we felt okay making our getaway. I don’t things settled down until about 2 a.m.

Everyone we’ve met has gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and a part of things. We are definitely not the “typical” family here since we don’t drink alcohol or coffee, have more than 2 kids and are LDS. Just wait until my 13 buckets of wheat show up! But they have all been extremely gracious and kind. It really feels a little like a family reunion. One of the female pilots is also a fantastic pianist and said she’d try and help me figure out what to do with Hannah for lessons. Her husband, a self-taught guitarist, may take Meg on as a student. The colonel’s wife was telling me that our spouse’s group has also taken in several wives from other NATO countries who are the only ones here from their nation. I can’t even imagine arriving here without a support group. There’s so much to do and learn. It makes me even more grateful for such a close-knit community of people who speak my language and are willing to take us in.

Ironically, the local doctor (an Italian American who lives here now) said he knows the Mormons and he’ll hook us up! We were finally able to contact the Elders who are in this area, but they said they’re in the process of moving the branch to a hotel, so no meetings this week. The time difference is also a little tricky for conference. We also found out that there’s an English-speaking branch up in Vicenza that we can attend. Apparently there’s another family from Ferrara who does that.