soave & the big match - italia vs us

Saturday morning...I slept well but woke up with a very sore eye. I noticed that my eye was red after landing in Milan and thought it was due to my allergies and so I thought that my allergy drops would solve the problem but this morning when I woke up, it felt like there was a scratch on my eye.

After breakfast we went to the grocery store to pick up some food for later and then went to the panificio (bread store). I love getting to do the normal every day things in Italy. I am now at Katia's other working place posting this and will then go to the Farmacia to try to get some eye drops. Luckily Katia is here to interpret. It seems that every year, I visit the Farmacia at least once. The visit to the Farmacia was a success! I found out that the allergy eye drops I was using were drying out my eyes. The new drops worked wonderfully and now my eyes are fine.

Lunch...
Katia made wonderful lunch - one of my favorite meals - ravioli con salve e burro (ravioli with sage and butter).

After lunch, we decided to go to Soave. Soave is a little town surrounded by beautiful valleys full of vineyards.

(entrance to the town)

There is a huge castle at the top of the town where we had a wonderful time exploring.

(view from outside the castle)

After walking around the inside of the castle, we decided to climb to the top. Guido and I were able to talk Katia into going about halfway up to the top of the castle where you will find a thin walkway which goes over to the top of the tower (a tower which was once used to torture people). Guido and I went the rest of the way while Katia waited for us (she is afraid of heights).

(view from the castle)

(heading to the tower)

(views from the top of the tower)

After spending about an hour in the castle, we walked back down into the town and stopped for a gelato. I chose mango & fragola (strawberry). It is so hard to describe the difference between ice cream/gelato in Italy and the US, but there is definitely a difference!! The flavors are so much more intense! The gelato was wonderful...I would have to say one of the best I have ever had.

(the most wonderful gelateria)

(town of Soave)

On our way out of town, I took a picture of the Soave Bolla building which is located right at the edge of the town. It is funny that Soave Bolla is so famous in the US but is not considered a very good wine here in Italy (or at least according to Katia & Guido - although they are spoiled with the wines of Franciacorta).

(Soave Bolla building - taken while riding in the car)

(views of the castle from the car)

After a beautiful drive back, we stopped at another grocery store to pick up some food for dinner and for all the people coming over to watch the big match.

(an entire aisle of pasta!)

(so many types of cheese!!)

We had a wonderful caprese salad for dinner as well as some proscuitto and melone.

Tonight is the big match - Italy & the US. I have been told that I can sleep in the garden if the US wins! After dinner, we waited with anticipation for the big game. Katia’s brother is a HUGE soccer fan. There were 8 people strongly rooting for Italy to win and me. Everyone joked about my allegiance to the US and how the garden would be ready for me if Italy lost. Right when the game started, it began to rain outside. I asked if they had a tent for me.

It was lots of fun watching the game and listening to the reactions when either the US or Italy got a warning or thrown out of the game with a red card. Italy scored first. Then one of the Italian players scored a goal for the US!! That did not go over well. In the end, the 2 teams tied. It ended perfectly for me as they could not be upset with the US team since Italy scored both goals.

I still had not completely recovered from jet lag and once again I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.