Una settimana a Ferrara

It's definitely autumn in Ferrara.  Fortunately, the winter's fog hasn't rolled in, but the mornings certainly have that fall bite to them. The leaves are falling with increasing frequency, which I LOVE.  Seeing the seasons change is truly a thing that you can only experience when you live somewhere.  It's atually homey to feel the days turn colder, just like I'm used to in Colorado.

 

the view from on top of the city wall right next to my casa

One thing that is new to me here is the little castagne (chestnuts!) stands that pop up in the evening all over town.  For 2euro you get a little bag of freshly roasted chestnuts--and yes, the first time I saw them, I did start to sing the Christmas Song in my head :) I still need to try them, and tonight may be the night!

 My host mother has been very interested in me cooking things from America.  So far, I prepared--or tried to prepare with Italian ingredients--fajitas and nachos with fresh salsa and guac.  The fajitas were interesting because I've never worked with dried whole peperoncini, so I underestimated the heat factory.  Cinzia doesn't like things piccante, but she got the true TexMex experience that night.  The first time I made guac I was shocked at how huge the avocados are here! We also forgot to buy chips, so that night guac was eaten, maybe for the first time in history, on toast.  The next week, however, I made some more for the nachos and we had the true experience with tortilla chips and salsa I made that day. 

 

 Cinzia with my nachos at our kitchen table

Last weekend, our group had a trip to the soccer game of the local team, SPAL!  One of our staff members was born in Ferrara and has an intense affinity for this team that overrides even that of Dan Mills for the buffaloes.  We had a great time sitting in the stands and cheering on the team that we now consider to be ours.  AND SPAL won, which we were convinced was caused by our presence.  

Kim, Me, and Jill at the SPAL game

School is still pretty tough, but I'm muscling my way through it.  I have a fun and busy weekend ahead of me with a day trip to Firenze tomorrow with Cinzia and weekend trip to Palermo, Sicilia with three other CIEE students. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures!