Day 44 Cuarantacuatro!

Ciao a tutti!

Ho usato il mio italiano oggi!! This morning started out as most mornings, with a good mixture of procrastination, and chocolate milk. But, fueled with sugar, and between Facebook stalks, I booked the rest of my trip. Including....

BUM BUM BUM...

My tickets not only back to the states, but back to LA as well. It's official. I will be back in the states on the 21st, and back in LA on October 7th. *SIGH* It sucks to have such a definite end, but I am definitely eager to start working on my life projects, and I do miss my kitty.

Once everything I could book with the magical world of internets was booked, it was out to talk to real people about things and stuff. I had to buy a ticket to Nice, which is apparently ridiculous, so I got to use my sweet Italian skills to buy one from the ticket lady at the counter. I was super pro. I was all like "un biglietto blah blah blah", and she was all like "you said 'morning' in spanish". Dang. Too many languages. They try to sneak into the other languages. But it's cool. We pretended like it didn't happen and continued on. In perfect Italian. PERFECT. ITALIAN.

Ticket in hand, I deserved a reward

That's right. Dear, sweet gelato. How I have missed you. I grow weary of the imposters of the other foreign lands. None can replace you. Some old lady came by and rambled on about not giving any of the gelato to Persey, and I realized something- I cannot understand old people in Italian. It sounds all wheezy, with a touch of drunk. I kind of laughed and nodded a lot, but was very confused. Even more confused because the bits I did understand didn't make much sense to be saying to someone over the age of 5. But she was old. So I accept her sound advice about not giving dogs chocolate or gelato or any combination thereof. But I saw Beethoven, and they gave him ice cream. Not chocolate ice cream, but still.

Back at the apartment, the Derks was all tuckered, so I gave Evie a visit downstairs

Evie is Julianne's kitty, who was going to be all by her lonesome all weekend, so I decided to hang out with her.

She's a touch temperamental, but nothing compared to the hyperactive little monster that is my cat, so we got along just fine. She warmed up to me eventually, and we had some good times.






I would just like to take a moment to describe what is happening next to me-

Persey has plopped herself right smack in the middle of a pile of my stuff, and began rolling around and twitching in her sleep. She's making tiny little barking noises, and wagging her tail. ALi's things make the best dreams.






This is what I have been living with. It's kind of like rooming with an extremely mobile 2-year old on acid. It is nonstop entertainment.

After... well, to be completely honest, I don't totally remember what I did this afternoon. I vaguely remember some cartoons, maybe a light snack, perhaps another venture through the park with Derketron... but I couldn't say for sure. But food time came, and this was definitely something I remember. Let me take you on my food journey.

I went to Il Cantuccio, my favorite little trattoria in Arezzo. It's still actually run by the same old lady that's been running it since... I dont know. Since she wasn't old? They are one of the few restaurants that actually have brought me bread.

OH MY GOSH I AM SO ITCHY. I have 14 bites on JUST my left arm!! I have suffered attacks on my face, my neck, arms, legs, feet, ankles. EVERYTHING. I literally have bug bites on top of other bug bites. I look like I have mini leprosy. I'm a monster. I will kill you nature. It's on.

For some reason, eating by yourself in a restaurant, they assume you don't want bread, or don't need bread, or maybe you're not going to spend enough money to get bread. Who knows? Restaurants can be jerks with the bread. Just my luck that one of the only ones to not be is in Arezzo, where they don't use salt in their bread. I think I told you about this before. But there it is again. It was still nice to be all reminiscent though. Even over bland bread. THEN they gave me some free little thingies, and you know how I love free food

So I deduced that these were actually polenta, which were fried in a delicious corn-y, buttery crispy outside. The only downside was, though delicious, they actually tasted very much like popcorn. American popcorn, mind you, I think European popcorn tastes different somehow.

 OMG Mozzarella di Bufala. In Italy, they make mozzarella  from milk from water buffalo. I don't care how weird that sounds, it's the most amazing thing I've ever tasted. Every time I come to Italy, I MUST HAVE IT. Technically, if you look hard enough, you can find it in the states, but it's just not the same. It's just. not. the same. If you visit Italy, ask for Mozzarella di Bufala. On ANYTHING. Or even just by itself. It will change your cheese life.

I love the roast beef at Il Cantuccio. It's just one of those simple things done right. I'm sorry, cow. Thank you for being so delicious.

I wasn't really going to order a side dish, but the woman taking my order seemed worried for me that my roast beef was not enough or something. I didn't want to upset her, so I ordered i fagioli. Don't be fooled by their inconspicuous look. They explosive little beans of flavor.

The star of the show. I was actually thing about this through the entire meal. It is their "pigliamisu". It is very similar to tiramisu, but not soaked in rum, and made with a topping of your choice. This is where you want to know the language of the country you are in. I totally whipped out my Italian and talked them into giving me two toppings. That's right. You're looking at chocolate and berries. It was so good I cried in public. It can't be helped.

Full to bursting, I waddled up the hill to the Perks, where we hung out on the couch until she decided to curl up in my stuffs as mentioned before.

<--- can I just point out that animals have a knack for looking away at the exact moment you take a picture? I think it's a big inside joke among them. 'Haha, check out the human taking 12 pictures of everything but my face'. Very funny nature. You win this round.