First Study Trip: Calabria

as we leave tomorrow bright n' early for our first week long study trip, the icelandic volcanic ash has decided to cancel our hour and a half flight. i give the unisg staff every benefit of the doubt that they did everything they could, researched all possibilities and ways and means to get to Calabria - i don't know, wait till tuesday to fly, take a train, take a train to rome and fly from there, leave tonight to drive throughout the night so that we arrive in Calabria at our intended time to have a tasting lunch and visit at the winery and olive oil producer "Statti" at 1pm tomorrow. buttt...we are leaving at the same planned time - 6:30am from the piazza - and taking a bus 729.92 miles, 12 hours and 2 minutes according to mapquest (which doesn't include traffic, bus speed, or 3-4 stops for 25 mainly female students, at least 2 staff and 1 bus driver to pee, stretch and eat each time) to the very tip of the heel of italy's boot. it will be quite the adventure!!

hopefully we can still get in our monday activities some other time during the week: wine and olive oil producer visit as well as the workshop on the use of bergamot in typical pastry production with pastry chef Angelo Musolino at the restaurant Villaggio del Pino which also includes dinner based on tasting bergamot products...probably not, butttt....we still have a ton of fun things planned: visit to olive groves and mills with olive oil tastings, workshop on "white art" where we'll prepare, knead and bake different bakery products and eat them for dinner, workshop on cheeses with a dairy-based lunch, visit to a bergamot plantation, lesson about goat traditions in the area, cured meat workshop with particular attention on the Slow Food Presidia "capicollo azze anca grencanico" and various lunch and dinner tastings based on the foods we were learning about which includes different pastas and mushrooms from the area.

stretchy sweatpants are definitely packed in the bag and i'll be back on friday evening with a belly full of stories, pictures, and memories to post about.