Mum Comes to Italy: Milan, Colorno, Verona

Santa Maria della Grazie

Once I ended my internship, I had a week to write my thesis paper. A couple days after it was sent, mum arrived in Italy! I met her on Friday morning in Milan. Compared to the rest of the cities I've seen in Italy - especially in Northern Italy, I'm not a particularly huge fan of Milan. There's something dreary about it, something missing in personality. But, this day was particularly sunny with the blue skies promising spring's arrival. Or, maybe it was just because I was out of the Po Valley's encompassing culatello weather. We met to see Leonardo's The Last Supper - I figured, being so close to Milan and having the opportunity to see it, I might as well take advantage. As Mum likened it to seeing the Mona Lisa, it was a bit smaller than anticipated, but I was still impressed with the details in the painting and the way it has been preserved. 

Mum in front of the Duomo

Of course there's a McDonald's within beautiful Italian architecture

After wandering around Milan for a bit after lunch and getting lost any time we tried to go anywhere, we headed back to Colorno to take Mum to Al Vedel to show her where I had spent the last two months interning.

Verona

The next day we caught the train and headed to Verona to find (no such) Romeo. Verona is a beautiful old city. Architecturally, it is similarly characteristic of many in Emilia Romagna. No cars are allowed in the center so we walked up and down the busy narrow streets until we had thought we had seen the entire city at least a couple times over. The main piazza and shopping streets were filled with people, but wander off a side street and it is completely quiet. 

Amphitheatre/Arena - 3rd largest in Italy

Gladiator Shows or Summer Operas...?

Love notes outside Juliet's House

We never found Romeo. We did find Juliet's house. Or apparently so. The walls within the little archway to reach her house were covered in hearts, poems, lovers' autographs, and people trying to find empty spaces to add their own. The courtyard was filled with tourists staring up at the little balcony and groping the statue's breast for good-luck as cameras snapped.

We had an exotic lunch of: sfilacci di equino, which is shredded horse meat. Although taboo in many countries, there are butchers in Italy just serving horse meat. Veneto, where Verona is located, is one of the places in Italy that frequently serves horse meat on their menus. Sfilacciare in Italian means to fray or to unravel and refers to this dried horse meat that is reminiscent of jerky. Served on a bed of ruccola, shaved parmigiano reggiano and full-flavored extra virgin olive oil, the meat is sweet and healthier than beef.

I then had pappardelle with porcini mushrooms and mum had a trio of pastas: ravioli with a sweet tomato sauce, gnocchi with raddicchio and marscapone, and bucattini with olives. then we shared....brain! they were huge and fried - much bigger than the chicken nugget sized ones I had previously. mum couldn't eat more than one bite. I thought it was tasty - subtle flavour, crisp on the outside and a soft meaty middle. It was weird seeing the curves of the brain as you would imagine a brain to look like. One man sitting next to us had the dish too and ate all of it, but I couldn't manage more than one. I wanted to believe eating it would make me smarter. More intelligent like a cow?? not so much.