Yup, you read right. Pizza for dinner, yet again. But I actually don't mind at all, because every night there's something a littleee bit different that makes that pizza special and yummy and I love it. I wish my parents were here to try all this pizza because there definitely HAS to be something here that can convince them to stop opting for frozen pizza over fresh. (I'm distraught over this, guys. Where is the Italian blood in you?!)
But anyway, before we get to that we'll start from the top of the day. Paola had promised to help us set up the wifi a bunch of us had purchased yesterday, but of course my kit was the only one that the man at the store had forgotten to put the money cards in. I went back to the store on my lunch break and luckily he believed me without any questions and gave me the cards so I finally was able to call and activate everything, buuut it'll probably be an extra 24 hours on top of the original 36ish until I can get my internet to work :(
We had our first lecture with Zach this afternoon (For some reason I keep thinking his name is Luke, so don't get confused if I write that accidentally). Like I said in the earlier post, he's a Food Studies professor, so we talked about the origins of Italian cuisine today. We focused on Pelligrino Artusi, who compiled a huge book of recipes from all the different regions of Italy, though primarily from Emilia-Romagna and Toscana. Along with the recipes, which he received from people all across the country, were little stories that gave each one a personalized touch, storielle in Italian. The book was written primarily for the middle class, and in Italiano "standard" (as opposed to regional dialects), which were both unique approaches for that time, and it served a purpose of unifying the nation, both in its cuisine and its language.
That evening we continued our lessons in food history, focusing on pizza. Zach/Luke took us to a pizzeria that is in a converted monastery; he knows the family that owns it and the pizziaolo gave us a demo on how to make pizza, though I am no expert, so don't expect anything. While we were waiting for the pizzas to cook, Zach/Luke told us the story behind pizza, which I LOVE. It's probably a myth, but it's still really cute. So once upon a time there was a princess, Princess Margherita, and a pizziaolo named Rafaele Esposito went to the palace and made her three pizzas. The first she didn't like because it had garlic, which was considered a food of the poor (until Artusi clarified that in his book). The second she didn't like because it had anchovies on it, and she didn't like fish. But the third was juuuust right: simply tomatoes, cheese, and basil. Which, by the way, are the colors red, white, and green... so in this way, pizza IS the food of Italy. It represents it, it unifies it, it characterizes it in the minds of many foreigners. (And it's flat out delicious!)
There were a bazillion different kinds of pizza on the menu but I just ordered the Margherita. To be honest, I don't WANT all these crazy things on my pizza... salad, sausage, mushrooms, buffalo wings, fish, etc. I like my pizza plain and simple and classic. It's good every time, it's red, white and green, and it's juuuuust right. So it was yet another delicious pizza dinner for me, and another great close to the day. (Well, kinda. We didn't get home until around 11, and I actually have HOURS of homework ahead. Oh, well. Nothing us Harvard kids aren't used to by now!).
Day's Recap:
Pizzas eaten so far this week: 3?
Museums visited: 1 (Galleria Nazionale d'Umbria - the advanced group had a homework assignment to pick out a work of art that we believed was somehow representative of a character or other aspect of the novel we're reading. Only about 12 rooms were open at the gallery, and it was mostly Byzantine/medieval Madonna and child paintings, but it was still really neat, and is right in between the hotel and the institute!)
Hours of homework left tonight: >4
Hours of sleep anticipated tonight: <4
Anneganda in compito e piena di pizza (drowning in homework and stuffed with pizza),
Michelina
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