The Alps

Okay, so it's been a little over a month since my first post so I will try to play a bit of catch up with the next few. We are settled into our apartment now - just in time for the real classes to start up at school. I've learned a few general things about Italy that were somewhat surprising ... 1. The bread is, unfortunately, not that great. We have been searching for decent whole grain (or at least whole wheat) bread, but can only find the plain white and generally not so tasty bread. Ah well. We'll survive until we can fit in a trip to Germany, France, or Austria where I hear the bread is delicious. 2. We probably do eat gelato more than we should. Let's face it, though, if we were home we'd likely have a carton or two of Breyer's in the freezer so it all balances out in the end. Plus the flavor are so tempting and unique over here; you have to try them all ... repeatedly. 3. They definitely have better yogurt flavors (walnut, kiwi, pineapple to name a few). Unfortunately, yogurt, soap and just about any other semi-liquid substance seems a bit runny over here compared to the thicker US counterpart. More on the country comparisons later. Our first trip outside Bologna was to the Alps. More specifically to a town near Bolzano named Trafoi. I absolutely love the mountains. The views were stunning - much grander and sharper than the mountains at home. Although we were still in Italy, everyone spoke German and were even seen sporting some lederhosen. The food we had at a little Italian place the second night was delectable. I would give almost anything to get the recipe for the zucchini soup we had - so smooth yet complex with layers of flavors I can only begin to guess at. Enough talk. Here are some pictures to back up my claims ...