First five days in Italy

I've been in Italy for almost a week - we arrived Sunday afternoon, and it's now Friday afternoon. Time really flies.

We've eaten some really fantastic meals. I've already mentioned the porcini mushrooms, which we're really lucky to have a chance to eat fresh. It seems that they practically don't exist in the US. At least in Davis, we don't have the climate for them.

We had some of Loris' grandmother Agostina's vegetable soup last night. It was delicious, with onions, carrots, potatoes, green beans, zucchini, and I'm not sure what else. Before I left for Italy, I chopped up some zucchini, green beans, and carrots from the garden and put them in bags in the freezer, to make soup when we get back. I can't wait to get a dedicated freezer to store some of this stuff. We also had fresh mozzarella and stracchino, and a slice or two of pizza.

Speaking of pizza, that's what we're having tonight, at the Nebbius, the bar/hotel/pizzeria at the bottom of the square. We had a seafood lunch at the house in Aisone yesterday - pasta with clam sauce, grilled trout caught by Teresio, salad from the garden, and gelato.

And speaking of cheese, we had some fantastic cheese at Centro Fondo with our pasta and porcini sauce on Monday, and Teresio brought some on our hike today. I hope we remember to get some to take back to the US with us. And oh, the hike ... we climbed the Ischiator, the third highest mountain in the region. We went up in around 3 hours and 15 minutes. Here are some pictures.