Small update

Today was the official start of Spring Break as we departed on a bus this morning for Naples.  The day was great, but windy and foggy.  I saw a bunch of really cool things and took a lot of pictures..blah blah I'll talk about that another time.  What I want to say right now, as I sit stuffed and sleepy, is that tonight's dinner was such a happy comfort food meal.  


We ate in our hotel restaurant, which is really fancy-like, but does not require us to dress fancy-like thankfully.  However, the waiters wore green coats and pants with little bow ties and served us our food, so nice! Anyways, that also is not the point of this post.  Our meal began with bread on the table, and being as hungry as we were after a long day, I grabbed a piece. Now, just for some background information, bread in Certaldo isn't made with salt, so it's a little more bland than "normal" bread but I've gotten used to it.  As soon as I took a bite that bread, I remembered what bread tasted like at home and why I love it so much!! Seriously, I thought I was go bread crazy in Italy, but since most of the bread I eat is saltless, it becomes more of a plate cleaner or soup-dipping tool instead of something I want to snack on regularly.  So, noticing that this bread was delicious, of course I ate around five slices...or more.  Then, our bow tie waiters brought out a simple pasta dish: rigatoni with a light garlic and butternut squash sauce. Simple and delicious. It was a normal beginning to an Italian dinner (our first course is almost always a pasta of some sort) and didn't too much of that, seeing as another course was coming and I was almost full of bread and pasta. Next, we were brought pork slices with gravy...very flavorful gravy, and tasty pork.  As I am eating that, I see our side dish being served to the people across the table from me.  MASHED POTATOES! 


I was so sure that I would hardly eat any potatoes while in Italy, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the dinners thus far.  Bar Boccaccio never fails to have a potato dish ready for us and it's always delicious. 


Anyways, I got really excited about the mashed potatoes and actually gasped out loud in excitement, thus providing entertainment for my table mates who were aware of my love for potatoes.  Therefore, this meal of good bread, yummy pasta, meat and gravy, and mashed potatoes was a perfect end to the day for me. 


Ok that ended up being a large update for a small fact. More about Naples to come, plus Capri, Pompeii, and Amalfi!