Days 2, 3 and 4: Wine tasting and more!

Day 2 of being in Italy went fairly well. I started off the day bright and early with a meeting with Rosario discussing in more detail factory organization. Valerio was out of the office sick, so I had to have the meeting with Rosario instead. It went well.. I guess as well as something like that could've gone. This could've been given to me and leaving me alone for 1 hour or so, I would've been able to review the information. A lot of it was excess information on what the people do in their roles.

I then had a break time after lunch. Basically sat around and surfed the net. It was pretty good. Caught a ride from a guy, Silvio, who works in the same area as Roasio and I do. This lack of car is really inconvenient. After going home, I went to the store, then Brian, Uday and I went to a wine bar which translates to "the drunken goose". It was a good time. Appretivo is not a real meal, though... It was Uday's birthday and Tiemen was even out! I tried spritz for the first time, which is some sort of orange flavoring combined with white wine. It was good... but I think I wouldn't try it again.

After the Drunken Goose, we all went to somewhere for Pizza. The pizza was OK, but not as good as the first night's. By this time, our group grew to around 15 people! After pizza, we went to the bar I went to the first night. The one with the gorgeous outdoor patio. I should take some pictures next time we go. By this time, it was Imane, his friend Michael, Uday, Tiemen and I. We had some delicious mojitos made by the guy who makes good mojitos. A good end to the night.

On day 3, we went wine tasting! We started off from Gavirate at 9:35 and met everyone else at the Roadhouse Grill at 9:50. From there, we drove off to Alba, a city in between where were going and our house. It was about an hour drive. Alba is also the home to Nutella and Ferro Rocher. I must go back again! We had a nice light lunch there of antipasto and some wine. After lunch, we were off again, to the first winery.

This winery was gorgeous! It was the Fratelli Revello winery in La Mora. (http://www.revellofratelli.com/). Not only was the view gorgeous, but the wine was delicious as well. The husband and wife who owned the winery along with the wife's brother discussed the different aspects of the winery and wines that we were drinking. We also got a tour fo the wine cellar. I probably will want to go back there again. The entire area was beautiful.

After going to Fratelli Revello, we went to La Morra and enjoyed the view. It was absolutely gorgeous. After walking around La Morra, we went to to another town, also with a beautiful view, and climbed the hills to get to a small church. The church was rather plain and unimpressive, but the climb was wonderful. Hilly roads paved with small stone bricks. The walls of houses were covered in rose vines, all of which were blooming. There were cute painted doors alongisde the regular doors and just an overall unique atmosphere. Once we reached the top of the hilll, we found an open auditorium type strudcture with the bleacher type seats covered in grass. It was truly a beautiful sight.

We rested for a bit at the auditorium, then went down back to the town. There, I had my first gelato fo the trip! Delicious! After, we drove off to the wine bank, which was started by the slow food movement.

The Wine Bank was not as impressive as Fratelli Revello, but still quite nice. It's essentially a large wine cellar built at the bottom of this castle like mansion. The buildling was renovated by several supporters of the Slow Food movement. The Wine Bank's cellars were held at 15 degrees C and 95% humidity to perserve and age the wines properly. They had many wines from vinyards across Italy. The guide gave us a bit of a tour of the location and talked about the different wines. It was not as impressive as I had imagined, but it was tough to beat Fratelli Revello.

After the Wine Bank, we went to Bra, the city which began the Slow Food movement, for dinner.
Since it was late, there was very little as far as choice for dinner. I had some not very tasty risotto. I've never actually had risotto before, but the rice was hard... and tasted of wine and cheese. It was fairly terrible. Probably will not have something like that again. Rice is supposed to be soft!

After dinner, we went home and exhaustedly fell asleep.

Day four was less of a marathon. Uday, Brian and I woke up late and drove to a large supermarket whose name sounded like "Eeper". It was closed, so we went back and swung by Carrefor to pick up some things, went to get our SIM cards for the phones and had some lunch. After, we went to a few small towns off of Lake Maggiore. Very beautiful, but it was a bit hazy that day. Hopefully it clears up one day and we can go back again.

For dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant where none of the staff spoke Japanese. Instead, they spoke Chinese. I wasn't able to have my favorite dish, kastudon, but I had some tempura udon instead. It was good... a bit on the salty side. Hopefully I can go to Milan and pick up some ingredients to cook some stuff up later....

Well, time to get back to work. Let's see what Day 5 will bring! Ciao!

First Day in Italy

This is a quick log of my trip. It's nothing special but more of something to remind me of what I've done. It begins with my first day in Italy. I'm here in Italy for 6 months to work for Whirlpool. It's a great opportunity and I'm really excited.

My trip begins with Dan's mom sending me off at the airport. I'm such a mess. I thought I had everything figured out, but turns they only allow 18lbs as checked luggage! On top of that, my backpack is too big and they'll probably want me to check it. It all works out in the end, but what a hassle. On the plus side, I got bumped up to business class! It's not as nice as Northwest's business class to Asia, but still quiet nice. I watch Marley and Me, have a meal of fish and salad, take a couple of NyQuil gelcaps and go to sleep. Pretty uneventful. My transfer's in Frankfurt. I can't imagine a more messy airport. I first arrive at a bus gate, get bussed to the middle of the terminals, then find my way through a maze of tunnels, through customs, security check and then to my gate. I've only got one hour, so I'm practically sprinting down the hallways. When I get to the gate, I find out the flight's 10 minutes late! better than 10 minute early, I guess.

I get on the second leg of my flight and relax. I've got a window seat and a rather large gentleman is sitting next to me. Great. Half way through the flight, he starts snoring. Even better.... That's all well and good, though. It feels like a normal flight. I get to the airport and cannot understand a word anyone's saying. That's a strange feeling. Usually I can pick up a few words. I wander around and finally find an older gentleman with a "Whirlpool Home Appliances" sign in his hand. Probably for me. He leads me to the car and opens the trunk. That instant, a lady appears standing next to my cart. My first thought is "Does she want it? She doesn't look like she has any baggage." I can't speak Italian and neither the driver nor her can speak any English. Finally, we find a common language, French. Who knew I would ever use that again. We ride from MXP to Gavriate, where I'll be staying.

The rest of the day is relatively uneventful. Practically everywhere's closed for lunch. That was a weird realization. I managed to walk to Carrefor (which is about 5-10 minutes away) and purchased some items. Instead of having big shopping carts moms can fill up for a week's worth of groceries, they have baskets with wheels you can tug along as you shop. Works well, I guess, since my fridge is the size of a mini-bar at a hotel. Probably not going to use that too much.

I get home, continue unpacking and take a nap. Amazingly, I'm able to wake up 2 hours later, just before dinner with Uday, who's already here. We all have a few glasses of wine over appetizers and small finger foods. What a day.... It sounds like this weekend we're going wine tasting. yay!

Tomorrow's my first day of work, who knows what that'll be like.