Allison's Wonderland

The view from the Grill

When I think of Italy, I immediately think of beautiful scenery, pasta, pizza, and cheese.  My mind goes straight for the food.  I never think of Italians having barbeques.  Barbecuing is for Australians and Americans.  At least that's what I thought till I went to my first Italian barbeque today.

The Food

This barbeque was definitely NOT for vegetarians.  We drove up to Prato after stopping at the grocery store and picking another fellow local Prato Nevosoer up in Villanova.  Once we got there

Mattia and Giovanni

Mattia and I went over to the wood grill and saw what they were preparing.  This one thing of meat looked like it came from a dinosaur.  It was HUGE!  There were only going to be 25 people at the cook out but it looked as if we were going to be feeding a whole army. At the grocery store Simona bought about 5 Kilos of bread which is equal to 11 pounds.  That's a lot of bread!   I knew
absolutely no one, and after awhile of standing around and looking awkward I pulled out my Kindle and started reading.  Mattia had a found a friend named Giovanni and they were playing together.  Simona was off talking to some of the other locals and that left me with my Kindle.

I will also note that we got there at 11:30 in the morning.  We didn't leave till about 5:00 pm.  It was a LONG barbeque.  Everybody sat down and chose their seat at about 1:00.  That's when I made a huge mistake.  I sat next to the two most obnoxious Italians I have met since I've been in Italy.  The one guy was wearing a typical Italian Guido outfit of an Adidas track suit.  The other guy sitting next to him was his Guido friend who had a ton of hair gel.  Seriously...I couldn't have sat in a worse spot.  I asked Simona if she knew them, and she said no.  She had never seen them in Prato in her life.  Then why were they here at a barbeque for Prato locals?  Neither of us had a clue, other than they were seriously getting on my nerves.  The one guys laugh was like nails on a chalkboard.  They were either tipsy or completely drunk which only made matters worse.  They looked like they were only 17 or 18.  They kept whispering to each other as well and that also made me uneasy.  They might have been saying something about me, the little English girl who didn't know Italian.  I seriously had to get a picture of these guys for my blog, so halfway during lunch I slipped away to the car and grabbed my camera.  I wish I had my little pocket Canon to be less conspicuous but alas, it was broken, so I had to get my Canon T1I, which is anything but small.  I snapped about 3 photos without their knowledge just so I could document.  I could go into business as being the paparazzi. I was that good. :)

I kept telling the girls that with all the drama that went on this year at Prato Nevoso, we could have our own MTV Reality show called, "The Nannies of Prato". I think it really could have been a hit. Maybe.

The weather in Prato was seriously unpredictable this season. To say the least, it was pretty bad. We didn't get our first real snow fall till about January 31st. February was a decent ski/snowboarding month and then everything melted. Really kinda gross. Throughout the season we experienced some ups, downs and just nutsyness, but I wouldn't trade any of the times we had for all the money in the world. It's interesting how when you throw six women from all different parts of the globe onto one tiny tiny ski resort, the strange results that come out of it. People you might not necessarily be friends with back at home, become some of your best friends because they speak ENGLISH! English is definitely hard to come by in Piemonte, Italia.


We had our official last weekend together as a group of Nannies on April 7th. The lifts were closed and there was no snow to be found. We were suppose to have Spring Splash the day after Easter where you go down on skis/snowboard over a big pool of water and see if you can last without falling in. That got canceled, because like I said no snow. All of us Nannies have been leaving at different times throughout the year due to different events. Like I said...there's been drama, we could have our own TV show. :)

When I arrived, there were only three of us. Me, Jess G, The Canadian, and Amy the Australian. My first night out in Prato with these two girls proved to be very interesting. It was a nice "welcome to Prato" kind of present. Both were use to Prato as they had been Nannies the year before. I was just a green, naive little Noobie. Around Christmas time we added J. Berg who is also a fellow American from Vermont. She was off gallivanting around Colombia, by herself mind you, for about a month. This girl has been everywhere! Colombia, Thailand, Norway, and backpacking Europe, all by herself. She's crazy, but in a good way and I strive to be more like her. All three of these girls worked at Prato last year, so they were all friends before and like I said, I was the "new girl". It was difficult to get use to at first because they would swap stories about last year's adventures and I just had to sit there in silence, as I had absolutely nothing to add to the conversation.

Then came Anne. Little South African Anne. She had been in Prato for the whole month of January before she found the four of us. Poor thing. Anne was my saving grace while I was in Villanova. During the ski season the family and I would stay in Villanova from Tuesday to Friday and then go to Prato on the weekends. During the week Mattia would be at school, so that left me with 8 hours in a town of 6,000 people with no car and nothing to do. Anne had to take the girl she watched to school, so in the morning her and I would do daily shopping trips to Mondovicino. Anne was good company, but definitely not good for my wallet.

Lastly, we added Megan to the group. Megan was an Au Pair of one of Simona's friends and we ended up getting in contact over text messaging. The first weekend Megan was in Prato she was literally swept off her feet by one of the snowboard instructors. We were suppose to meet at this place called Sporting and then once she got there, she tells me this story about how this guy Ivan, picked her up and snowboarded with her down the slope on the way to Sporting. Needless to say, they're still dating.

So that's all the Nannies. I've had a stinkin blast with all of them and like I said, I wouldn't trade the experiences of this ski season for anything. My favorite night would probably have to be the night that J. Berg, Me and Amy went to Cuneo and danced the night away. It was super fun, and something I won't be forgetting anytime soon!


Jess G was the first one to leave. She left in mid-March and it was sad to see her go. I wasn't able see her off as the girls went to the sea for the weekend and I had to stay and watch Mattia. Anne was the second to leave. She was suppose to stay longer, but her family really didn't need her anymore, and paid to have her flight moved up. Then we had to say goodbye to Amy. The Hotel she was staying at closed early due to the fact there wasn't any snow and she was kind of stranded for a week. She worked it out though and now she's safely home in Auz. So that leaves just the three little Americans left, although we're strewn all over Italy. I got to see Jess last weekend, and hopefully I'll see Megan next week. So it's not a total goodbye yet. It has been a good season in spite of no snow and I'm looking forward to the day where I might go to Australia, South Africa, and Canada to meet up with my fellow Au Pairs again!

Easter was a little different this year. Normally I start it off in my Sunday best for the morning Easter service. We open Easter baskets and then head off to the service. I know I'm 24 but we still do Easter baskets. I also did not do an Easter Egg hunt or color eggs. This has been a tradition for like the past 4 years. I looked for colored plastic eggs here in Italy, but alas I couldn't find any. I've done an Easter egg hunt in the office for co-workers last year and the year before Kelsey and I hid about 100 Easter eggs in the woods at home. My friends and I only found about 50 of them. I think we hid them a little too well. Whoopsy!! SOYEE!! :)

Mariella and Ronaldo were good little Catholics and went to the Easter service at the church in Prato. I wanted to go, but at the same time didn't because it's all in Italian and I can't really understand anything the priest is saying. Plus, I really didn't want to get up early, and lastly I'm not Catholic. So that was my reasoning for not going.

We had Easter lunch after they arrived back from church. Mattia started off the lunch by opening #6 of his massive chocolate Easter eggs he had received from various people. Here in Italy, they don't really do Easter baskets but all the kids receive these huge chocolate eggs wrapped in pretty plastic paper. His total count was 8 eggs. Needless to say we have a Tupper ware box filled with chocolate pieces that we will all be snacking on till August. Mariella made a lovely spread of shrimp, and kind of sort of deviled eggs, but instead of mayonnaise and mustard they were filled with tuna, mayonnaise and some other kind of sauce. They were really good, but really rich.

For the main course we had pasta. Now this wasn't any kind of normal pasta to me. It was a tad bit different. I started eating it, and seriously it was so good. But then I started to take a closer look. That's when I saw a tiny octopus tentacle with suckers on it. The pasta we were eating was seafood pasta. I like seafood to a certain extent, but I'm allergic to shellfish (they make my tongue swell and feel icky) and I'm not particularly fond of the fishy taste. Like I said, the pasta was delicious, so not to harp on Mariella's cooking, but I have a hard time eating things that look the way they use to when they were alive. Aka Octopus tentacles. I look at Simona and ask while holding it up, "Is this Octopus?" She smiled and said, "Don't ask. Just eat." So that's what I did. I put the tentacle back in the pasta and mixed it around so I wouldn't know where it was. I ate without looking. But then after I was almost done, I took a bite and I knew it was that tentacle because I could feel the suckers on my tongue. I almost ALMOST spit it out, but I had Simona, Mattia, Gianluca, Mariella, Anita, and Ronaldo all sitting there and I did NOT want to be rude and make a spectacle. So I just swallowed it down without a word. It was a very interesting Easter meal. At home Easter dinner normally consists of ham, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, and some kind of salad. I liked the real Italian meal though. It was different than what I was use to.

At the end of the meal I had to get a family picture. At home, it's just tradition for us to get a picture as a family all dressed up in our Sunday best. I took a picture of the whole family and I absolutely love it because I think it shows everyone's personalities pretty well. Take a Look for yourself. :)

Day two of our excursion, Megan and I said goodbye to wonderful Andrea and headed to the train station. We sauntered our way through Monterosso because we thought we had plenty of time. Well we didn't. There was a HUGE line at the ticket booth for the trains and while I paid and got our train tickets, Megan hurried along to get some breakfast brioche. They didn't have Nutella. :( We just made our train in the nick of time. We didn't really have a plan for the day other than seeing Portofino so everything else was kind of just up in the air. I kind of like it that way...sometimes.

Once off the train in Santa Margherita we had to figure out a way to get to Portofino. It's not accessible by train, so we had to find the next best thing. A bus. We were running around like little chickens with our heads cut off trying to find a place to buy bus tickets because the bus to Portofino was just sitting right outside the train station waiting. Come to find out, we could just buy them on the bus. Go figure. The drive to Portofino was absolutely stunning and Megan and I were right next to the window. I opened the window to get some fresh air because the bus was packed and stuffy. Some man came by and closed it on me though because the old bitty's in the back of the bus were getting cold. Seriously? SERIOUSLY!?! DON'T TOUCH MY WINDOW!!! I just gave him a look and kept it closed. He felt my stare though. Oh I know he did!



Once the bus pulled into the little parking lot above the marina we were greeted by Wisteria. WONDAHFUL!! Portofino was absolutely beautiful. Simona doesn't think it's that pretty and wonders why it's famous, but she grew up in Genova, so that doesn't count. :) When you're not use to seeing Mega Yachts, blue Mediterranean Sea, and brightly colored buildings all piled on top of each other, it's pretty stinkin gorgeous. Megan and I had to get some sustenance as we were pretty hungry, so we bought bananas. Everything in the port is pretty expensive so .40 cent bananas will have to do.



We walked up to the top of this hill where we had a bird's eye view of the port. It was just so beautiful. Can I say that enough? I would love to be there in the summer time to actually swim in the water. It looked so inviting. I guess we could've swam, but it would've been pretty cold. I was obsessed with this one sail boat that had a Mast the size of Texas. This boat was seriously huge!! I just wanted to find the owner's and be like, "Hey, I like your boat. Wanna take me for a ride?" That probably wouldn't have worked, but it's worth a shot!! On our way out of the Port I had to find a post card and Megan made fun of me. This is just what I do when I go places. Find a post card and a pin and I was successful with both!! Yeah for me.

We stopped in Santa Margherita for some eats at this place called Ristorante Colombo. Megan got the gnocchi with pesto (something I'm not very fond of) and I got the vegetarian pizza.
It was so good with peppers, eggplant and zucchini on top! HEAVEN! We ate right on the water side and it was just so pretty. After our big day out we had to catch the train back to Prato where Ivan was kind enough to pick us up. What a nice boy! So we were off to spend our last night in the little ski resort town. Such a perfect little ending!

04-06-2012

Anyway, I met Megan at the train station. She was coming from Alba which was about a 3 ½ hour train ride. I only had about a 20 minute ride to Monterosso, the first town of the Cinque Terre. We made it there and seriously you can’t get any better than the Mediterranean. The water is soooo BLUE! We wandered around and found our hotel called “Albego Carugio”. Not the best location but it was only 75 Euros a night and split two ways that was pretty sweet. It also was right next to a lemon orchard which was so pretty! Our “romantic” weekend started with Andrea, the hotel owner and nicest man ever, telling us that he didn’t know we needed twin beds, so we had to have a queen. Just our luck. Oh well…it’s been done before. After dropping our stuff off we headed for the train, but first we had to grab something to drink because we were parched! We took the train to the last Cinque Terre town called, “Riomaggiore”. This place was absolutely beautiful. They all are, but Rio wasn’t affected by any of the flooding in October like Vernazza and Monterosso experienced.

Riomaggiore starts the trail of the Via dell’Amore. The walk was simply beautiful. To start the trail they had locks all over the gate. Something about putting a lock on the Via dell’Amore cements your love forever I guess. While I walked it, I wondered how many of these couples who plastered their names and sayings over the cement wall, or put up locks on the trail were actually still together. It would be an interesting study to perform. Maybe I’ll have to track them down and find out. :) The trail went right by the ocean and like I said, was STUNNING! It was funny walking the trail of love with Megan. Haha...we took a pic on the little "love seat" looking lost and alone. Nice. Once we reached the end of the trail we were in Manarola. I had already been to Manarola back in January with Jess, but I was glad to be back again. Unfortunately, due to the flooding in October, the trail from Manarola to Corniglia was closed. Too many landslides I guess. It started to rain on us, so Megan and I grabbed a piece of Focaccia and hung out till it ceased. We spent about an hour there and then hopped the train to Corniglia.


Corniglia is unique in the 5 fishing villages because it’s the only one without direct access to the sea. We had to climb 389 steps to the top. Megan made two friends from the Netherlands. She was obsessed with Cleo, a very huge dog, and her owner nine year old Leaf. Leaf didn’t know English, only Dutch, so I don’t think they had much of a friendship. Once we got to the top, the town was so quaint. I kinda loved it. We bought gelato at a little place and tried to trek down to the sea. That was a stupid idea since we only had an hour and we already climbed 389 steps up the top that we would have to climb back down again in order to catch our train. We just wandered around everywhere. Megan wandered onto some woman’s private B&B which was so funny. The lady called down from the window “Chi sei?” Meaning who are you? Megan replied, “No, lo so” (I don’t know) and just ran away. It started to sprinkle again so we took cover in one of the beautiful little doorways. Waited out the rain and RAN to the train down all 389 stairs. We were pretty breathless once we got to the station.

04-05-2012

I knew it was going to be a good weekend when I saw Wisteria growing from a stone wall on my way to the train station. The purple flower looked as if it exploded all over the wall and it was absolutely breathtaking! If you don’t know what Wisteria is, you should Google it, but I’m sure you’ll see plenty of Wisteria just in this post alone in order to get your fill and realize what exactly Wisteria is.

Let me give you the background of my obsession with Wisteria. One year ago in the spring of 2011, I saw this play called “Enchanted April” my Alma Mater put on. Me and my friends had a girl’s night out and went and saw it. The play was about these two British women who had kind of lost the flavor of life being in their mundane routine in England. So they decide to rent a house in Italy. Well to make a long story short their time spent in Italy in all the “Wisteria & Sunshine” changed their lives. The set was decked out with flowers and Wisteria everywhere! They kept repeating the line over and over about “Wisteria and Sunshine”. We girls just had a good time at the show and the play was simply lovely. So, Wisteria has a feel good place in my heart. I never really realized the truth of that play till I came to Italy and was able to experience the enormous amounts of Wisteria and sunshine for myself.

My amazing Wisteria filled weekend did not start off so well. Unfortunately, I missed my train to Savona due to several factors. Number one being, we left the house a little late. Number two stupid cars don’t know how to drive, and number three the man in front of me in the ticket line was sitting there chatting up a storm to little miss Trenitalia employee while his daughter kept twirling the little turn table that you put your money in to pay. I finally was like “PERMESSO!! EXCUSATAMI!” (pushed annoying man and daughter out of the way. I’m terrible I know). I bought my ticket and ran towards the tracks, just in time to wave goodbye to my train. Now I had to wait an extra hour at the Mondovi Train station. The Mondovi Train station is ick. Just saying. Anyway, it just put me an hour later to meet up with my pal Jess in Sestri Levante.

We had a splendid afternoon filled with eating, eating, and more eating. Whenever I go to the Italian Riviera I have to get my fill of three things. Focaccia is the highest on the list. I don’t care what is on it, I just want Focaccia. Second is my specialty coffee. If you read my previous posts you understand my obsession with espresso, Nutella, and panna (Pah-nay; cream) all rolled into one splendiferous drink. Lastly is gelato. I’m not nuts about ice cream at all; even gelato for that matter, but something about seeing sand, palm trees, and the Mediterranean just gives me a HUGE hankering for it. We ate, walked a little bit. Ate and walked a little bit more. Last time I was in Sestri we hiked this whole super long trail that took us about 2 hours. This time we just went up to this Hotel that was pretty much forbidden for us to be there, but we tried to act like we were Hotel guests. I was in Adidas pants and a tank top and Jess was reppin Jeans and a tank. We didn’t look overly wealthy, or remotely the type of patrons that would frequent this type of Hotel. We just tried to blend. Our excuse for if anyone asked us why we were there, was Jess was getting married and was scoping out wedding venues. Pretty clever I must say. :) Yep I came up with that one.

We walked around and took in the sights, which were beautiful. Wisteria was everywhere and I kept snapping away with my camera. I think Jess thought I was nuts. Oh well. After our hike to the top of the little hilly thing we headed for the port. We found ourselves some perfect rocks and laid out. Perfection! Well it was perfection until my bladder started screaming at me. Then I had to find a hole in the rock and pop a squat. It was difficult because there wasn’t much privacy and beyond the rocks was a huge wall where people were standing and taking pictures. Speaking of taking pictures, Jess was nice enough to snap one of me in mid pee. I’m sure you wanted to know that, but I had to say. After our little nap sunning ourselves we headed to Aperitivo. We walked around for about 15 minutes trying to find the perfect place. We had ourselves some prime people watching. I don’t know what it is about Italians, maybe it’s the romance of the Mediterranean Sea, but these people love to make out everywhere. We saw about 4 today. While we’re sitting there, just enjoying our food and drinks these people stop in the middle of the road and just start going at it. Ahh…Love. :) Anyway, it was a perfect day filled with Wisteria, Food, hiking, food, sea, and food. Wisteria and Sunshine + Food = Perfection. :)