Buon Natale!

As in many european cities, christmas was one of the most important holidays celebrated in Italy. The towns are filled with decoration of colorful lights. Christmas markets, selling christmas related gifts and tidbits can be found on the city streets. In the evening, it was a lively atmosphere as many people go out in the streets.

In this season, most Italian would go back to their hometown and spend time with their families.


In churches, they usually have the nativity scene depicted inside. Some churches have evening mass or late night mass during the christmas eve.

It was not a white christmas, as I thought it would be. Well, perhaps chrstmas was not meant to be white in the first place.

Christmas in modern days would be a season of giving. Warm moments for family gathering. A point to ponder and give thanks. A festival of celebration. These are wonderful aspects for christmas as seen by people all over the world.

But first and foremost, Christmas was as depicted in the nativity scene:
The night was dark. So was human life.
But even within the darkness, a light appeared, in human form.
Not from a palace nor with glorious splendor.
Just a small baby in a humble manger.
Still, what was but a small light in the town of Betlehem has become the light of the world.
The light of us.

Happy birthday Jesus!

Caldonazzo Lake

Not very var from Trento, there is another lake called Caldonazzo lake. We reached the place within half an hour by train.

It was one morning, end of autumn. The wheather was pretty cold and no one else was there. The lake seems pristine so that you can almost see the reflection of the mountains on the water. As with other lakes, there are lots of ducks here as well.

I like this kind of stuff, just sitting by the lake and enjoying the scenery. The still waters. It makes your mind kinda relax.

Right before we left, we had some coffee in a nearby bar. A nice countryside atmosphere.
People were friendly though they don't speak much english. I left my bag in the bar and went to the station. Just as I realized it and was going to go back, an elderly man ran to me and returned my bag. Another act of kindness there :D.

Cooking Chronicles (4): Pasta

Pasta is a typical Italian dish. There is an exciting variety of shapes for pasta. From noodle, wheel, pipe, spiral and many other. And the raw pasta are typically less expensive than rice.

In this case the pasta used is the noodle shaped one, a bit thicker than typical spaghetti.

Cooking pasta is basically just boiling then adding tomato sauce or meat sauce. In this serving, I boiled the pasta with some vegetables ( those used for wantan noodle) and sausage. then mix the meat sauce, cream (derived from milk) and cheese. Fry for a while and serve hot.

Jessica's Kitchen

After some time of vacuum due to the blogger bug and midterm exam, now it's time to write again.
We were invited by our Pastor Joel to his house in Verona to have lunch together. He leads our student bible study group held near our apartments.
It's unfortunate that some of us could not make it for the lunch. His wife, Jessica, does great cooking. We had a good amount of rice and turkey dishes. Italian style.
What impressed me was more of the family itself. They have four wonderful, nice children. They're obedient but not shy to talk with guests. There was a lively atmosphere around as we spent the whole evening playing with the kids and getting to know the family.
We missed the train back and had to wait for some time. But I guess, the visit has been worthwhile.

Rome Trip (5):Vatican

The trip to Rome would not be complete without going and see the Vatican City. One of the smallest countries in the world, the city has been the center for Roman Catholics.

We did not go inside the city, only the outer part where lies the Saint Peter's Square. Masses are held every Wednesdays and Sundays. We went around 8.30 am amidst the morning rain, the free ticket to attend the mass with the pope is already no more. So we could only join the mass from the outside.

Unfortunately, we could not visit Sistine Chapel, within Vatican Museum, since it was a public holiday. We did not realize that until we went there.

It was good though to be able to enter St Peter Basilica in the afternoon. It is really a huge church.

And the view from the top of the basilica was awesome. It was tiring to go all the way up, but it was worth it.

Rome Trip (4): Day Scenes

Some more pictures are there from the buildings we visited during the day. The first is the back view from San Maria Maggiore church. Second is inside the Tomb of an Unknown Soldier. It's pretty big, I am just small compared to the pillars. Last image is on the Spanish Steps. It looks really beautiful during sunset. So many people were there so it's rather crowded

Rome Trip (3): Night Scenes

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. At this time I'm quite lazy to write so here they are. We roam around rome at night as well, until past midnight. I think we had too much energy and excitement.

The first picture is piazza republica, one of the bigger piazza (squares) in rome. The second one is Trevi Fountain, the lighting effect sure is nice. Below is the tomb of an unknown soldier. This monument is probably built to commemorate the soldiers died in the war.

Rome Trip (2): The Colosseum

The first site that we visited was the colosseum. This gigantic structure is said to be the largest of all amphitehaters in the roman empire.

The queue was pretty long with all the tourists around since morning. I was a little disappointed when we managed to get in because it has become more of a ruins now. I actually prefer the Arena in Verona, because it is more of a complete structure than this.

It took us 11 euros per head to get in or 6 for european union people, lucky them. Inside, people just walk around the structure. When we came, there were some exhibition going on about this epic of Iliad. Not much of a tourist attraction.

Another one, just beside the colosseum, was the Roman Forum, this site is just like colosseum, has become not more of an archeological sites of ruins from the roman empire.

Rome Trip (1)

After a few weeks of planning, we finally manage to go to Italy's capital, Rome, the eternal city. This is after around 8 hours of travel from Trento by Train.

The night train (espresso) is surprisingly comfortable, although we didn't opt for the sleeping compartment, the normal compartment can be used for sleeping with some adjustment to the chair. The only drawback is that it can be pretty cold in the early morning.

We arrived at 6 am in the morning, had breakfast then put our stuff in the youth hostel.
The room has 8-bedrooms and since we had 13 people, occupying one room fully for us and another room shared with other people. The hostel itself is conveniently located near the main terminal, priced at euro 13.50 per bed per night.

We bought the daily ticket for public transport, which we used only twice a day. Central rome is full of tourist sites. Most of the sites there is located near to each other, perhaps a 10 or 15 minutes walk will take you from one site to another. So we did a lot of walking around rome.

One Litre of Tears

I was watching this series sometimes back. Apart from the cute actress, I like the way it portrays human struggle. A sad story indeed, but not despair. It is based on a true story which happened around 20 years back.

The story is about a highschool girl, Aya, which is diagnosed with a disabling disease. The disease affects her brain and will gradually limit her motoric functions. Most of the story deals with how she tries to cope with it as it worsened each day.

As a human we deal with limitations. Everybody might have one or two. Some people have more and some other less. Some physical, some emotional, some other conditions. These limitations show that we are only human ( one of the OST title for the series).

The more important point is how we deal with these struggles. Someday in heaven, there will be no more tears and pain, no more sadness and distress, as God promised. But until then, we need to hold on and never lose hope.

Cooking Chronicles (3): Satay

During my first month in Italy, I looked in vain for the peanut butter. Apparently Italians don't use peanut butter much for bread. After some time, thanks to the Thai Asian shop, I managed to find one.

Besides bread, peanut butter can be used to make the satay sauce. So I decided to give it a try.

Sauce: peanut butter, onion and water with a bit of oil . Just fry for a while. Adjust the thickness as you want it.

Meat: Turkey and pork meat cut into smaller pieces. Mix them with coconut milk ( or yoghurt). Fry some garlic with a bit of oil then put in the meat. Add lots of sweet soya sauce and fry until everything dried up.

Valley of the Sun

Two weeks back we went for a hiking, the place chosen was Marileva, within the Trentino region. We went from the height of 900 m up to to 1400 m.

The place was fresh and green, with river flowing from the top of the mountain. Also it was pretty steep sometimes. On the 1400m height, we could see the cloud below us in the valley just between this mountain and the other mountain across.

We went from there and aim to go to the nearby lake, but apparently it was too far. So we went back. We went back through the same path and it so happened that some guy approach us and said that we entered private property. After a friendly chat with the carabinieri, we went through other direction.

This was more difficult as we didn't really know which way to go and the sign was not clear. Fortunately, we met someone and managed to find a way down.

The walk downhill is tougher because it was steep and we should hold our steps most of the time. Finally after around 8 km of downhill walk, we reached the Valley of the Sun or Val di Sole. The scenery was beautiful. Green grasslands, mountains and rivers, just felt peaceful.

Colors of Autumn

Autumn would be the season with many colors. As the temperature drops, the trees are preparing to drop their leaves and change their color in the process.

The trees have different characteristics as well as resilience. Some may still be able to adapt to the cold climate. And so the colors produced would be different. Red, yellow, orange light green, brown. I have yet to see the trees with a blue leaves though.


The scene is good, but it started to get cold to go outside and take pictures. Maybe sometime soon we will need to wear the thick clothes.

Cooking Chronicles (2): Corn Soup

Corn soup has always been one of my favourite home made dish. The best ones come with shredded crab meat. But since it takes some effort to extract and shred the meat, I settled for wurstel, cheap and easy. In place of sugar I used honey since I bought too much and don't use it often.

Inggredients: garlic, oil, honey (6 teaspoon), eggs (2) , corn flour (2 tablespoon), canned corn (1 can), wurstel (2 big pieces).

First, mix the eggs with the honey and corn flour and a bit of water. Then heat the oil in the pot, low fire. Put garlic until the aroma is good. Then put the corn in and the wurstel ( I had put some water instead and a lot of smoke came out) . Only then put the mix and some water.

I needed to adjust the taste in the process, honey for sweetness, corn flour for thickness. After some time and everything starts to boil, take and serve.

Things We Often Take for Granted

A few days after coming to Italy, I realized that there are some unusual things that we need to pay for:

-Coperto
When you go to a restaurant, there is this seating charge, counted on per head basis. That time there were 9 of us, so we paid 9 x 1.2 total 10.80 euros for the chair. Some restaurant absorb the seating charge. Some simply omit the chair, so people stand and eat their meal.



-Borse
In the supermarket, just before you pay, the cashier at the counter will ask if you want any borse, that is, plastic bag. Each bag will be charged at 5 cents. You may bring your own plastic bag. A good way to avoid wastage of plastic bag.

Gardaland

Last week we went to Gardaland. It is the biggest amusement park in Italy. And it happened to be just one and a half hour away from Trento.

It is not much different than other amusement parks. Roller coaster, rides, shows, kiddies stuff. There were quite a lot of people since the park opens only during weekends.

Tickets are sold on per day basis, so basically with the ticket ( 25 euros) you get to play everything. As a result people often play indiscriminately. Some attractions, require up to 30 minutes of queuing time for less than 10 minutes of experience. So, it is not really possible to cover everything in one day, we probably got only around 60 % of the stuff.

The atlantic experince was by far the one I liked the most. They involve mythical creatures and ruins exploration in a small boat. Many people prefer the adrenaline pumping attraction. I got dizzy with the roller coaster so I did not play much with the adrenaline. Probably just not my kind of things.

A Classic Love Story

The classical love story Romeo and Juliet has been made a theme in Verona. They have the balcony where Romeo visited Juliet (shown) and even the tomb of Juliet. It was a bitter love story ended with the death of the lovers.

The guide booklet said the story even sparked an event run from Romeo's house to Juliet's house. I am curious to find out how long the distance he ran.

The story is surely dramatic. But real love is probably not anywhere near as impulsive as this. Even in daily mundanes when we express our concerns and appreciation to other people, love grows stronger. It is when the love has been tested over time that we know if it is a real love.

Cooking Chronicles (1): Pork with Soy Sauce

These posts on cooking chronicles will talk about the experimental cooking I do throughout. I don't have much culinary skills though. Starting off, I have only done up to instant noodles.

First few cookings was about pasta. My first pasta was hard and requires effort to eat. So I learned, until I can cut the pasta in the pot, it should not be taken out.

Then continue with rice. Put all the inggredients ( rice, veggie, meat, salt) into the pot and see what came out of it. The result was pretty much edible. It was plain though. Sometimes I get proper rice, at other times I get porridge . .

After a few weeks, and I got the required sauce from the Thai shop, I proceed to try some real cooking. It was pork. Put the garlic and onion and fry them in oil. Then came the carrot and meat. Keep on frying. Add some salt, oyster sauce and sweet soya sauce. Then put egg.
So it became pork in soy sauce - babi masak kecap.

The taste was pretty decent. But its probably because of the pork. Should try some other meat soon.

The Roman Heritage

We went to Verona last weekend. I did not know that Verona is a tourist spot until recently. The city is just an hour train from Trento.

One of the attraction in the city was the Arena. It is a roman amphiteater used for gladiator fights in the past and to host cultural events now. It is a large structure made entirely of stone (not bricks) . The structure resembles a modern day sports stadium. Perhaps the sport stadiums are modeled after amphiteaters to be able to house many people.

These two roman soldiers were posing outside of the Arena, attending to tourists who would like to take pictures. For a fee, of course. Cosplays do take a different theme here as compared to Japan.

Duckies

Garda Lake is the largest lake in Italy. We went to Riva del Garda, a town just on the tip of the lake. It has this majestic view with the two cliffs surrounding the lake. It was pretty misty when we went, so the outer parts were not too clear.

We took the cycle boats (5 persons per boat ) to roam around the waters. Tourists were not the only ones there. There were the duckies, swannies and fishies. Some of the ducks were actually trying to fly. They flapped their wings and tap their feet on the waters. Nice try.

I wonder if the ducks feel secure here with humans around them. They don't seem to be shy around people. If it were in Indonesia, the number of ducks might be steadily decreasing. Maybe Italians dont eat that much ducks.

Arco Castle

Last weekend we went to Riva Del Garda, on the tip of the Garda Lake. It is around one hour journey from Trento. As it is still in the same region of Trentino, the transport is included with the yearly bus pass we paid in advance (a saving of 6.6 euros for the round trip journey) .

We made a stop at Arco to visit the castle. The castle is more like ruins now. As with most castles, it is built on top of a hill to gain a more strategic position for surveillance and warfare.

Sword and axes has always drawn my attention more than guns and bullets. The medieval fighters seem to be stronger and the appearance of mythical creatures usually makes the story more interesting.

Even when it is now empty, the castle still has a trace of its past glory. And also it felt good to look from the top of the hill to the small town below.

A City on the Water (2)

St Mark's Basilica has been one of the main tourist attraction in Venice. We went there through the canals. The place was fully crowded and it was not easy to move around.

So we just played with the pigeons around the piazza. There were a lot of them and they were surprisingly aggressive. I did not bring any seeds when the pigeons started to surround me and the group. I wonder if they like to eat dandruff too.

As it would take too much time to go into the basilica due to the long queue, we decided to go somewhere else.

Next stop was a beach on another island. Apart from the seagulls hovering on the beach, I guess most of the things are no different than the beaches elsewhere.

From there we went to a glass factory. They have a demonstration of glasscraft making, just in front of the furnance. It was pretty impressive as they can do one craft (fish shaped) for less than 5 minutes. In the outside was the shop selling different kind of glass souvenir. Tourist price.

The cemetery was next. We did not know it was a cemetery until we went in. Looks more like a fortified island from the outside. There were walls all around the island. The place was more tranquil and peaceful. I guess not many tourist went there.

We went to a park before going back to Trento. The leaves were turning yellow signifying the autumn period. It has a good ambience with the sea in the background. Maybe next time we could go again and visit Venice.

A City on the Water (1)

Yay, first group trip in Italy. Venezia or also called Venice is one of the famous tourist spots in Italy. The city has a main island and several small islands separated by canals or small seas.

It is 3-hours journey by Train from Trento, so we departed early morning and came back late night. Return ticket costs around 13 euros.

Water has been the main transport means in Venice. A river bus is the most common transport means here as it is relatively cheap and the places are separated by canals. They charge 12 euros for a single day travel in all the buses. It is basically a boat for many passengers. Alternatively, people can go for river taxis. Gondolas are still used, but only for tourists.

It was interesting to see how the structures were built taking the rivers into account. You can have a house with your doorstep just in front of the Grand Canal. The people seems to naturally live with the waters around them. And the public transport seems convenient too. Every 10-15 mins, a bus will come with a fixed destinations.

Like most tourist spots, the prices get doubled or tripled here as compared to Trento. Most public toilets, for example, would charge 1 euro per entry. They're really into the water business.

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing

I have wondered if the Europeans have a better quality of life. Perhaps they do.

The picture here shows a typical opening hours for the shops (and maybe businesses) in Italy. Morning open 9 - 12 am and afternoon 3 - 7 pm, 3 hours break.

In the offices, a lunchtime of 2 hours is more common. In Sundays, only the restaurants are open. Everything else is closed.

It is a contrast in Singapore where I lived before. With all the extended office hours and shop opening hours, people tend to be rushing most of the time. In Italy, people tend to be more relaxed. You can see the whole family go for the evening stroll together. It is here in Italy, the phrase La dolce far niente ("The sweetness of doing nothing") sprang up.

But of course, the idea of quality of life still differs for each person. Maybe for a workaholic, the idea of doing nothing would sound like a torture. Let's leave that to our individual preferences.

Wine

Wine is one of the main product of Trento. Along the alps you can see many grape fields. So wine is not expensive around. Prices start from around 2 euros for a 0.75 litre bottle.

Here I started to drink different kinds of wine. Red wine. White wine. Not sure yet how people get drunk with wine, for me the effect is that I become sleepy and sleep better.

This is the first time I see an actual grape tree. There is one vine below and the branches go everywhere around the man-made structure. Seems like the branches are more prominent. But without the vine, I don't think they can produce anything. As Christ said " I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. . ."

Chicken Curry

When I was planning to go as a student in Italy, I knew that I had to learn to cook something. At least some pasta or something simple.

Little did I expect to cook something as big as a . . chicken curry . . Well, actually I just help to cut the chicken and follow instruction from my roommate. The masalla spices and all the other Indian spices were provided, just need to mix and put them in. It was actually a good experience for me. I had never gone beyond instant noodle and egg before.

We ate it with rice which brings back normal eating experience. After some time eating pizzas, pastas and bread, the whole thing tasted so good :p. The whole chicken lasted two dinners for around 5 people.

From the Home of Pizza

In Trento, pizzerias(bar selling pizza) are everywhere. I have always thought that ordering pizza is simple, normally in pizza hut, you can just see the picture and choose what to order. But there is a problem now when the menu is in Italian. I don't really know much of Italian. The bar waiter does not speak english. Perfect.

Let's see, we have mozarella, pomodoro, salamino, prosciutto, tonno, gorgonzola, cipolla, melanzane, zucchine . . arrgh . . . The first time I saw the menu I was lost. Now is better, at least I would know which one has meat and which one is vegetarian. :p

Well, actually the pizzas are pretty decent. They are wide but the bread is very thin. And the cheese feels thick. No, I don't take pictures of the pizzas. I eat them.

This makes me want to learn Italian sooner. At least I won't be so lost when ordering food.

Living in the Mountains

The flat I stayed in is in the beautiful mountains area called Povo. The wheather is cold and the air is refreshing. But it is not a small feat going up and down the hill everyday. Around 2 km from the faculty and 7 km from the city.

The main problem here is that not all people speaks English. Or I would rather say only the course is in English. Everything else is in Italian. Need to catch up with the Italian language soon. In the meanwhile, parla Inglese?

Starting a blog

Starting out a blog to record my Journey in Europe as part as Erasmus Mundus programme. More posts coming soon.