And the What city am I in? winner is... Anne!! Congratulations, and check your email!
I am in Milano.
To get in touch with the winner, I clicked on her name where she left the comment. Her name led me to her blog, I turn my camera on, where she has published the most amazing pictures of places that make me dream. Here's one, chosen almost at random since there were so many beauties:
So, yes. I've been staying with my cousin La Divina and her ragazzo! She's the one I offered to help last night, since she had to leave on a last minute business trip today. Hang laundry to dry so a sista has time to prepare for a client meeting? Anytime!!As a matter of fact, last night I was so tired and viral that I totally skipped over the (slightly) more dramatic asking!
Yesterday I spent the day at Lake Como with a group of their friends. We had lunch at a polenteria, which does for polenta with the Bubba Gump Company does for shrimp. Fries it, boils it, bakes it n' broils it. I suggested -- indeed, asked outright -- if we could order fewer dishes and share them, since we were planning a spate of appetizers, a first course, a second course, sides, and a dessert, coffee and grappa finale. Maybe six portions for eight people?
I wasn't trying to boss anyone around, but I thought it made sense, since everyone seemed worried that it would be too much food.
The idea was rejected the same way my various other requests have been approved -- enthusiastically.
"No way!!! That's just not how things are done in Italy!!!"
Okay!!!
I ended up with more food than I could handle, but there were enough supereaters in the group (one guy in particular, was phenomenal -- he had the wild mane, cool smile and devastating but elegant precision of a lion tearing into a gazelle) that not even a sliver of salami was spared.
At the end, though, they were beating each other up for drinking more water than wine. "We're losers! Lightweights! An embarrassment!! Impossible!!"
It was a lovely meal and a lovely day. Afterward, to walk off 3000 of the 15,000 calories we'd just collectively enjoyed, we went for a short hike. Here's a happy cow, clinking bell and all, here's where I have decided to move if I ever become a cheesemaker.
Speaking of vocations. Back to today. I asked for something banal, career oriented, practical. And important. I'm applying for jobs, and I asked a friend back in the states to look over a version of my cover letter. She's a pro, a total whiz, and her opinion is worth its weight in gold: weightless, ergo priceless.I don't know what's in store tomorrow.
But on Wednesday, guess what: I'm heading to Tuscany, for round two of my research. If Milan was low key, asking wise, since I had a clingy cold and a long professional to-do list, I promise to push the envelope in wine country.
un bacio,
La Roxy
