Pretty clearly the best night sleep of the trip. The room can be dark and cold and the bed is very comfortable. Not sure what I am going to do but I may rent a bike and ride for an hour before everyone else gets up and going.
Early Morning Walk and Bike Ride
I went outside and walked over to the bike place just in case he opened earlier than the 8:30 he said, but I wound up walking down the bike trail and into a little bit of Zibello. Mr. Bike Guy-without-a-shirt, later determined to be Lucca, arrived about 8:40 and he got me set up and I was on the road in about five minutes. He didn’t ask for any money or ID; he just let me take the bike. I road about 3 or 4 four K towards Busseto and even rode down to take a quick look at a church in one small town. I got back almost exactly at 9:30 and Christine was standing outside the room waiting. Peggy and Gary were already over at La Buca–inside. I think we had had enough of the flies.
Out for a morning cuise.
My ride. Took me a while to realize that Lucca had given me the best bike. No gears, but notice the super cushy seat.
Maybe we will take in the Tripe Festival tonight in Zibello.
Breakfast and a Cullatello Tour
When we arrived yesterday, we found out that breakfast was in fact included. We are not being charged for it but the room now costs 90 Euro with breakfast included. For breakfast we had cappuccino, yogurt, fresh fruit. I actually ate my first fresh apricot. Luckily we did not get any super dry cracker rolls.
After breakfast we got Lucca to show us the Culatello cellar which was great and we think the Peggy got Mama to agree to cooking us a special meal including Torta Fritta. This could be amazing and expensive ha ha.
Fresh fruit for breakfast.
Culatello tour of the La Buca back cave.
We went back to the room and at around 10:45 we all went over to the bike place. Bike Guy was mowing the lawn so his wife set us all up. No talk of ID or money, we just got the bikes and took off.
Biking to Busseto
Our plan was to head to Busseto and have lunch then come back. Most of the trail was on what was like a giant levee next to the Po river that snakes through farm land. Once in a great while a car or a piece of farm equipment appears, but most of the time it is deserted. Early in the morning there were tons of people but by now it was too hot for many with sense to be out for long. AT one point we left this trail and actually rode on the road. We made a detour to ride to Verdi’s estate in S. Agate, but we turned around before we got there wanting to get to Busseto as soon as we could.
We went to a different place, Café Verdi, for lunch on the other side of town and had polenta, pasta and water. And this time it made total sense to have a coffee. I was really tired and almost fell asleep, but the food and the coffee perked me up for the trip home.
Chillin’ in the Meat Locker
Once we made it back at just a little after three, we have just been chillin’ in our luxuriously cool room watching the Tour de France on the television.
Dinner Number Two at La Buca from Mama Miriam
We had spoken to Mama Miriam after breakfast and put our dinner into her hands. The greatest news was that she said she would make us Torta Fritta to start the meal.
Lucca, our host and husband of Mariam;s daughter, Laura sat down for a chat.
We went over at about 8 and started off with her version of the Parma delicacy. Of course it was amazingly delicious. In one manner of thinking we are here in Zibello because of our trip three years ago and the Culatello and Torta Fritta we had at Gallopappa. Interestingly we did not even remember what the Torta Fritta was called from the last trip. After the Torta Fritta and the double order of Cullatello we had four orders of pasta. We had another order of bucanave, past fagiole, pasta with beans, ravioli with ricotta, tagliatelle with porcinis. We actually had meat-a delicious veal and guinea fowl. For dessert there were no Frutta de Bosco so we were forced to have gelato and fragola.
After dinner Lucca came over and sat down with us. Gary and peggy brought their digestives and Lucca broke out some of their amazing home made ones including one made with seven local herbs called Verdino and the oldest one a 92 Noceto. He also brought out their version of Bargno Lino made from prunes.
o
During this time Christine got a hold of Zoe and we had a great conversation with her about all the wonderful ways God is working with her in Fresno
"Guy without a shirt" could have been referring to Jim too. All who want to understand Jim's joy going "native"...riding without his shirt... will have to go to the blog of his travelling partner: www.gubitzinitaly2010.blogspot.com ..then look for the same day
ReplyDeleteThere you will see what is not pictured here :)))
But I do not have the photo to post. Or any of the going native photos. I was going native.
ReplyDelete