Paradise found in Truffles

Today's episode is brought to you by SCIANCA s.r.l. Salsiccia Al Tartufo.

Salsiccia al Tartufo.  Sausage with Truffle.  Salted meat with awesomeness.  There seem to be a million different ways to describe this gem of an appetizer but I think the most recent describes it enough.  Want a closer look at the goods?  Here you go.

Go ahead and take a second.  Click on the picture and let it come full size on your screen the way it's meant to be viewed.  Inside the casings, see those tiny black specks?  It shouldn't be from your dirty computer screen.  Well, maybe that actually is from your computer screen and this episode should really be brought to you by Windex or some other screen cleaner.

This episode is brought to you by just VASGO brand computer screen cleaner.  Now go clean your screen.

When you're done, take a better look at the picture of Salsiccia.  Those tiny black specks in there are actually black truffle shavings.  That, combined with firmly packed minced pork meat and what is most likely its back fat, all mixed together with wonderful spices including plenty of salt and possibly vinegar makes this salami a taste bud extravaganza!

Now, like the Where's Waldo books, Where's Salsiccia Al Tartufo?

Forget blogging.  True money is in salami identifying books.  

First person to spot the correct salami wins this dog that was near the store.  Yes, its head is astoundingly large for its body.

Ok, that was honestly WAY too easy to spot.  Unfortunately the dog is not for me to give away.  I couldn't convince the 9 year old girl wearing the red sandals to trade him for truffle sausage.

Anyway, I think you should get the truffle sausage experience too.  So please excuse me for the uninvited molestation of body space and comfort zones, but guess what?  You just became me.  Welcome to the 2nd person perspective.

THE JOURNEY OF THE TRUFFLE SAUSAGE
By just VASGO

Grabbing a knife, you feel power and purpose in your hands.  Microscopic beads of energy travel from one region of your brain to another as if it were data being downloaded from a website. The thoughts are overflowing your mind.  So many ideas, if only you can keep track of every single one.  Some of them  border dark.  So many things can be done with this weapon.  There it is!  You're brain finally comes to a decision.  You officially decide to cut the sausage at a slight obtuse angle.

You bring your nose near the now greasy hands and inhale a long, drawn out breath.  The air rushes through your nostrils, depositing flavors on your tongue which tell you that what you are about to eat has truffles and has a noticeable acidic brightness.  Your mouth waters instantly, craving more than just the teasing smell.

The first taste is salty and oily.  You hold the piece on your tongue to a get a little more sense of the flavor and your brain registers something familiar and yet mysterious. Ah yes, truffle just made its entrance.  You then realize an acidic quality has been complementing the entire time.  Hidden, yet in plain sight.

You chew on the morsel.  The tender, highly seasoned pork and fat easily give way to the grinding in your mouth, releasing even more of the balanced vinegar-like sensation.  The bits disintegrate on the tongue, causing you to salivate even more.  You lick your lips.  Truffle oil, seasonings.  Your mind is consumed with how many layers you have noticed in just one small slice.  Then as you look down at a cutting board full of sausage, you wonder if the remaining slices will be the same.

A smile comes to your face.  Better get a glass of red wine out.  You just realized your journey is 8 times longer.

The EPIC 11 Course Lunch

Buon giorno i miei amici!  Good morning my friends!  Today, I will drop the F-bomb on all of you.  What kind of bomb?  A FOOD bomb of course!  My apologies for the delay in posting. This one took a little more time than usual.

Recently I had the pleasure to participate in a truly EPIC 11 course lunch.  The location: Titignagno, a 2 hour bus ride north of Rome.  The business: Agritourism.  That's a shortened version of agricultural tourism and as a foodie, I'm pretty sure I was elevated to a heightened state.  Was it heaven?  Was it reality?  What IS reality, really?  Ok, going too deep.

Back to food.

This place was incredible.  Talk about an interesting business operation.  I learned that it's a seriously large estate with acres and acres of land owned to help make not most, but ALL of their meals.  Other than bottled water, post-meal espressos and those who fancy a coca-cola light (diet coke in the states), they do not outsource as far as I know.  Everything else is grown here, farmed here, raised here, then prepared here for meals.  That includes the wine. To make it more than just a restaurant experience, they have a pool, views, lots of land to explore and plenty of guest rooms for those who want to make a great night out of it, hence the tourism aspect.

I wonder if an operation like this would work in America.  Does anyone know of one already in existence?  Let me know in the comments as I'm always interested to hear about my future hangouts. :)

Now it's time for you to experience the meal with me.

First we got out of the bus, walked down to the dining hall and I had to stop.  What a view.  Hills in the distance, beautiful stone driveway and lot, lovely old buildings.  Very just VASGO worthy.

To the right is the dining hall, to the left are guest rooms for those spending the night.

 When you are busy taking pictures, you are not paying attention to the more important things such as the food tables with our first round of appetizers.  I immediately sprint to the table.  After all, I'm in competition with about 150 study-abroad college students who know how to eat well too.  Luckily, I have the strength of a 30 year old, over 6 feet tall, plus 200 pounds man.  Now you can visualize me picking up that short, frail twig of a sophomore college student, holding him above my head using both hands and releasing a guttural war cry as I throw him over a 3 foot tall stone wall.  I said get out of the way kid.

Good, now I can see the table.

Man, those appetizers look good. I should only try a few so I have room for  the actual meal.

But wait!!!  Where I'm standing gives such a fantastic view of the other half of this agritouristic delight.

To the left: More students to throw over walls.  To the far right: The guest rooms.  Center: The Chapel.

Then I turn around and look at the 3 foot wall I "might have" thrown the sophomore over.  Turns out it's a 30 foot wall.  Hmm.  Who would have thought?   Guess I should have paid more attention to the excellent view.  Seriously though, beautiful, isn't it?

I love the winding river and the fact that their crops are grown so close to where we are eating.

Then I get my hands on my first appetizer of the day.

ENTER COURSE #1!

Here's me trying their home made pork sausage and mild white cheese crostini.  Very warm and fresh out of the oven, very tasty.

They had fresh apricot and pear juice from their own trees and some bottled water to start us off.   I chose water and apricot.  Below left is the brined caper and anchovy pate crostini, or at least that's what I thought it tasted like.  Right of that is the Arancini - packed rice wraps a nugget of mozzarella cheese and a basil leaf, then deep fried to perfection so mr. cheese nugget turns into gooey goodness.

ENTER COURSE #2.  The second round of appetizers outside. I didn't try all of the pizzetti, but think of about 4 different types of flat breads being laid out on a table next to the empty plates from the first round.

We tried the Margherita (tomatoes, mozzarella and basil) and the White pizzetti - fresh rosemary, fresh olive oil and salt, easily my favorite of the two.

And then it's back to the real reason why we are here.  Like the dinner bell is rung in the days when cell phones weren't given to farmers children, the head honcho, Dean Strommen in the blue shirt, turns up the volume on his vocal cords and tells us all to get inside.  It's time for the main event.

Even the walls of the room were interesting.  I think the ceiling may have been cooler though.

Ok.  First let's pour a drink.  I think I'll have a glass of the estate-created red wine, and a glass of bottled water.

Delicious house made red wine.

ENTER COURSE #3. Meat plate!

Left: Proscuitto.  Center: Salami.  Right: Lonza aka pork shoulder is what an expert thought it was.  All were salty and delicious.

ENTER COURSE #4.  Torta Salata, translated officially as "salt cake".  Why?  I will never know because it surely was not salty or cakey. Cakey is a made up adjective by the way.  However, look at the layers of cheese between the three layers of buttery pastry.  Seriously delicious.

The cheese layers were creamy like a brie.  Found out they were made of Emmentaler (Swiss cheese), Mozzarella and Parmigiana.

ENTER COURSE #5.  Asparagus Risotto.  At first, I was overwhelmed with the nose of this dish.  It was pungent the way canned green beans have a soggy, overcooked odor to it.  It was almost unpleasant.  But as they say, never judge a book by its cover.  Even though it was too hot a dish to eat on an 85 degree F day, oddly enough, it worked its way on the palate and slowly won over my taste buds.

The rice also seemed perfectly cooked.  Tender, moist, and absorbed a surprising amount of asparagus flavor.

ENTER COURSE #6. Pappardelle con sugo dicinguiale.  Pappardale in Wild Boar Sauce.  I got a whiff of this and immediately began salivating.  It smelled excellent, like a pot roast served to you in the middle of winter after a rough afternoon of snow shoveling.  We're talking ultimate comfort food folks.

The noodles are freshly made, not completely uniform like a commercial noodle maker would create, with perfect thickness and slight grittiness to its exterior to soak up the light sauce.  The boar is shredded very thin so each noodle grabs plenty of meat with its gritty yet tender microscopic suction cups.  The sauce is oil based.  The flavor reminds me of pureed carrots, onions, celery, thyme, bay leaves such as you would find as the standard base for many made from scratch soups.  What's the name of that again?  Isn't it French?  C'mon foodie readers.  Help all of us out here in the comments box with the real name.

Already there has been so much food and so much more to come, but I had to have seconds of this dish.

Without a doubt, this was my favorite dish of the entire event.

ENTER COURSE #7.  Capriolo.  Venison.  Deer meat.  Bambi!  I don't eat venison often but if it were cooked like this, I'm pretty sure it would be a constant household request.  The chunks of deer are very tender and hardly gamey in taste.  The sauce is pronounced with rosemary.  Made with whole, unbrined olives and mushrooms grown on the estate, this dish goes from rosemary flavor to slight game flavor, to wonderfully accented herb sauce flavor.  A superb dish.

Poor Bambi.  Thanks for tasting so good.

ENTER COURSE #8.  Roast Chicken, Potatoes and Lamb.  This was a good dish, but I think my stomach was also telling me it's just about done and so I didn't desire these as much.  However, the skin on the chicken was crispy and salty making it taste VERY good.  The potatoes were buttery, baked, skinless and only had salt and pepper made with them.  Surprisingly addictive.  And the lamb was heavily seasoned with fresh herbs, particularly rosemary.  But that made the dish that much better.

ENTER COURSE #9.  Shellfish?  Really? Out here in the middle of the land?  It didn't seem like this would have been a dish normally added to the lineup.  Out here in Italy, regional cooking is everything and here in Umbria, we are landlocked.  No body of salt water is nearby.

Ohh that makes way more sense.  The wait staff just explained that this was part of the vegetarian-only meal. But once they were brought out to our non-meat eating friends, they were respectfully declined.  I found it interesting that shellfish qualified as a vegetarian item here.

Anyway, enter some sort of breaded shrimp dish on a skewer.

Looks pretty good.

So I dig in.  Wait!  What's that?  The shrimp is sitting in something of a cup?  Now I have to try this.  Take a bite of the cup.  Rubbery, bland, a little cold.  This must be squid.  Needs more flavor in my opinion and could have used less time in the oven.

Let's try the shrimp.  Breading is rather flavorless. Maybe some salt would help.  What's this crunch I'm getting?  It's not the breading.  Interesting. They don't remove the legs before cooking it.  I'm not grossed out eating the legs as plenty of other cultures eat them, even Asian ones eat them solely as a snack if my memory of travel food shows serves me correct.  It's just not what I'm used to from growing up in the US.

Surprise!  Have some squid with your shrimp.

Are you kidding me?  Now you're going to bring out salad?  Ok.  I'll try some of that too.  I didn't consider this another course, though I should have to make it even more courses.  The Insalata looks like it's romaine lettuce and all that seems to be on it is the estate's fresh olive oil.  It's surprisingly good.

The olive oil on the lettuce is so fresh.  Absolutely delicious.

ENTER COURSE #10.  Tiramisu.  I loved this picture because of the distinct layers.  The taste of this dish: really really good.  The marsala wine used in this dish is surprisingly noticeable but not overpowering.  And there was not as much espresso flavor as I was expecting.  The ladyfingers - moist but not soaked.

The tiramisu here was wonderful.

ENTER COURSE #11. Vino Santo con Biscotti.  "Holy" Wine with Cookies.  The experts around me couldn't completely explain why Italians use Santo, Holy, to describe this wine but the most obvious reason is that it is sweet.  It is an after meal wine.

The Vino Santo was sweet, bright, perfumed in a way, and included hints of sherry.

Then an expert who has lived here multiple years shows me how to eat this second dessert.  What?  You dip your biscotti in the wine?  Yes please.

For those who don't know how to dip a cookie in a wine glass, do it like this.

The cookie was an almond biscotti.  It contained whole, blanched almonds added into its dough before it is baked.  By itself, the flavors are so light that it's nothing much to rave about.  Dipped in the vino santo, almond flavor is brought out big time.

Believe it or not, they even concluded this course with one more which was just a shot of espresso.  But I didn't count that either.

Let's total everything up, shall we?

TOTAL NUMBER OF COURSES: 11
TOTAL NUMBER OF FOODS TRIED: 19
TOTAL NUMBER OF FOODS AVAILABLE TO TRY: 24 (including all the appetizers outside)

What a meal!  An expert told me this was a mini-version of an Italian wedding feast you would experience at a reception.  Are you kidding?  This was a mini-version?

Generally there is no concern whether a person eats all on their plate so portions are always much larger than what you saw today.  Good thing this isn't an everyday meal. I'm full just thinking about it.

Buon Appetito my friends!

Rome’s Nickname

Rome's nickname.
Source: http://www.hackedarcadegames.com/online-game/2492/Pizza-City.html

Welcome to Rome - a.k.a. Pizza City - where they happen to have 8-bit arcade games named after life in the city.

Ok, I admit it.  I'm lying.  Some respectable nerd art historian who I happen to know pretty well told me Rome's nickname is "The Eternal City".  Now raise your hand if I had you going even for a second.  Thanks for being honest.

I was having a light snack of a black plum then some fresh bread which I happily dipped in some of the freshest tasting olive oil I have ever had.  While eating, I began pondering what "The Eternal City" really means.  Why is it considered eternal?  Then I remembered a recent morning where my expert and I went to Rome's Ghetto just to walk around and see what the area had to offer.  About 5 minutes into our walk, I knew exactly why this ancient city had that nickname.  I saw this:

Loved this photo.  The Temple of Apollo Medico.

I had stepped onto grounds that were occupied since before the year 0.  That's right.  Zero.  

Welcome to the Theater of Marcellus and the Temple of Apollo Medico. If you want to get really specific about age, the columns shown belonged to the temple which was built in 433 BC!  From what my expert tells me, the theater which lies to the right of the columns was started about 12 B.C.!!!!  In case you didn't catch that considering how many exclamation points I added, to me, these are astounding thoughts.  

I know one of you doesn't really care if it's old or not.  I can imagine someone reading this right now and has these thoughts with a snarky tone to it. "Big whoop?  Some dudes lived there a while ago."  For some reason, I can easily imagine Sylvester Stallone saying that in his classic voice.  

"Big whoop?"
Source: http://www.celebitchy.com/70321/is_sylvester_stallones_face_melting/

Well to me, Sir Snarkiness, it's impressive seeing even those columns because I imagine trying to build insanely large temples or theaters with huge columns like these and arches as supporting structures for ceilings and not having a crane, an elevator, electricity, wide format plans to review, etc to help make the project complete.  That's a serious endeavor!

Can anyone explain to me why it's called the Temple of Apollo Medico?  Most of us hopefully remember that Apollo is a deity from the ancient Greek religion.  It's not because it's his last name.  A quick fun fact from my expert about the Temple.  Often, Romans made more than one temple for the same deity and this particular one is dedicated to Apollo as a healer, hence the Medico addition.  

It should be noted that in the picture below, the arches on the right side of the center path are the originals.  Notice how they are reddish, almost of brick color?  The connected "outer" wall has the newer, marble-look to it because that part was added in the 16th century. Crazy to think that this place is over 2,000 years old and what's just as noteworthy is that it was planned by none other than the infamous Julius Caesar.

Theatre of Marcellus.  

After a visit to the past, we head back through the ghetto and see a monumental synagogue.  

A gorgeous front entrance.

And then we pass by various shops, restaurants and random piazze to finish our day out.  Some photos are definitely worthy of just VASGO.

This is actually a door to a restaurant which our books say has a cult following.  I thought the look was so unique.

Nice face on the fountain.  

Space is limited, so why not make your building over the street?  Problem solved!

Ciao from Pizza City!

Gelato Time

Seriously, I can't get enough of this stuff.  This time the flavors are as follows:  Left cup - Sage and Raspberry Gelato on bottom, Blackberry on top.  Right cup - Yellow Plum on bottom, Sicilian Pistachio on top.  Both bottoms were absolutely our favorites.

The caption says it all.  I love it, and I can't get enough of it.  The colors are bold.  The tastes, to die for.  The ordering experience, stressful because you want to try too many flavors,  yet always rewarding because you really can't order a bad flavor.

Gelato is one of a kind and makes me wonder which came first, the gelato or the ice cream.  Kind of like the age old question about the chicken and the egg.  But for my friends out there who think they know what gelato is but really don't know what gelato is all about, I look to one of my favorite magazine articles in Bon Appetit from the April 2011 edition.

I'd just like to mention a quick thank you to Bon Appetit for publishing this article and to Hugh Garvey for writing it.  Please let me know if I am infringing on any copyright laws.  Click the link for the whole article if you are interested since below is my favorite part of it.  http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2011/04/best-ice-cream-in-rome.html

"The Scoop: Gelato vs. Ice Cream

The romance of Italy isn't playing tricks on your mouth; gelato is substantially different from American ice cream. Here's why:

1. Air Supply: Gelato is richer because less air is churned into it, which makes for a denser product.

2. Temperature: Served at a warmer temperature than ice cream, gelato melts immediately upon tasting, giving instant flavor.

3. Low(er) Fat: Although there's no hard-and-fast rule, on average gelato has about half the butterfat content of ice cream."

It's surprising how much you can learn from reading a food magazine, isn't it?  I am fascinated by these interesting facts.  


The place we went to was in Food Wine Rome by David Downie.  Although it didn't make Hugh Garvey's list in the Bon Appetit article, Gelateria del Teatro should have been for its product as well as ambiance.  As you can see, it has a beautiful entrance.

I'm guessing this person just noticed I was taking a picture of her.

Near the entrance you can see about 6 clippings from various travel books giving their approval of this gelateria.  The commendations were well deserved.  Take a look at the creations.

This was the right half of their showcase.

This was the left half of their showcase.

Fun Fact about this place.  What's the main difference in the photos other than the gelati flavors? Check out the handles.  White means it was made with latte, milk.  Green means there is no milk in this product.  Eat your heart out lactose-intolerants of the world!  The fruit gelati is just as good as the milk gelati.


Take a look at how very natural the yellow plum is that I got.  Is it just me, or can you see the flakes of real fruit and skin of the plum too?  Simply awesome.

I took a chance on ordering it as Mora was the owner's preferred flavor, but Prugna Gialla easily wins my affection after tasting it.

Alright!  Enough gushing over the gelato!  We all know it's delicious.  To help mix things up, take a look at what was on the way to the gelateria.  No matter where you go, there's something always picture worthy.

I liked this picture not only because it showed the river, walls and buildings above, but because directly to the right of center building, you can see St. Peter's Basilica located in Vatican City.

We had to cross this bridge leading us away from Castel Sant'Angelo.   Too pretty to pass up a picture .

First Day Sights in Rome

Yum.

Forget the jet-lag!  You're not on vacation!  You are starting day 1 of living in Rome for two years and unfortunately, you're on a budget!  Time to use that left-over espresso in the cabinet from the apartment renter before you.  Grab the stove-top percolator, turn up the heat and it's espresso time.  Oh excuse me, I forgot to say good morning.  Buon giorno!

Bet you Americani can't find this cereal in your grocery store.  Today, we decide to have my wife's favorite Italian cereal - Kellogg's eXtra.  This crunchy delight happens to be the kind with Cioccolato belga e Nocciole.  That's right.  My breakfast cereal has pieces of Belgian chocolate and actual hazelnut halves.  Does yours?  I didn't think so.

After a most delicious breakfast it's off to the center of Rome.  Our goal is to see the free sights.  So we head to the Vittoriano.  Some know it as the typewriter.  Others know it as the wedding cake.  I'm not sure why but some art historian told me it's true.  Anyone know why? Let us all know in the comments.

The Vittoriano... definitely as vast as it appears in this small photo.

Going up there led to some fair views of neighboring buildings.  It also connected us to something called the Capitoline, which led us to a great view of the Roman Forum.  I'm pretty sure I took the exact picture you see in all those post cards venders sell here.

My expert's favorite location in Rome, the Roman Forum

Then off to the Pantheon for a quick look around followed by a very nearby favorite gelateria of our friend.  She claims this may be the best fruit gelato in the city.  Can't speak for the rest of the gelato makers around town ... yet, but this seems to be excellent gelato.

Inside the Pantheon.  

The left cup has Mixed Berry on bottom and Peach on top.  The right cup has Banana on bottom and Mixed Fruit (Macedonia) on top.  The Macedonia was made with fresh kiwi and peach among other fruits and combined with Banana, really made that cup into tropical paradise.

Talk about a busy morning!  Maybe we should go home for lunch soon.  Or maybe we should do a few more nearby sites.  Sleep can wait.

It's on to the Piazza Navona.  A beautiful tourist trap full of vendors who will try to hand you toys, roses, gadgets, whatever and demand payment for them as if you wanted their junk.  Luckily that didn't happen to me.  Nor did I witness it.  Only going off what my expert says happens.  For those in love with Dan Brown books (and the resulting movies), and I promise you I will not need a spoiler alert warning, this is one of the last locations where something happens to someone in "Angels and Demons".  Hope that was specific enough for you.

Much of the Piazza Navona is shown here, give or take a fountain or two

Let's zoom in on the center of the piazza for you

And zoom in even more.  What a fantastic sculpture.  My expert tells me the center sculpture in this photo, ie, the topless dude with the beard, is a personification of the Ganges River.  10 points to the first person who tells me where the Ganges River is without googling it.

Then it's a quick walk to Campo De' Fiori where the outdoor market is a daily draw.  I would have taken more photos of all the booths, but I was too in love with my surroundings to take more pictures.

The outdoor market in Campo de' Fiori, a true feast for the eyes

Close to there is one of the favored stops for breads in my newest favorite book, Food Wine Rome by David Downie.  Simply fantastic if you like food.  And if you're in Rome.  So we stop by Marco Roscioli's Antico Forno and grab a daily special to accompany our lunch of Prosciutto Crudo, fresh Mozzarella and garlic and parsley infused extra virgin olive oil.

I named this bread "Super Crackle"

The bread was a little more than I'd like to pay but after trying it I'd say it was worth it.  It had an excellent, hard crust.  The kind of bread you can only tell is perfectly baked when you put your ear next to the baguette and slowly break off a piece to hear the crackle only a super hot oven with perfect moisture distribution can create.  If you don't know that sound, make sure you hear it sometime in your life.  It's sometimes the simple pleasures that make you realize life is good.  Oh, and the crumb (the stuff underneath the crust) was so moist, chewy, air pocketed with various sizes of holes.  Based on the taste, to me it was obvious the baker let the yeast do its magic overnight, possibly for a couple nights to transfer all the natural sugars contained in the flour into yeast-food.  In the baker's world, it's a refrigerated fermenting technique which slows down the yeast's sugar consumption and ends up bringing out the most flavors from the flours used. It clearly had no additional sugars like the white table stuff you put in coffee at home.  That bread was as simple and natural as it gets.

And with my fresh bread, salted meat, flavored oil and mild cheese, my expert and I were in extreme happiness after a jet-lagged full morning in Rome.

Almost to Rome

Buon giornio my friends!  Good day indeed.  Now that I've arrived in Rome, it's time you experienced what I have as well.  If there's anywhere that promotes the lifestyle of just VASGO, it's here in Rome.  So let's start from the beginning.

Now close your eyes, slow down your thoughts, breathe deeply and let your aura slip away from your body.  Step into my shoes.

You arrive at the airport after a two hour drive.  You stand in line for awhile to get your tickets.  You've just had TSA explain to you that this is the last time you will be able to touch or see your animals until you arrive at your destination.  Now this is not really a good thing to hear, especially if you are attached to your animals, but you grudgingly accept that you have no power over the situation and watch them take your loved pets away.  20 hours to go.  At least you're not stuck in a cage.  Then again, you realize your "cage" is just bigger.

Through security you go and after that comes an urgency to call as many people as you can to say goodbye since Sprint doesn't have cheap service in Italy.  Hold back as many emotions as possible, particularly those with your immediate family and finally it's time to board the plane.

Six or eight hours go by, snap a quick photo of the sunrise and you land.  Welcome to Copenhagen!

You are impressed with how many wind energy farms are visible from the airport, those giant pinwheels steadily rotating second after second.  On the way to your next gate, you are people watching while passing the cafes and notice two older gentlemen enjoying their light gold colored bubbly beverages and tell yourself- color is good, no haze, even from a distance you can see the carbonation, geography makes sense - must be a pilsner beer.  But you are no expert, so you withdraw and tell yourself - could be a lager too.

Then you look down and realize it's 7:30am Danish time.  A quick thought passes through your mind... well, when in Rome.  But this is Copenhagen.  It's not time for a beer.

Four hours go by and it's time to board the plane to Rome.  The pop tarts aren't sitting well in your stomach and you can barely keep your eyes open.  The second you sit in your seat, you pass out from travel exhaustion.  Two hours later, you wake up right before the plane lands.

Finally, the worst of the travel is over!  But it's not over 'til it's over, you remind yourself.  You mentally prepare for the customs troubles.  Bringing animals across the ocean must be a terrible pain.  Bringing 8 pieces of luggage on top of that must be even worse to bring through customs.  You envision being asked to step to the side so they can go through all your belongings, check the veterinary forms you had to send to the Department of State back home to verify with an official apostille that your cats are healthy and in good working order, no diseases, etc.  You can only imagine the questions you will be asked about your stay and why you are even trying to enter the country.

So you take a deep breath, wait for your luggage, get your cats, put all on a luggage trolley and make your way to the customs line.

It's short.  Too short.  You can choose which line to go through, items to declare or no items to declare.  We ask the guard if we have to declare our cats.  To my surprise, he says no and to continue right through.  That can't be right.  Continuing right through leads to the exit.  But after 20 hours, you aren't about to question anyone, so you just keep walking with your gear and kitties.  You sense a couple guards look at you as you reach the exit, but you refuse to make eye contact.  And then... it's all over.

Negotiate a price, take a taxi, benvenuti a Roma!  Welcome to Rome!

And of course, a little teaser to help you come back for more.  From the first day out in Rome... I promise you it tasted as good as it looks.