Navigli Canals

Last night we headed down to a place called Navigli for apéritivo. Other people had been going out to get apéritivo all the time, but this was my first time and now I understand why they were going all the time. It's a really cool concept that I think would work well in somewhere like the Short North in Columbus. You go to a bar and order a drink, and you get a free appetizer buffet with it. For example, at the bar we went to I had a cachaça and got a plate of appetizers that included pasta with tuna, mini pizza, meat and cheese, as well as some bread with prosciutto. All of this ended up costing €6, which isn't bad at all considering that I was full enough afterwards that I didn't need to go home and make dinner. The atmosphere really made it, as Navigli is located right next to a canal with a river running between all of the bars.

As I had mentioned before, I was supposed to go to Cinque Terre today. I woke up this morning at 5:00 am to go, but I checked the weather and it was supposed to rain all day. Everyone talks about how beautiful the city is and I was really looking forward to seeing it on a nice day. I really wasn't looking forward to hiking for 6 hours in the rain, so given both of these reasons I decided to save it for another day. Everyone else still ended up going so hopefully it worked out for them, I'm interested to see how it was. I figure that we still have a good while before it gets too cold to go hiking, so I'll definitely still have time to go check it out.

I was pretty proud of myself tonight because I cooked my first legitimate meal since I've been here. Every other night I've just made pasta with canned/bottled sauce or boxed risotto, but tonight I got sick of that and wanted to try something different. I ended up making a variation on my favorite pasta dish that my dad makes at home: ricotta cheese and spinach tortellini (my dad uses tri-colored rotini) in olive oil with garlic, onions, cherry tomatoes, and some random spices that I could find. Pretty simple, but it's so good! I've watched my dad make it so many times that it wasn't too difficult to make a rough translation of what he makes. Along with a glass of red wine, it was a delicious deviation from the basic stuff that I've been making. It reminded me of home too, which was a good feeling!

Tonight I have the USC game at 2:00 in the morning, which will last until about 6:00 in the morning. Coincidentally, I have to leave for the Formula 1 race at about 6:00 in the morning so we'll see if I end up staying up all night. The Formula 1 race should be fun, it's supposed to rain which means that cars will be sliding everywhere at 200 mph.

GO BUCKS!