Eighty-Five days in the land of pasta and gelato: For the love of oatmeal!

All my fellow oatmeal lovers raise yo hands!

Ok, for the people who understand the ~~obsession~~ love for oatmeal - people in Italy have no clue what is it. Yes you read that correctly. It is something that is hard for me to wrap my head around as I am sure it is hard for Italians to wrap their head around this strange hot pudding like cerealmilkwater combination that we eat for breakfast. I made it one morning to show it to the family and they were very confused and almost alarmed that at home, I eat this many days a week [if not all of them]. Anywho, this post will be mostly about the differences in food culture and coffee culture that I have observed so far.

If you want to skip this whole thing and read a shorter post, this huffington post gives a pretty accurate picture to some of the things I have observed about Italy in general.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/american-in-italy_n_4235479.html

Also, here's a sunny morning in Merano:

I will continue on the topic of breakfast because breakfast is hands down the best meal of the day. There is something about all of the different yummy options that you can have for breakfast that have made me fall in love with mornings. Coffee, [oatmeal], yogurt, fruit, toast, bagels, eggs, donuts, pastries, cereal, smoothies... the possibilities are endless! The main things about an Italian breakfast are that they are small, and they are sweet. At home, many times they will have espresso, tea or hot chocolate with a few breakfast ish cookies, or bread with nutella. The coffee is still espresso but they usually make it longer- so it is brewed longer for a less concentrated espresso- and they sometimes add more hot water or milk- which makes an americano or a latte macchiato.

The most common breakfast to order at a bar [which is what they call a cafe] is a cappuccino with a something filled croissant. Of course my favorite filling is nutella, but you can get different kinds of fruit spreads as well. Things I have noticed while drinking coffee out: most people add an entire packet of sugar to their drinks- whether its a cappuccino, an espresso, a caffe macchiato- they don't seem to be concerned about too much sugar. Of course I follow suit because do what the locals do, right? Another thing I have noticed is that some people prefer to have only a cappuccino for breakfast and thats it. For me, that would never be enough and my stomach would be growling in like 30 minutes. But for some Italians, milk as enough of a breakfast- at least until midmorning when they might have a snack or something.

Also, I know in this region of Italy, coffee culture is very different than it is in southern Italy. Here, people sit to drink their coffee and it doesn't cost any extra to sit down in the bar. When I was in Rome and Florence two years ago, I noticed that most people ordered their espresso at the bar, paid, drank it at the bar and peaced out. In those regions, they will charge extra if you want to sit because then you are getting table service. Whereas if you just drink it at the bar, they hand it right to you and you hand the empty cup right back. I am thankful that people sit here and drink their coffee slower, because it is one of the small pleasures in life that I most enjoy.

I suppose that is enough about coffee... So since this part of Italy is so close to Austria and Germany there are many more regional dishes that are closer to German than I expected. Of course there is the typical pasta, pizza, wine thing here but there are also pork sausages, dumplings, and beer. I have had good examples of both, but probably more typical Italian cuisine. The most interesting thing about pizza is that its so thin, you can eat a whole pizza and not feel uncomfortably full, which is what most people do. I always forget about this so when a whole pizza is placed in front of me, I get nervous that I won't be able to finish it and look rude. But then I have no trouble polishing the whole thing off :)

Other regional specialties include, apple strudel, spinach and ricotta ravioli, lamb dishes, speck dumplings and apricot dumplings and many more that I haven't tried or don't know what they are. Italians also have something called aperitif, which is something like a happy hour. People go to bars to have drinks and small snack like chips, nuts or olives as a sort of appetizer for their dinner. Italians are very concerned with digestion and having an alcoholic drink before a meal is supposed to open up the stomach for more food- and then having one after the meal is supposed to help with digestion of the meal. This is also why cappuccinos are only mostly drunk in the morning- because the dairy is heavier and harder to digest- this gives your body time to digest it throughout the day.

I think I have also figured out why Europeans are thinner. Among other things, they just walk so much more! The other day I went and checked on my phone how much I had walked, and it was 7 miles! I had just been running errands, and took a walk for fun. I love walking so I don't even notice that I am actually walking a decent amount everyday. Some days are more like 2 or 3, but still... Going to the gym to walk on a treadmill sounds so strange now- and way more boring.

Well this was longer than I had intended. I hope it was as interesting to you as it is to me!
Ciao!