I am come home!

So this past week has been ridiculous!
To start where we left off, I was in Carrara with Stefania, my cousin in Italy.

We went out for some drinks that night and went to a nice little bar within walking distance on her flat. Much like many other nice bars in Italy, this place served apertivos if you got drinks, also, much like the other places that serve the apertivos, you can easily make a meal out of these and skip dinner all together, luckily that wasn't the plan this night and we went out to a nice dinner instead.

By nice dinner, I don't mean expensive because this place seemed fairly hole in the wall (they have Christmas lights year round for instance). I tried a local dish _________ (I will fill in the name when I remember it)which was a meat ravioli. Very heavy, very filling, and VERY delicious. Chef Boyardee can't touch this dish.
For the second course I decided that I wanted to be brave and adventurous (and possibly a little stupid) and try trepe [tripe]. Trepe for those of you not in the know is made from the first three chambers of a cow's stomach. Mmmmmmmm!
For human consumption (its also favored by dogs apparently) it is thoroughly washed and cleaned in a most meticulous fashion (good)...

So, the trepe was cooked up in a somewhat spicy sauce.. and I managed to eat a few pieces of it, however the smell I couldn't take. Unfortunately I couldn't get over the... unique smell that the first three chambers of a cow's stomach...
Luckily Stefania enjoys trepe and thought it was really good and ate some of it, but I was still a little disappointed in myself.

I like to live life without holding back much, and I will pretty much try anything once to see what its like.. and I have learned on this trip that animal innards dont really do it for me.. We were served a dish in Orvieto that contained a chunk of liver that was most unsavory (reminded me of liverwurst which I am fairly sure I was scarred as a child by). So for this trip it was 0/2 for animal innards that were unsavory to me.. I think I might cut my losses and extrapolate that into assuming that animal innards aren't meant to be eaten.

So anyways, enough of animals, and onto the alcohol!

When we sat down at dinner, we were served an aperitivo which as defined is an alcoholic drink designed to stimulate the appetite.
During dinner we had some delicious wine (its all really good... I guess if I become a connoisseur of wine I can start not liking certain bottles... until then, its all good!).
After dinner was when the fun started...

To Be Continued!