Dinners with Friends
Friday, October 24th, 2014
As usual I get lost in the moment and forget to take photos of memorable occasions. The lovely K and I had dinner with several friends when in Bologna. In most cases they spoke excellent english which made it easier for K since her Italian is very minimal at this point. The first was one with Renata and her husband Gabriele at Osteria Botegga. It is a place to get some of the best Bolognese food. I plan to go back there on our one full day in Bologna before the flight back to California. The K has not yet had tortellini in brodo which is especially good there and is VERY bolognese. I also had dinner with my friends Vittorio and Barbara and the crowd that they hang out with. I’ve gone to dinner with that group a number of time now and, especially as my Italian has gotten a better, I have gotten to know them and even remember their names (an accomplishment for me). I have no picture unfortunately for two other dinners. One with Liu’  (that I know from the main library in Bologna (Biblioteca Sala Borsa), her guy Giuseppe and her sister Monica. This was at a little restaurant called Vagh in Ufezzi. I forgot to ask about the curious name. Maybe it’s bolognese dialect or something. In any case it’s a little place totally apart from most other commercial areas with no set menu. There were just the offerings for the evening, each written on a separate small piece of paper, and taped to the window. We had crescentini, which are squares of bread fried. They puff up into little pillows and are served with a variety of salumi. It was a pretty impressive plate of salumi and a separate mountain of crescentini for the 4 of us that ordered it. We had a lambrusco to go with it making the complete meal very regional. The remaining meal in Bologna was with Marco and his wife Claudia at their home in Casalecchio, a suburb about 4 miles outside of Bologna proper. Marco is the guy with the day job as an investment adviser at a big Italian
Left to right – me, Karen, Barbara, Vittorio (barely visible), Carlo (ditto), Davide, Paola and Cesare. There was an entire other table as well!
Left to right – Gabriele, Renata, ,me and Karen
Just the two of us
bank with the other life as yoga master. Claudia teaches english at a school in Casalecchio.
