So I said before I had some discoveries of day one in Italy due to my extreme jet lag. Picture me, a tired, weary soul surviving on minimal sleep wondering aimlessly around a big, foreign city. I perked up a bit after the pastries but as the day wore on my fatigue continued to increase. The tour I was on had preplanned all the group dinners and I was thankful not to have to make another decision.

We sat down in the hotel and the wait staff began serving our meal. We were given a small serving of a stew that was very tasty. I had no idea what was in it, it was just good. Our second course involved a thinly sliced pan fried piece of meat (to be determined later), french fries- called patate fritte in Italian and resemble what you think of our version, and a sautéed vegetable of some sort… I think it was spinach. It was so good that my companions and I gobbled it up. Several of the attendees asked me if I knew what the meat was we had been served since it didn’t seem familiar… not chicken, not beef, maybe pork or turkey. Hmm… not sure. I didn’t even remotely care at the time. I was eating on auto pilot and knew that my hotel bed was awaiting me upon the end of dinner. So I happily retired to bed and slept peacefully.

The next morning over breakfast I decided to ask our bus driver, Michele (pronounced Mikaylay) if he knew what our dinner was comprised of the previous evening. He smiled and offered “Vitello.” I looked frantically in my English-Italian dictionary and discovered the word… veal. Much to my dismay - I don’t eat veal, well at least I didn’t prior to that evening and I announced to the group what we had been served. Several others also did not eat veal although we all agreed that is was mighty good. I also learned from my bus driver, who shall be known from this point forward as Fearless Driver, that the wonderful stew we were served was stufato d’agnello- lamb stew. I don’t eat lamb either. Dang it. I spent the next several hours learning the words for animals and food products so that I would not make an uneducated mistake again.

So let me tell you about Stresa. It’s a wonderful little town in the northern part of Italy. You may have heard of Lake Como where the rich and famous buy houses (George Clooney). This is like that only quaint and unspoiled by fame. We stayed our first night there versus Milan which was a welcome delight. It was quiet and cleaner and decidedly more Italian in feel than the big city. All in all an uneventful evening except for dinner (see above!)

The next morning we had some time to walk around before catching the bus for the next town. My mother and I, already addicted to Italy’s fabulous pastries, strolled into a little shop to make some purchases. No one I encountered in this town spoke English. The pastry we wanted was topped with blackberries. I didn’t know the word for blackberries and did not have my dictionary with me so I used the universal language and pointed. The clerk smiled at me very pleasantly and replied, “la fragola” which I knew meant strawberry. I looked in the case and saw some lovely strawberry topped tarts but I didn’t want those. I wanted the blackberry ones. So I pointed again to the blackberry tart and stated “this one” in Italian. She calmly shook her head no, smiled, and led me back to the strawberry tarts. I gave in and took two of the strawberry tarts. She seemed very pleased with my decision and again, wrapped them in a lovely package- not quite as elaborate as the Milan version but at least this time I knew it was coming. I must say the tarts were exquisite. The tart pastry was flaky and just the right thickness, the custard filling was sweet and creamy but subtle, the fruit was fresh, ripe, and juicy. It was in a word, perfect. I will never know why the clerk did not want me to have the blackberry… she might have been saving them for someone special, or she might have known the strawberry was better. I have chosen to believe that she wanted me to have the best experience possible and thus led me to the best choice… strawberry. Whatever the reason – I’ll take it.