I learned one thing very quickly here in Italy: meals can be HUGE.
Generally the largest meal of the day is Pranzo, the midday meal. Cena, the evening meal is usually smaller.
Pranzo here at Verbania is three courses.
- Primo (First Course): pasta, soup, or risotto (rice). Risotto is traditionally very common here in Northern Italy, so we have had it as an option for meals quite often. These are generally excellent, but care must be taken because one must leave room for the second course.
- Secondo (Second Course): Meat or fish with potatoes and/or vegetables. These are also consistently excellent; they tend to be seafood, poultry, pork products or veal, which are easier (and I believe less expensive) to acquire than beef.
- Dolce (Sweets): Fruit, cake, pie, or gelato (ice cream).
Granted, this is not a full Italian meal, which can include many more courses: antipasto, pasta, fish (with trimmings), meat (with trimmings), salad, sweets, and coffee, with bread and wine throughout the meal. Of course, that is an exception, not the rule.
Let's just say that it's good that I'll be walking a lot once classes start in the fall.
Generally the largest meal of the day is Pranzo, the midday meal. Cena, the evening meal is usually smaller.
Pranzo here at Verbania is three courses.
- Primo (First Course): pasta, soup, or risotto (rice). Risotto is traditionally very common here in Northern Italy, so we have had it as an option for meals quite often. These are generally excellent, but care must be taken because one must leave room for the second course.
- Secondo (Second Course): Meat or fish with potatoes and/or vegetables. These are also consistently excellent; they tend to be seafood, poultry, pork products or veal, which are easier (and I believe less expensive) to acquire than beef.
- Dolce (Sweets): Fruit, cake, pie, or gelato (ice cream).
Granted, this is not a full Italian meal, which can include many more courses: antipasto, pasta, fish (with trimmings), meat (with trimmings), salad, sweets, and coffee, with bread and wine throughout the meal. Of course, that is an exception, not the rule.
Let's just say that it's good that I'll be walking a lot once classes start in the fall.
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