When learned from our pre-trip itinerary that we'd be staying at La Fiscala, we were excited to explore this amazing property. So you can only imagine how surprised we were to discovered that every team member would have a personal flat for the week! Segnore Morandi, the owner of La Fiscala and a Rotarian, was incredibly generous in providing us with such breathtaking and comfortable accommodations. Here's a look at one of our flats.
Although most of us hadn't had any real sleep in almost 36 hours, we were so excited when we arrived that we didn't go to bed until well after 3:00AM. We rose early the next morning to meet with Signore Bart, the GSE coordinator for district 2031, to review the program for the first few weeks. Signore Bart and his co-coordinator Signora Silva have put together an thoughtful program and curated activities that enhance the teams vocational and cultural experience.
Following our meeting with Signore Bart, Racheal jumped right in on her first vocational visit. The rest of us had some important errands to run. You see, when we arrive at the Turin Airport, Mike, Kirby and Kristin learned that their bags were MIA. So we needed to hunt for some clothing items to hold us over until they bags turned up. But our first, and arguable most important stop, was to enjoy some cafe and cappuccino at the enchanting Cafe Antonella.
Later we visited the open air market to pick up some clothing supplies and then it was off to the grocery store to obtain supplies for our new kitchen. While the store was similar to an American grocery, there were some differences such as the use of little trollies opposed to the large carts we use in the United States. Additionally the food selection was primarily fresh produce, meats, cheeses, breads and pastas. The availability of frozen and highly processed foods was much more limited compared to back home. Oh, and we learned that we weren't allowed take photos in the grocery store!
After shopping, Alessandro took us for a traditional Italian lunch featuring fresh breads, meats, cheeses, water, and juice or wine. It was buono, buono. We quickly learned the Alessandro knows where all the good eating spots are to be found.
After lunch the team re-grouped with Racheal and met Signore Luigi at the Alessandria Food Bank's distribution center to learn about the work volunteers are doing to help feed an estimated 23,000 people in the area. The food bank receives donated perishable and non-perishable food items from more than 160 church organizations and businesses in the food industry.
After the foodbank we went off to do more individual vocational visits and had a nice meeting back at Mr. Luigi's house before having a celebratory dinner with Signore Morandi. We had a wonderful time! And what was most interesting is the number of languages being used at the table. Our team's Italian is limited and Signore Morandi's English, is very good but still limited. So, some of us decided to speak in Spanish because both Mr. Morandi and some of the team knew spanish equally as well! Fun fact.
On Friday, we rose early to go off for our individual vocational visits in the morning. In the afternoon the team met up with Signores Morandi and Bart for our first Italian pizza meal and it was incredibly good!
After lunch we had the unique opportunity to join the people of Alessandria as the Giro d' Italia (Tour of Italy) cycled through town.
The team then went on a short road trip to visit the renewable energy plant of Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi. M&G's objective is to produce bio-ethanol deriving from fermentation and distillation of lingo-cellulose biomass hat does not conflict with food and feed production. The team at M&G gave us a full tour of the labs and production plant.
Following our tour, we raced back to La Fiscala to prepare for our first presentation at the annual Grappolo dinner. At the event we had the opportunity to meet many leaders and active members of the local Rotary clubs. It was a lovely evening-- and the food, of course, was amazing.
We're overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of so many Rotarians and locals here in Italy. We're very much looking forward to the next four weeks. Up next is Kirby to share with you a once-in-a-lifetime experience from Saturday.
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