Formaggio, Carne, Vino, Gelato

These four things are quite artisan in our American markets, and ring up a high price. But in Italy, proscuitto is nothing special! It’s just ham to them! Other common meats include salumi (which is dry, unrefrigerated), mortadella (sort of like bologna, but much tastier. Big white circles of fat!), speck (which is a sort of pork salami), proscuitto crudo/cotto (raw aka smoked, and cooked), and pancetta (not as often, but smoked bacon).
Gelato is actually cheaper than ice cream in the states, even with the exchange rate--and its so much better and denser. Flavors are so fun! Besides the normal chocolate, vanilla, pistachio, strawberry, other common flavors are frutti di bosco (fruit of the forest, aka mixed berry), hazenult, bacio (“kiss”,which is chocolate and hazelnut, and called something different in Sicily), English cream, and straciatella(chocolate chip). Funner flavors I’ve had are marzipan, puffi (chewing gum, also the smurfs), and prossecco--the last being my favorite! A scoop is 1.30 euro, which is currently about $2. It’s pretty reasonable, and so filling. Gelato shops are springing up everywhere now that spring is here. Gelato shops normally also serve nutella crepes (which are just amazing) and nutella topped waffles. Yeah, they love their Nutella here.
Speaking of prosecco, it is so amazing. I wish they had it more in the States. I’ve become a big wine fan here: Reds all the way! White tastes like baby powder to me. I’ve had enough (Natalie and I decided to buy a bottle a week, for posterity) that I’m starting to tell the good from the bad. I really enjoy carbonated wine, like Lamberti or Prosecco, but still cant stomach champagne (even the apple kind we had in Barcelona). I’ve also learned to love Chianti. The Verona province is the highest producer of wine in Italy, and Claudio always gets us some with our meals. A nice bottle of wine (meaning produced in the proper region (DOC)) will cost 3-5 euro, the most expensive running about 10. Wine heaven!! Half a wall of the grocery store (which is the size of Walgreens, mind you) is wine, from multiple regions. And its all Italian. I prefer it to the French stuff, anyway. We went to a producer of Valpolicella, and it was really interesting. We did a tasting of Verona’s most famous wines: Valpolicella Classico, Valpolicella Ripasso, Valpolicella Superiore (which is classico, with 1% more alcohol), and Valpolicella Amarone. Amarone is quite interesting: its aged for 2 years in oak barrels, and reaches alcohol content of 13-15%--it’s almost a wine liquor. It was intense, but still very enjoyable!
Cheese: Anything you want, and its decently cheap. A good size slice is 2-4 euro, DOG (proper region). Parmeggiano-Reggiano (which is just called grana here) will cost more--7 euro or so. It’s that good. So many varieties to choose from! Marscarpone and ricotta come in store brand.
It’s so strange that we charge so much for these household Italian staples. Here, you can’t find cheddar, or California wine. There’s no “American style ice cream”…really, all they know us for is hot dogs, and putting French fries on pizza (yup, that’s the american way to them).