frutti.gummi

I love gelato!!! When I was living in Italy, my place is about 15-20 minutes away from the center of town. And I would surely go and buy gelato almost every time I'm there, except when they're closed during the winter. I even developed a very nice routine. Every Tuesday and Thursday after my Italian classes in the evening, I would go and treat myself a scoop of gelato at the gelateria closest to the bus stop. This shop is in between two bus stops so I usually walk towards the next bus stop while eating gelato. At times, I managed to finish when the bus arrives and I got on the bus. Other times, I just continued to walk home.

When my Italian classes for the semester ended, I only eat it when I'm in town for a pizza or shopping. I also had a pizza-gelato routine. At first, I would get a drink together with my pizza. And when I walk past the gelateria, I'm already too full and feel sad that I couldn't have any of the nice-looking gelato. One day, I realized that I could just skip the drink and have a gelato after the pizza! Yay!!! So after pizza, I would head directly to a gelateria and ask for "una palina di [flavor]" (a scoop, although literally palina means ball. I have heard Italian friends saying "balls of ice-cream". Weird isn't it? Hahahhha).  


There are so many flavors to choose from and they are usually in two categories: fruit-based and non-fruit based. I prefer the fruit-based ones. Some of the flavors that I like are stracciatella, pistachio, strawberry, mango, kiwi, almond, chocolate, honey, raspberry, and mixed berries. I don't usually like strawberry ice-cream because they taste more like cream with a hint of strawberries. However, the strawberry gelato is without cream! So it tastes like fresh strawberries in your mouth. The best one I've had is in Sorrento, a town near the Amalfi coast. Except for mango, kiwi and honey, I think the rest of the flavors can be found in every gelateria.

The mango gelato is similar to the Haagen Dazs's mango sorbet, which was a permanent resident of my freezer in Chicago. The honey gelato is very special. I've only seen it in a shop in Rome. It was just so good! My sister and I kept returning to the gelateria every day that we were in Rome. The kiwi gelato is my favorite of all. Very few shops sell it (could be seasonal too) and from my experience, the quality varies quite a bit so it's not easy to find good ones. The one in my town is just so-so. The best kiwi gelato I've had is at Malcesine, one of the small towns along Lake Garda.


There are other common flavors like yogurt, fior di latte, coffee, and melon. I've also tasted special ones like champagne and other alcoholic flavors, and weird ones like Zuppa Inglese (literally translated as English Soup). All the flavors I mentioned earlier are available in single scoops or mixed in multiple scoops. You usually buy them and eat standing outside the shop. If they do have seats, it's usually very limited. If you want to sit down and enjoy your gelato, you can either to go restaurants that serve gelato as dessert (limited choices)  or a big gelateria. At the big gelateria, they have a colorful menu, its pages filled with a variety of different combination of gelati. These big "cups" with multiple scoops usually costs around, if not more than, the price of a pizza/pasta main course. I've tried one with amarena (dark cherry) and it came with pieces of cherries inside. I absolutely loved it! :D


I've seen a few places selling delicious looking gelato inside the shopping malls in KL. I shall try them when I'm ready. :P

During the course of my thesis, I was quite sure that I would be moving back to Malaysia after I've completed my studies. Unlike many of my friends, I didn't look for jobs or Phd positions. Instead, an opportunity came knocking on my door. My thesis co-advisor asked me if I am interested in joining his research group. The work that I do could be counted for my PhD when I officially enroll.
Since I've never thought about pursuing a PhD before, this will give me the opportunity to see if it's something I would like to do. After giving it much thought, I decided to give it a try. And so I moved back to Trento in Jan 2009 to start my "PhD".

I worked together with a bunch of other students in an European project and during this time, I found the area that interest me most: Recommendations. Since I had zero knowledge in that area, I had read lots and lots of papers to get to the state-of-the-art. Because it's a multi-disciplinary field, there's so much that can be done. Most of the time, I enjoyed reading the interesting articles and everytime I found a good article I get excited, it's kinda like treasure hunt. Hahaha. I read so much that at one point I neglected writing my research proposal and my advisor told me that it's best I don't read too much so that my brain won't get polluted. It made me realize that I already had sufficient knowledge of what's out there and I should resume my attention in my work, that is recommendations of scientific publications.

This experience has given me an insight into the world of academia. After about 5 months, I knew what I wanted if I were to do a Phd (it's a possibility now) and I realized that the current group I'm with is just not a good fit for me. I know that if I wanted to, I'll manage to stick it out for 3 years to complete the Phd but I'll definately be miserable. After much discussion with friends and family, I decided to put it off for now and just get a job like an average joe. I wrapped up my work in Oct and moved back to Malaysia the following month.

I know I like the research but I also know that I don't have enough passion for it. I guess it's one of the things that can be parked under the "nice to have" category. Hehehe.

After just a month in Germany and especially having had about 2 weeks of lunch at the school cafeteria, Italy feels like heaven. I went back for a workshop over the weekend and I truly enjoyed my stay. Spring has already arrived with warmer weather, blooming flowers and plenty of sunshine. The event was held in a building on the mountain side looking over the entire town. So the view is just excellent. I was lucky enough to get a room with the same view! The food and drink provided were delicious. I get to have cappucino for breakfast and machiato during coffee breaks. I miss machiato because it's not common outside Italy. I also craved for gelato and was about to go on a gelato eating spree. At first I bought 2 scoops and finished it while waiting for the rest to get theirs. Then we hung out in the piazza for a while and since no one had any idea where to go, I suggested to go to another gelateria. I went in to buy mango gelato and was surprised that most of the others also bought more gelato. When we were walking to another piazza passing a couple of gelaterias, I was tempted to buy more. However, I wanted to save some space for dinner and also didn't want to take the risk of getting sick since I was to be flying off the next day. Besides the weather, food, and beautiful scenery, I also experienced superb Italian hospitality. People are friendly with smiles on their faces and Italian guys can be really charming. With a combination of all these, one could easily fall in love!

Spent my last weekend in Italy in Turin, host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. The current attraction is the Chocolate Festival that is held every year. When someone mention chocolates, I would think of Swiss or Belgian so I was surprised to find out that chocolate candy was invented in Turin and the Swiss came to Turin to learn the trade. The most famous chocolate sweet is called "gianduiotto", made of a coca-hazelnut paste and dates back to the 19th century. It taste like Nutella and of course, Nutella is also from a nearby town. The festival is held in one of tbe many big squares. Local retailers set up booths selling a variety of chocolates, cakes and drinks. Most of the retailers are just selling the normal forms of chocolates while I was expecting to see some special stuff. Anyway, besides the festival, Turin is pleasant town with wide streets, big piazzas, and great food. Try the calzone and pizza. It also seems like the cafe culture is popular here too. The Egyptian museum here is home to what is regarded as one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities outside of Egypt. It is really worth to visit especially when you don't know when you can go to Cairo. Hehe.

Living in Italy has been a truly remarkable experience; the culture, the people, and the lansdcape. Italians are very close to their family. Out of town students go home almost every weekend even when they have to take 3+ hours train ride. During the week, they would also call home almost every day. There also aren't many big stores like hypermarkets and department stores here because Italians encourage entrepreneurship. So there are lots of little stores everywhere. A lot of buildings in the town area consists of shops on the ground floor and apartments above. In Naples, I've seen shops selling fresh fish on the ground floor and there are people living above! I wonder how the residents can stand the stench. The banks are also different here. One cannot just walk into a bank. At the door entrance, an employee will have to buzz the bullet proof glass door open for you to walk in. Some banks even have double doors where once you entered the first door and it is closed, then you can press the bell to get the second door opened. The type of transactions the bank perform is quite surprising too. My friend actually bought his ticket for a football match from the bank. I'm glad I managed to travel around a bit here and see the country. Each region is quite distinct from another. When I move to Germany next week, I'm really going to miss the gelato, the pizza, and the mountain view.

Stuffed pasta: Tortellini and Ravioli. These ready-made stuffed pastas available from the yogurt, cheese, etc section in the supermarket is the closest counterpart to asian instant noodles. In a way, they are quite similar to dumplings or wantons. The stuffing include mushroom, spinach, cheese and prosciutto (uncooked dried cured ham). They take about 2-3 minutes to cook in boiling salted water. After the pasta is cook, drain the water and just coat well with olive oil and top with grated cheese. It taste a lot better when coated with the mixture of melted butter, olive oil and cheese but that means having an extra pan to wash. Hehe. Buon Appetito!

I've only skied 1-2 times before and after I got home from skiing last night, I realised that the last time I went skiing was in the winter of 99/00. And it's 2008 now! How did time go by so quickly? Anyway, the view up there is just magnificent. We took a cable car up to the 'base' where there are restaurant, playground, a small slope for true beginners, plenty of space for sunbathing (bring your own chair) and ski lifts to the ski tracks. I started with the small slope and I felt that I was going very fast and ended up quite far away from the automatic ramp and takes people back up the slope. Then it was a challenge for me to ski/trudge back there since the ground is pretty much flat.

When I finally got back up the slope, I met my friend who somehow managed to convince me to try the blue track (beginner). At first it seems doable and I was fine. As I was skiing down and at one point, a section of the path was not visible because the slope is steep. I got scared and fell. Took some time to get up and continue skiing down as there is no other option. This time, I felt that I was going too fast and wouldn't be able to stop and then hit the trees at the end. I got scared and fell again and slided the rest of the way down. Hahaha! Took the chair lift back up and I just stuck to skiing in the little baby slope, learning how to turn.

By the end of the day, I got better at moving in flat surfaces and uphill. I got a gist of turning but still wasn't able to do consecutive turning. AlsoI think got better at controlling my speed when skiing down. We had a great time and hopefully I get to go back again before I move to Germany. Both my upper arms are so sore this morning!

From Skiing in the Dolomites

I quite enjoyed this vacation even though it's a little tiring. The best part is the view of the ocean. Been about 5 months since I last laid eyes on a sea and I really miss sitting by the sea. The weather was also excellent being in the 60s and super sunny. I've been told that the southern part of Italy is very different but I never expected it to be such a huge difference. Naples is a big and very densely populated city. The city streets are dirty, with litter everywhere and plenty of dog shit on the sidewalk. It's also the first time I've seen stray dogs and cats on the streets. Above the streets, laundry are hung out from many windows and balconies. Pretty much every inch of the walls are filled with graffiti, even on the ground! People cross the streets whenever they want and young adults zip through the tiny streets in their vespa scooters without wearing helmet. Cars are double/triple parked on the the side, even at bus stops. While we were there, we were told that they found an old WWII bomb while digging for the subway line and everyone in the area had to be evacuated. We spent the day wandering around other parts of the city and since it was a Sunday, almost everything is closed including pizzerias.


The Pompei exavation site is very interesting. I had expected to see just bits of ruins here and there but surprisingly, the entire layout of the city is intact. We spent about 3 hours covering three quarters of the city. The audio guide we rented gave very good commentaries on the buildings. Most of the time, blocks of walls (numbered) lined the streets. These are usually shops or houses. One of the most facinating spot is the brothel. The drawings of various sexual positions are still visible on the walls and some graffiti can be seen in the walls of the rooms.

The next day after coming home from Munich, I woke up and saw snow everywhere. It's such a pleasant surprise to start the new year off. It snowed a bit in Munich and on the train ride home, the winter scenary was very beautiful. Mountains and plains all covered in snow. But as the train head closer to Italy, the snow got lesser and eventually no snow in Trento. So I didn't expect it to snow here yet. But it did snow for the past 3 days and we've got 3-4 inches. Went out to have some fun in the park. Although the snow is kinda hard, like a mix between snow and ice, we managed to make snow angels and build a weird looking snowman. Snowballs could be made very easily but it's as hard as ice so we couldn't have snowball fights. Hopefully the next snow would be better.

The Christmas scene here is very different from I what used to see. The decorations are a lot simpler. Just some decorative lights on the street and on the christmas trees. Nothing fancy. As Christmas is considered a religous celebration, it is usually not associated with presents. Santa Claus is not that famous here either. The more famous character is called La Befana. La Befana is an old crone who on the eve of Jan 6th, fills the socks of children in Italy with candy if they are good or a lump of coal if they are bad. She is usually portrayed as an old lady riding a broomstick through the air wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters the children's houses through the chimney. She is often smiling and carries a bag or hamper filled with candy, gifts, or both.

How cold is 17C? At first, it doesn't seem very cold since that's the temperature I set to my AC in Malaysia. I guess in Malaysia, it doesn't feel as cold since it's warm outside. But having cold weather outside and 17C inside, it feels cold after a while. I think the temperature in my apartment has been hovering around 17C for about a week now. Everyone I know in the building has been complaining about the cold. The heater doesn't work well. There's a notice indicating the hours that the heat will come on but the heat doesn't come on according to the hours. Sometimes, the heat that comes out is so mild that you can't even warm your hands. It's really uncomfortable to study when the desk and chair is cold. Or even to read in bed. The hands will feel cold after a while. The worst time is in the morning when I have to get out of my warm bed.

The ice stadium is almost an hour away from Trento by bus. It's located up in the mountains and we get beautiful view of the area from the bus. The stadium has 2 rinks. One indoor and another outdoor. The outdoor rink has the same design as a track and field with track being the ice instead of ground. It's used for speed skating. First time I've seen such a rink. It costs 4€ for admission and another 2.50€ for skate rental. The place is only open from 14:00 to 16:30 so I think it's rather pricey. The temperature was sunny around 0 degrees so it was nice for outdoor skating. We tried the outdoor rink for an hour before going inside. At first, I could only move very very slowly. Luckily I can still balance on the ice and can move a little. There is only one other guy who can skate in our group. As usual, all the girls who cant skate were holding on to the barriers while the guys were moving and falling all over. Hehe. After a few rounds, I got the feel of movement back and I could move more easily.

The best feeling was when we stepped into the indoor rink. The ice was so good! Somehow, I started being able to move freely, naturally. About 30 minutes later, I could go backwards. Although I could only do about 70% of what I could do before, it felt really good to be able to skate again after such a long time. There weren't much people in the rink so we could do whatever we want. We skated until the guy comes out with the zamboni. There was no announcement or anthing. People just move out of the rink when they saw the zamboni coming out. Well, it was a much enjoyable day.

On the way home, the bus took another route back to town and we saw another indoor ice rink and it was still open. Gonna find out if there's public transport to this rink. Hehe. When we got back to town, a few of us went to a cafe to grab something warm to drink. I ordered hot chocolate with whipped cream and it wasn't exactly a drink. The hot chocolate is jello-like and very chocolaty. Have to eat it with spoon. It does taste nice when mixed with the cream and small biscuit like those on ice cream. First time I had hot chocolate in a cafe in Italy so wasn't sure if this is the standard way of making it. The ones from vending machines are drinkable though

Took a short vacation to Tuscany during the long weekend. Had a great time visiting the sights and enjoying the food especially gelato. The gelato was invented in Florence and we had gelato from one of the best gelateria in Italy. It was soOOOoo heavenly. After having the best gelato in our lives, we accidently found the best pizza in town. We went back to try it the next night and it was great. The crust is really soft and the toppings are juicy. They only make 3 types of pizza so we tried them all; Margherita, Napoletana, Marinara. Although we arrived only 15 minutes after the pizzeria opened, we had to wait for almost an hour to be seated. The place only has 4 tables and it was all occupied and there were 3 more 4-persons group already waiting outside. The Uffizi musuem has some nice collection but I don't think it's worth the 2 hours queue. If we had bought the tickets online in advanced, we probably wouldn't have to wait so long.

Additional travel note to add is to buy the return ticket in advanced.

I've uploaded some photos onto picasaweb instead coz my free flickr account already has more than 200 photos. Anyone wanna sponsor me a flickr pro account? Hehe. I'll buy a better camera and take nice photos :p

Seeing that it's such a nice weather today, I went out for a walk around the neighborhood and took some pics.

I'm just not ready to take any exams only after 6 weeks of classes. It still feels like the start of the semester and I'm just getting used to attending classes again after a long summer break. We had an exam last week and supposedly this week and people around got pretty tense. Although we're also planning for a trip, I don't see any excitement around. The good news came on Sunday that this week's exam is postponed and people suddenly became livelier. I see people smiling again and joy in their hearts. Hehe. And looking forward to the long weekend starting Thu.

Went for a day trip to Venice last weekend with a bunch of new friends. We walked around a lot and saw the famous landmarks. I think Venice is a city where you really need to take time to walk around, browse the little shops and sit down for coffee and enjoy the view. Although the company was good, we just don't share the same travel style. I'm for shopping for local gifts and trying out the specialty dishes while the rest of them are mostly into taking lots of photos. So, I did not buy anything during this trip. I did kind of look out for cute Italy t-shirts while we were zipping though the streets but nothing caught my eye. As for masks and Murano glass, I'll need plenty of time to check them out. Definately a must on my next trip.

Most grocery stores here are small and don't carry international stuff. The few bigger ones do carry some. After shopping at a few bigger stores, I know which store to go to buy a certain product. For example, ketchup. The one from the local brand is sweet so I don't like it. I found a few stores selling the McD version which is ok. To get the Heinz version in a squeeze bottle, there is only one store that sells that. This is also the only store that sells salad dressing! Italian salad dressing is olive oil and vinegar so you can't find other types in most stores. I found a small gourmet grocery store in town where you can buy a small can of campbell soup for over 2€. I never went back again. There is also the German store Lidl where I buy 1.5L 100% fruit juices, yogurt drinks, gummi bears, american chocolate chip cookies, chicken nuggets, mars or snickers bars. And I'm so glad to have found Heinz baked beans in the Thai shop.

It's nice that the apartment comes with a washing machine and washing is free. There's no dryer though so we have to dry the clothes on the rack. It wasn't a problem before. During the winter when it was cold, the apartment is heated from midnight to early morning so the clothes get dry inside the apartment. When it was summer, the clothes get dry in the balcony even though there isnt much direct sunlight on the balcony. Now that the weather is cooler, my clothes just couldn't get dry after leaving them on the balcony for 2 days. It's still a little damp but no smell. Since there is no heat in the apartment yet, it couldn't be dried inside either. Sigh!

I just couldn't find seedless grapes here. It's almost like there is no such thing. So since I moved from Germany, I didn't eat any grapes at all until last week. I could no longer resist the delicious looking grapes every time I go to the supermarket. I bought a bunch and they were sweet and juicy. But it was a mess coz I had to dig the seeds out for each one. I have eaten half and I figured it's just too much of effort. I doubt I'll buy anymore grapes here after I finished the remaining ones. I wonder why they don't have seedless grapes...