A feast to celebrate our last day at work

The basement room containing parma hams & cheese

Martin in heaven with his ham!

Special dinner on our last night

Enjoying Parma ham & parmesan cheese from our field trip

Special dinner - Appetizer - quiche

Primi - homemade pasta with crab on a bed of pumkin puree

Secondi -Monkfish on a bed of porcini mushrooms & eggplant

Dessert - dark chocolate confection

Thursday Nov 24

Final discussion went great. They actually clapped for us! My last audit so not a bad way to go out. I wished everyone a happy thanksgiving and explained to them the traditional meal and the big shopping day on friday. The colleagues were happy with the report and thanked us for the way we conducted it. After the meeting some came up to each of us to give their own thanks. Paolo & Antonio made sure to tell me to look them up if I ever come back to italy. Fabio said that he appreciated having me around because I had a special prescence. Hey, his words not mine so who am I to argue?! Everyone is so nice here I cant get over it.

Our final lunch, I'll be missing the great meals. The chef wanted to give me samples of everything, including his special eggplant parmesan. Alfredo told me how to make it so let's see if I can replicate, doubt it. It's supposedly very easy. During lunch Martin asked the guys where he could buy some Parma ham. He LOVES italian ham (prosciutto), he lights up like a little kid whenever we get prosciutto at one of the meals. Anyway, next thing you know salvatore is on the phone and talking in rapid italian. Anotonio chuckles and tells me that here in italy it's not what you know, it's who you know! Salvatore was asking someone who lives locally and found out that there is a special store near the plant that sells parma ham. THe ham from the renowned region of Parma Italy and supposed to be very good but very expensive. Our friends insisted on taking us after lunch to this special place where they sell it. So off we went for a short field trip. We entered a small cafe/shop and some italian and hand gesstures ensued. Then the girl took us down to the basement to this air controlled room. It was really funny, she had to enter a security code to get into the room. I can see why when we went in - there were rows of ham legs hanging, all kinds of other ham, parmesan cheesed, and balsamic vinegar. To give an idea, the parma ham costs $45 for 2 lbs but costs twice as much abroad. Martin was like a kid in a candy store, he was so happy! Both he and Federico bought 4 lbs of ham. I took a picture of Martin in ectasy over the ham and we all had a good laugh over it. He loved that picture and sent it to his family who also loves the stuff. It's vacum sealed so ok to pack for the plane. I wish I could have bought some but I was pretty sure it's forbidden for the states. I'm not a big ham fan but was really bumming that I couldn't buy any of the parm cheese. No worries, our nice colleagues bought some ham, parm cheese and special wine of the region to bring back to the office for us to try. They also bought fried ravioli which you eat with the ham. OMG, it was so good! What a special treat!

I was worried we were eating too much and not leaving room for our nice dinner that night. As if! Federico ensured me that it's not a matter of being full or hungry, he will make room. How true!

Our restaurant was well away from the town of Como and on a side of a mountain. We drove through some some really really narrow roads. Again, it was a restaurant that you had to know about but it was not on the main drag. Alfredo told me that this is well know and exclusive and they get a lot of local celebraties. Ofcourse I had to ask if George you-know-who was going to be there and ofcourse they all groaned. Apparently it's always big news when George is in town and is all over the news. I'm told he has 3 villas on the lake now - the joke is that he has 1 to live in, 1 for his gym and 1 for his parties! Anyway back to the restaurant. So great. It sat next to a creek and has been owned by 5 generations of family. It's like a big villa with various rooms. The menu did not have prices so I'm guessing it was expensive. We had local wines and a 4 course meal. The service was incredible, I think we had 3 different waiters tending to our every needs. This time Davide also joined and we got to know him a little better. He told us funny stories about his wife being the boss of the household and her love for louis v. purses. All the men ofcourse shook their heads and perplexing why someone would pay thousands for a purse. Being the only girl at the table I felt obligated to defend a woman's right to appreciate to nice purse! Yes, my sisters would be proud.