This October for our 11th #DolceVitaBloggers link up we are sharing our hilarious travel mishaps! Mine has an Italy-connection of course and funnily enough, all started with a missed connection (and not the romantic kind!). I've decided to share it as written in Chapter 3 of my inaugural novella. Enjoy!

​CHAPTER 3
5 years ago
 
There is a saying, “see Naples and die”. One night, nine years ago, I thought this saying would become a reality. I was wearing cowboy boots like only an Albertan would and I was literally shaking in them. My friend Sunmi and I had just landed in Naples. It was midnight and we arrived late because we had missed a connecting flight somewhere along the way from Edmonton to Italy. I never had the intention to land in Naples in the pitch black, two petite Asian girls in denim cut-offs speaking English with North American accents was exactly my idea of how to best get robbed in the southern Italian night. Sunmi is a Canadian-born Korean with legs for days and the kind of innocence you can’t even find in a church pew on a Sunday. We met in first year of pharmacy school, she reminded me of Elle Woods incarnated with jet black hair and you would never know her smarts because they were the kind that didn’t belong on the streets. Now, the two of us, Korean Elle Woods and I, were in Naples with twenty minutes to catch the last ferry to our destination: Ischia.  We burst out the front door of the airport and I tried my very best to act authoritative and as if I knew exactly where we needed to go, as if I had taken an illegitimate taxi in Naples a million times in my life. No big deal. It’s important to note that the Napoletani can hear your non-Napolentano accent a mile away if you’re an Italian from the next city over, nevertheless a Canadian trying to speak Italian as a second language. So my cover was blown immediately. I tried to negotiate the price beforehand, seeing as the meter was “broken” but our driver was not having it. All I wanted was to arrive at the port on time to catch the ferry and in one piece, in no particular order.
 
The car whipped through the narrow streets, exactly like in a film, as Sunmi and I held on to each other for dear life. I started regretting telling the driver I’d give him a tip if we got there on time, I was starting to doubt we would get there alive as I was sure we had left a trail of carnage in our wake. Suddenly a screech of the tires was followed by “raga', siamo arrivati” (gals, we’ve arrived), and I couldn’t hear the rest on account of my heart that was pounding in my ears at this point. Or maybe it was Sunmi’s heart. I looked over at her and her face was glistening with what I hoped was sweat and not tears, although they could have easily been tears of joy! Needless to say, we hopped on the ferry with time to spare and made it to Forio, Ischia at 3am after having taken two planes, a taxi, a ferry, and a bus. There was actually some walking and a car involved because the bus dropped us off in the middle of a street which we walked up and down about twenty times before desperately calling the hostel owner, Giuseppe. He showed up in a beat-up old Fiat Panda and for whatever reason, I ended up sitting squashed in the front between Giuseppe and Sunmi, the three of us laughing hysterically from pure exhaustion all the way to the hostel. There was nothing more blissful than the moment my head hit the pillow that night. 

BUON VIAGGIO October Dolce Vita Bloggers, see you at the next one!  Please leave a comment and then go and check out the other amazing posts.

This is part of the #DolceVitaBloggers Linkup – #11 October 2018 – Hilarious Travel Mishaps

Past #DolceVitaBlogger Link-Ups:
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup – #10 September 2018 – Favourite Italian Recipe
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #9 August 2018 - Culture Shock
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #8 July 2018 - La Dolce Vita
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #7 June 2018 - Hidden Gems in Italy
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #6 May 2018 - Five Italian Words
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #5 April 2018 - The Perfect Day in Italy
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #4 March 2018 - International Women's Day
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #3 February 2018 - A Love Letter to Italy
#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #2 January 2018 - Favourite Italian City
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #1 December 2017 - 'The Italian Connection
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If you enjoyed this snippet, make sure to check out more of my (mis)adventures in my eBook, This Sweet Life: Beginnings, available now in the Store! 

October: HILARIOUS TRAVEL MISHAPS
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Has your suitcase ever taken the train to Naples without you, while you got off in Rome? Have you ever tried to order a glass of wine in Italian, and instead got a carafe? (There are some happy accidents, after all). This October, the #DolceVitaBloggers want to hear all about your hilarious travel mishaps!

WHEN: Add your link to this post between October 7-14, 2018!

WHY:
Connect with other content creators who are crazy about Italy too! Be part of a fun, supportive, engaged community. We all comment on posts, and make an effort to share them across our social media on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook & Twitter.

HOW:
For instructions on how to join, click here.
For an instructive video on how to join, click here.
​
The link up will be open from October 7th to 14th. You’ll be able to add your blog post or vlog below as always by clicking the BLUE BUTTON. ​
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If there's one thing that we are drowning in at our house (besides Lambrusco wine), it's BREAD. Italians love to have fresh bread at every meal, they even like the excess carbs with pasta because you need it to "fare la scarpetta" which we all know by now, means to sop up every extra bit of sauce on your plate with a piece of bread. As much as I love this habit and its shoe reference, if you took a peek into our pantry it would look like an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive...in bread. That's why I love the Tuscan cucina povera that calls for whatever leftovers you have and turns yesterday's scraps into today's dinner. Sounds gross right? But put the right magic ingredients together and you can literally create magic in a bowl like David Rocco does. This recipe for his Pappa al Pomodoro can be found in his cookbook entitled "David Rocco's Dolce Vita". In case you don't know David, he's Canada's favorite Canadian-Italian! I know this seems like a strange choice for the topic "your favorite Italian recipe", there's so many to choose from and literally EVERY dish is my favorite, so I thought I'd share one that in it's own way, essentially revolutionized the way I thought about cooking. I think that's the beauty of Italian cuisine, it's ability to take what you have hanging around either in the kitchen or in the garden, swirl in some good quality olive oil, and make a damn good meal out of it!

David Rocco's Tomato and Stale Bread Soup

Ingredients
250mL extra virgin olive oil 
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
stale bread cut into pieces
2 cups of vegetable stock (homemade or bought) 
salt and pepper
1 kg plum tomatoes with juices
basil leaves 

Fool-proof Instructions
Basically you start off by making a soffritto using the bolded ingredients. In case you don't know what this means, it's your base for lots of sauces and soups. You cook all the ingredients until the onions are clear and the other vegetables are soft. Then add the bread. Add some of the vegetable stock and stir, seasoning with salt and pepper along the way. Then add the plum tomatoes, crushing them with your spoon. Cook for 30 minutes and add the remaining stock as you see fit. ​

BUON APPETITO September Dolce Vita Bloggers, see you at the next one!  Please leave a comment and then go and check out the other amazing posts.

This is part of the #DolceVitaBloggers Linkup – #10 September 2018 – Favourite Italian Recipe.

Past #DolceVitaBlogger Link-Ups:
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #9 August 2018 - Culture Shock. 
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #8 July 2018 - La Dolce Vita
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #7 June 2018 - Hidden Gems in Italy
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #6 May 2018 - Five Italian Words
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #5 April 2018 - The Perfect Day in Italy
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #4 March 2018 - International Women's Day
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #3 February 2018 - A Love Letter to Italy
#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #2 January 2018 - Favourite Italian City
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #1 December 2017 - 'The Italian Connection

September: YOUR FAVORITE ITALIAN RECIPE 
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​It’s time for our TENTH #DolceVitaBloggers link up and we couldn’t be more excited for September’s topic: your favorite Italian recipe!

Kelly wrote that she might be biased, but this is also one of  my favorite topics, which leads me to believe that anyone that loves Italy kinda loves food by default right? 

So now’s your chance to share your favorite dish with your fellow Italophiles, whether it’s a re-creation of your favorite dish from an agriturismo or you want to spill the beans on a secret family recipe, we are ready to feast our eyes (and then of course make your recipe!).

You’re more than welcome to write your recipe in Italian as well, since this is a bilingual link up! Head over to Mammaprada.com to read the Italian version of this #DolceVitaBloggers link up invitation!

Looking forward to your favorite Italian recipes! The link up for this topic will be open from September 7-14. A presto!

HOW TO JOIN OUR LINK-UP:
For instructions on how to join, click here.
For an instructive video on how to join, click here.
​
The link up will be open from September 7th to 14th. You’ll be able to add your blog post or vlog below as always by clicking the BLUE BUTTON. ​

Feminists be warned, the biggest culture shock in Italy for me has been adapting to what I can only call a patriarchal society that is stuck in the 1960s and that makes Mad Men look progressive. And the worst part is, I actually don’t think it’s going to be changing anytime soon. You hear the horror stories, the anecdotes, about Italian mothers and housewives, but you never believe that they could be true. If you don’t want to have nightmares little ones, put on your earmuffs. Gender roles are alive and well in Italy and I live in the more non-conventional North of Italy, it all gets worse down South. I should have paid more attention to these things when I was visiting Italy and seeing my MIL at work preparing dinner and cleaning up afterwards but it didn’t really dawn on me until my very first dinner party with Italians. When we arrived, the boys essentially put up their feet while the girlfriends headed straight to the kitchen to start food prep. The girls set the table, made the food, served the food, and cleaned up after. To make matters even more unbelievable, I remember like it was yesterday that I was asked (read: told) that I had to bring a HOMEMADE dessert, a torta fatta in casa. Each girlfriend showed up with a homemade something because this is just how it is and what is expected, apparently so all the other men can pat each other on the back for their great luck in finding such exceptional future mothers. I shouldn’t be so awful to the Italian men here, some might say that women shouldn’t complain because what you get in return is the other side of gender roles, so they still carry your bags, open doors, do gallant gentlemanly shit and it’s true, I don’t complain. My husband does all his “man” stuff with no issues. He takes care of the garden and the yard, takes out the garbage, opens jars and lifts heavy things for me. I guess the biggest shock is that women are now expected to work full-time AND carry on with their traditional gender roles while men are still doing what they were doing in 1960. For me, it would be fine and dandy to do all the grocery shopping, housekeeping, ironing, and starching if I were at home with my cocktail every day of the week when our job used to be NO JOB (if you got that Ali Wong reference there, let's be BFFs).  The fact is, it’s no longer like that and women are working out of the home and men are still expecting their homemade meal at the end of the day by a wife that looks like Monica Bellucci in an apron and heels even though we might get home later than them and from a more exhausting day at that! As an expat and having grown up in a very woman-run world (Asian families you know), I’ve had a hard run at it trying to come to terms with these issues. I’ve more or less learned to adapt and my husband does help me with household chores (luckily this post is in English so my mother-in-law can’t read it because if she did, I would be in deep shit- yes, the gender roles are upheld even by women themselves, albeit of older generations but this is why I’m telling you they won’t go away anytime soon!). Oh and don't get me started on the "news" programs (yes, that's you Striscia La Notizia) which feature two male presenters conducting the show while girls half their age prance around half-naked and grind to English songs in some grotesque attempt to be useful. I'll leave an episode here (same as embedded video) so you can watch it but you've been warned. It makes your toes curl and if you can read and understand the comments left by all the men underneath the video, God help us. I used to watch in shock with my mouth gaping open. So that went off on a bit of a rant but there you have it, traditional gender roles is what was and continues to be the biggest culture shock for me about life in Italy. 

CHEERS August Dolce Vita Bloggers, see you at the next one!  Please leave a comment and then go and check out the other amazing posts. Have a lovely summer everyone and see you in September.

This is part of the #DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #9 August 2018 - Culture Shock. 

Past #DolceVitaBlogger Link-Ups:
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #8 July 2018 - La Dolce Vita
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #7 June 2018 - Hidden Gems in Italy
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #6 May 2018 - Five Italian Words
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #5 April 2018 - The Perfect Day in Italy
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #4 March 2018 - International Women's Day
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #3 February 2018 - A Love Letter to Italy
#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #2 January 2018 - Favourite Italian City
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #1 December 2017 - 'The Italian Connection

August: Culture Shock
Whether you’re a tourist, an expat, or a native, what has shocked you the most about Italy? (For Italians: what shocked you about a different region or city in Italy?). We want to hear the good, the bad, the really, really ugly. I'd personally love to hear some culture shock moments that don't involve bureaucracy, let's go beyond the ordinary. Your hosts of the #DolceVitaBloggers link up, Kelly, Kristie, and I, invite you to share your moments of culture shock in Italy. 
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HOW TO JOIN OUR LINK-UP:
For instructions on how to join, click here.
For an instructive video on how to join, click here.
​
The link up will be open from August 7th to 14th. You’ll be able to add your blog post or vlog below as always by clicking the BLUE BUTTON. ​

July: La Dolce Vita

We all know that stereotype. But what’s your definition of “la dolce vita”? In other words, what makes life sweet for you? What does your ideal life look like? Your hosts of the #DolceVitaBloggers link up, Kelly, Kristie, and I, invite you to define your dolce vita.  
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HOW TO JOIN OUR LINK-UP:
For instructions on how to join, click here.
For an instructive video on how to join, click here.
​
The link up will be open from July 7th to 14th. You’ll be able to add your blog post or vlog below as always by clicking the BLUE BUTTON. ​

I am in full-on VACATION MODE. I know, it's only June but I leave for Canada on Sunday for my best friend's wedding and so I have a good reason. This month's #DolceVitaBloggers topic was "Hidden Gems of Italy". I have to admit, I'm always wary of doing this type of post because I'm greedy and I don't want anyone else to find out all my secret spots. However, I've realized over the years that Italy is just full of gorgeous hideaways and towns that it would be impossible to give away all her secrets, there's always going to be somethng beautiful and undiscovered just around the corner.

I chose Sestri Levante because it was freshest in my head, we were just here two weekends ago and had our second swim of the summer season. I'm calling it a hidden gem, although maybe to Italians it isn't. It's quite popular with local tourists, the locals from Milan and area who make the two hour drive to catch some rays on its quaint beach. In Italy, you can either go to either coastline but I prefer Liguria for the water, it's crystal clear and clean in contrast to the Adriatic on the other side. It's not as well known to foreign tourists, likely because of proximity to the more famous Cinque Terre or Portofino. That's fine though, it just means more Sestri Levante for me! The most fabulous part about this little town in Liguria is that it actually is itself a mini-peninsula, the old town sits on a strip of land and on either side of it is water, two bays that are named La Baia delle Favole (The Bay of Fairytales) and La Baia del Silenzio (The Bay of Silence); the latter is the one you see pictured above. For lovers of long stretches of sand beach, this is not the place for you- the beach itself is rather small and you have to get there early to claim a spot. You'll be packed like sardines, common on Italian beaches in summer. This was not a huge issue for me because I love swimming and frolicking in the water.

You need to be a good swimmer to have fun in the Bay of Silence- this is because the bottom of the sea is dotted sporadically with ricci (sea urchins) so it's much better (and safer) to swim or float on the surface, even in the shallow areas. A little known fact about sea urchins is that in addition to their spikes, they can actually sting you as well...fiesty little buggers they are, but delicious with spaghetti. We were tempted to cut one open and eat it as you should- raw- but we didn't have a knife on us. Have you guys eaten ricci in Italy before? Sorry, as usual this post has gone off-topic because the only thing I think about all day is food! 

Happy June Dolce Vita Bloggers, see you at the next one!  Please leave a comment and then go and check out the other amazing posts. 

This is part of the June 2018 #DolceVitaBloggers Linkup. 

Past #DolceVitaBlogger Link-Ups:
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #6 May 2018 - Five Italian Words
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #5 April 2018 - The Perfect Day in Italy
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #4 March 2018 - International Women's Day
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #3 February 2018 - A Love Letter to Italy
#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #2 January 2018 - Favourite Italian City
​#DolceVitaBloggers Linkup - #1 December 2017 - 'The Italian Connection

June: Hidden Gems

It's finally summer here in Italy and we are in the #VACATIONMOOD. Your hosts of the #DolceVitaBloggers link up, Kelly, Kristie, and I, invite you to share your favorite hidden gem(s) in Italy. Let's get off the beaten path and armchair travel together through il bel paese. We can't wait to hear about your secret places! 
​
HOW TO JOIN OUR LINK-UP:
For instructions on how to join, click here.
For an instructive video on how to join, click here.
​
The link up will be open from June 7th to 14th. You’ll be able to add your blog post or vlog below as always by clicking the BLUE BUTTON. ​