Living alone is proving to not a big deal. I mean, when I was still in Genoa I was used to help with the housework, I can do almost everything on my own. The real big news has been in the kitchen.

Don't think that I cannot cook, actually people say that I am a good cook. Infact, one of the thing that I enjoy most is cooking for my family, for my boyfriend and for my friends. Staring at their smiling faces while tasting my dishes makes me happy, proud and satisfied. So the kitchen work was the thing the worried me less when I decided to move alone. 

I was definetely wrong: cooking for one person, especially yourself, could become harder then you expect. 

First problem: the portion. I usually cook for at least two people; you should say, "ok, cut the portion in two, where is the problem?" The problem is not the preparation itself. You could not do a risotto for one, or you can, but it is still difficult to cook the right amount of rice, as you would do for a dish of pasta. So you will have to eat the risotto the day after, when, cold, won't be the same as the dinner before. 

The first days I was here I promised myself to be creative, to plan different menu for my weeks... but this challange is getting harder. Lazyness, lack of imagination, shortage of variety of vegetable in the austrian supermarket, took me to do often the same thing. 

But I'm trying to get out of this monotony, experimenting new recipies or preparing dishes I used to make in Italy.

Today a new "column" sees the light. I will weekly share a recipe, neither created by me or found on the internet.

The recipe of the day is the "Spelt vegetable salad". 

I first tasted it when my mother cooked it instead of the classical cold rice salad.

Actually there isn't an official recipe, you can do it with every vegetable and ingredient you want or you have at home. 

My version is very light, and it could be turned into vegetarian dish, only taking out an ingredient.

Wear your apron, we have to cook now!

Ingredients (for one person):

80 g of parboiled spelt

1 tomato

1/2 savoy cabbage

1 small courgette

1 small can of tunafished in olive oil

salt as required

pepper

olive oil 

Wash the courgette, the tomato and the cabbage. Put two pots with water on the cookers, and bring water to boil. In the meanwhile cut the cabbage in slices, not too thin, and the courgette, in small cubes. Do the same with the tomato. When the water is boiling, put a fistful of salt in each pot, and then put the cabbage and the spelt inside of them.

Take a pan a with a little olive oil and cook the courgette.

Open the can of tunafish, remove the oil excess, and put it in your plate.

Drip the spelt and the cabbage, and put them in the same plate. adding the corgette as well. Stir-fry for 3 minutes the tomato in the same pan where you cooked the courgette, than put it in in the plate, too.

Mix everything, add salt, a little olive oil and some freshly grounded pepper. 

The dinner is served.

And what about you guys, do you share my problems? What do you usually cook when you are alone?
Let me know, and stay tuned! 

Hey Guys! 

Today I'm going to tell you about the trip to Vienna I made some weeks ago with my erasmus friends.

It all started on a sunny friday mornig, when we started to drive towards the capital of Austria. 

As always, I fell asleep but after a short nap I was ready to enjoy the roads!

When we reached our destination, after a little break in our hostel, we started walking very hungry, looking for food. We had a big ice-cream and then we started going around this amazing city, with fancy buildings, beautiful parks. We passed along the Opera House, the Hofburg palace, and then we walked the main shopping streets, and there we met a funnily dressed man who proposed us a show in the Shonbrun Palace. We immediately bought the tickets, we were so excited!

We ended our first day in Vienna tasting the famous Vienna ribs, enormous dishes that most of us hasn't been able to finish.

The second day couldn't start in a better way. After a short walk in which I showed that I am definitely not a morning person, we reached the famous Cafè Central, were we had a delicious breakfast, in that very fancy place. I would have ate everything on the menu!

After that our Master Map Hadrien took us around the city and in the main street of shopping, we wanted to buy some fancy clothes for the night. Our two heroes has been really patient that morning.

The afternoon was more intellectual: we went to the Albertina museum. It has been great. There were a collection of impressionist paintings, from Degas, to Monet, Seurat, Cezanne, then some from Picasso, and other painters. The ground floor was amazing, with pieces of Andy Warhol and other modern artists.

Almost dead tired, we ran to the hostel to get dressed and rushing the time we finally arrived at the Schonbrun palace, where we had dinner before enjoying our concert. It did't disappointed our expectations. The music, the singer, the atmosphere were gorgeous.

Finally we went to a bar in the city centre, to make a brindisi alla our fancy night.

On Sunday, our last day, we went visiting the Hofburg Palace and the Sisi Museum in it. It was so realistic, with a audio guide, we had the chance to discover the history of that sad empress, and walking through the rooms of the palace in which she felt like a prisoner, you had the feeling that from a moment to another she would have appeared in her astonishing dresses.

After the worst pizza I have ever had we went to the original Hotel Sacher, were we tasted the real Sacher Torte. Useless saying that one slice wasn't enough, I would have eaten an entire cake, of course.

This is how our trip to Vienna ended. We jumped in Fede's car, and we came back to Innsbruck.

The days after for me were quite busy, I had some lessons and of course I had to pack my luggage.

Stay tuned guys!!

Hi! Here I am with our weekly date.

This week has been great, it was the one in which everything has started: new lessons, new people, new adventures. 

I don’t want to be boring so I won’t tell you every details of my lessons..but I have to say that I’m excited: every course is soo interensting! Our teachers are managers, consultant, people belonging from the real business and economic world, people able to tell you real case histories, real facts. For now I am really enthusiastic about MCI, but I will tell you more about my university in another post.

The best aspect of my university life has been the chace to meet new people: I have been incredibly lucky! My classmates are so nice and very helpful to me. The most exciting aspect of our class is that it is composed for at least a third by international students, so everyone carry his or her own culture, and in addiction, all of us are very open minded.

As you can see, this Erasmus is proving to be an incredible experience. With some members of the exchange students crew, I went in the mountain last weekend, and we try to sledding. For almost all of us it was the first time: I let your imagination run. Crashes, runs at full speed, mad sledges, accidents have been the result. But finally we could enjoy a very earned meal under the sun, in front of that huge mountains. That was good!

My week has passed between parties with the Erasmus friend, in their dorms and around the city. Thursday at 7.30 pm we met to discover all the best pubs and bars of Innsbruck, and it has been great.

Another highlight of this second week was the party at the Mansi(o)n. A danish classmate of mine organized it on Friday, and we had a lot of fun, nibbling some pizzas, playing crazy (alcoholic) games.

This weekend has passed in a very relaxing way. Sleeping till late, having a special real american “Cheesburger” dinner, jogging a bit and enjoing some friends.

Tomorrow a new week is starting: we will have lessons, but we are also plannig a special trip to Vienna, so stay tuned!

Hi! Eccomi qui con il nostro appuntamento settimanale.

Questa settimana è stata fantastica, è stata la settimana in cui tutto è davvero iniziato: nuove lezioni, nuove persone, nuove avventure.

Non voglio annoiarvi raccondovi tutti i dettagli delle mie lezioni.. ma lasciatemi dire che sono davvero gasata: ogni corso è stra interessante! I nostri prof sono manager, consulenti, persone provenienti dal mondo del business e del lavoro, persone in grado di raccontarci casi concreti, storie realmente accadute. Per Ora sono davvero entusiasta dell’MCI, ma vi racconterò meglio della mia università in un altro post. 

L’aspetto migliore della mia universitaria qui è la possibilità di incontrare gente nuova: e sono stata incredibilmente fortunata! I miei compagni di classe sono gentilissimi e super disponibili nei miei confronti. Ma la cosa più eccitante è che la nostra classe è composta per almeno un terzo da studenti provenienti da tutto il mondo, così ognuno porta con se e condivide la propria cultura..e devo dire che siamo tutti molto più open minded rispetto a quanto sono abituata!

Come avrete notato, questo erasmus si sta dimostrando una esperienza incredibile. Con alcuni degli studenti erasmus, sono andata in montagna a fare slittino. Per quasi tutti era la prima volta: vi lascio immaginare in finale! Scontri, corse a tutta velocità, slittini impazziti, incidenti! Ma alla fine ci siamo goduti un meritato pranzo in baita sotto il sole, di fronte a quelle magnifiche montagne. Quella è stata la parte migliore!

La mia settimana poi è trascorsa fra feste con il gruppo Erasmus, nei loro dormitori o in giro per la città. Giovedì alle 19,30 ci siamo incontrati per andare alla scoperta di tutti i migliori pub e bar di Innsbruck, ed è andata alla grande. 

Un altro highlight di questa seconda settimana è stata la festa alla Mansi(o)n. Un mio compagno di classe danese l’ha organizzata venerdì, e ci siamo divertiti un sacco smangiucchiando pizza e facendo pazzi giochi (alcolici e non).  

Questo week end è stato all’insegna del relax. Dormire fino a tardi, organizzare una cena tipica americana a base di cheesburger, fare finalmente jogging e vedere qualche amico.

Domani inizia una nuova settimana: avremo lezioni, ma stiamo anche programmando un viaggio a Vienna, quindi rimanete sintonizzati! 

Hi guys! It has been a very full week! 

The orientation week at MCI, the university I will attend for the next three or four months, has started on tuesday. It was an incredible day: more than 100 students from all over the world were listening to the first important things to know about the university, the campus, the teaching methods, and other practical information. The tour of the campus was the first occasion to meet each other and to make new friends.

In these two days we started to hang around Innsbruck, enjoying sunny and snowy days.

But how can I miss to tell you about our amazing first two nights out? A crew made of crazy and nice american, finnish, argentinian, polish, uruguayan, italian, spanish, and french guys started the REAL Erasmus life. 

Wednesday was the night in the mountains: after two crowded cable-cars we arrived on the top, at nearly 2000 meters, to enjoy the one and only Igloo Bar, Cloud 9! What a view from there!! You could see all the lights of Innsbruck.

After some cups of mulled wine and thousands of french fries, the crew went down to the city to keep on the night in the supercool Irish Pub.

Thursday was the Erasmus Welcome Party night. The spot was the famous Jimmy’s, where I had the possibility to meet my new friends and also students from other universities. But it wasn’t enough: we finally went dancing in a very cool club. 

The most amazing thing of these first few days has been the possibility to meet people from so many different countries: beyond the fact that everyone is very nice, kind and always smailing, each person can tell you stories about his hometown, share his culture and the peculiarities of his languages. 

The atmosphere is gorgeous, exciting, and I feel this will be a great experience.