Modena Fiera

A nearby city (Modena) in the Emilia-Romagna province hosted its annual Christmas fair in the beginning of December.  My Italian class organized to meet there and walk through together.  It was humongous!  There was a hall specifically for hand-crafted art, one for food and wine and one for Christmas gift ideas.  I was blown away by the arts section; from wood carvings to paintings the creativity was astonishing:

Wood carvings up front, paintings in the background.

I fell in love with these simple prints.  Glitter was added over the lights, which looked trashy up close, but from a few feet away the city came to life!

More glitter lights.  I want one!

Here are some photos from the food section:

I had heard many times about the Emilia-Romagna regional dessert called zuppa inglese (meaning English soup, which traditionally contains everything but the kitchen sink), and I imagined a pudding with many additions.  I finally ordered it at the above bake stand at the Modena fair, and realized my imagination was off the mark.  Zuppa Inglese is actually a layered dessert, reminiscent of tiramisu, with striations of egg custard and chocolate cream between layers of magenta sponge cake.  I think lady fingers are typically involved as well.  I was a little startled at the color of the cake, which I found out is caused by Alchermes, a bright red herb liquor.  Alchermes also has a pungent odor and flavor, and really sets the tone for the dessert.  The flavor did not knock my socks off, but I could see how others would enjoy it.

Zuppa Inglese

Cakes made by a local confectioner.

Almost makes me want to get married.

Fruit flowers!

When we had finally wore ourselves out shopping, we five girls sat down for a coffee break.  I started chatting with one of my favorites, who had been introduced to me as Irlandese, or Irish.  I was befuddled by her accent, and I found her one of the most difficult to understand in Italian.  Also, her English was not native, so I assumed she came from a very rural area where Gaelic was spoken.  We were talking about places we all wanted to visit, and I told her that after seeing "P.S. I Love You" I felt that I must visit Ireland to meet my husband.  At first she looked shocked, and asked to verify that I was married (remember this entire conversation is in Italian, so we have some things lost in translation).  When I finally made my point clear, she seemed nonplussed and confused at why I was directing this conversation toward her.  Then finally she said, "You know I'm Olandese, right?" Meaning she is from Holland, NOT Ireland.  For over a month I had believed what I had misheard as Irlandese.  And for a brief moment she had thought I was married.  We had a nice chuckle, then reintroduced ourselves to each other.  Good times.