Kidnapped by Alberto: Day 1

Bill and I woke up at the painful hour of 8:30 this morning to a text from none other than our great friend, Alberto!!
He picked us up outside of our apartment, greeting us with oranges and lemons from his home, and took us to the other side of town and the countryside.  As he was driving, I don't think there was one minute of silence.  He made sure to give us all of the historical facts...especially the facts about the Americans destroying one of their theatres in WWII by bombings...oops. 
Our first stop was the fish market where Alberto tried to pretend to be an English speaker so that the vendors wouldn't bother him haha.  Everything that we saw was fresh as of that morning and some of it was still living!  It was absolutely incredible.  We will definitely go back and take pictures for you to see.
Next we stopped at his house in the country which was magnificent...unlike anything I've ever seen.  He then took us to a cafe/bakery nearby to treat us to our first breakfast of espresso and cornetto (YUM). 

On our way back into town, we stopped to pick up his cousin Vittorio.  The four of us took a pit stop in a comic store and then went to a bakery to pick up lunch!  To my surprise and delight, I saw lots of desserts there that I have seen in my own kitchen at home!  Alberto had us try spingi (which is common in the Hagadorn and Ballaro households) and it tastes exactly the same here as it does at home...cool!  I also saw some cookies that my Grandma Preteroti used to make, but I can't remember what they are called.  All in all, it was neat to see that our recipies have not been "Americanized" in the slightest.

We took our lunch of carbs carbs carbs back home and I couldn't even finish 1/4 of it.  Everything is SO heavy.  Pictured above is our meal...at the very top is a sandwich of chick-pea patties, to the left is a risotto ball stuffed with veggies and meat, and to the very right are olives cooked in dough.  DELICIOSO!
So that was day number 1 with Alberto- can't wait to see what he has in store for us next!  We have the coolest TA ever...