Offbeat and Barefoot: Bologna: Eat Today, Work Tomorrow

Dish of the Day: An Italian Feast ordered for us by our local friends; Rolkukan like bread things and olives for starters, followed by a tantalizing trio of pasta's (Spaghetti Bologna, Tortellini, and Lasagna). The third course was a heavenly arrangement of grilled pork, lamb, and sausage on a bed of roasted red peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes, services with lemon baked potatoes.
Wine: 2007 Rocca de Ribano, a Sangeovese
Gelato: Mango & Blackberry

Live for today, that is the Italian way. This what I learned from a gentleman named Fabio, this afternoon, while driving through the countryside of Romanga. As a business agent to the company my father works for, he says, “This is how we do business in Italy...we take you to lunch, we talk, we laugh...share our pasta, wine...our traditions. We do this so that when you think of us in your business conversations you think not just in numbers and facts, but in faces and memories. Perhaps then you will think of us as friends and give us a deal...this is Italy, ha?!

Fabio has a point, life has to be more then just business. Today as I spent the day with my dad, I observed the delicate dance between business and pleasure. In Italy pleasure is used to aid business (my stomach can attest to this), and in America I would say that business is used in order to gain pleasure. Neither is justifiably right or wrong, just differing mentalities, but if life is about more then just business, it has to also be about more then pleasure. Those who only work with no play are deemed ‘workaholics’ and those who do the opposite are considered apathetic. So where is the balance and what does it look like? Well all I know is that right now I am living the life of the later, spending everyday indulging in food that make me groan in gastronomic pleasure.

Local wine that we walked out with a case full.

Ahhhh.....groan....foodgasim in my mouth!

Sonja

Fabio

There may be no better example of using business to gain pleasure as the Ferrari Factory in North Eastern Italy. I have never cared much for sports cars, but even I began to fantasize myself behind the wheels of one of those shiny, sexy, enemies of the Green Party!

This dazed look is generally how I felt about this experience. Their beautiful, but I'm quite daft when it comes to knowing anything beyond the red paint.