Assorted things I have seen and eaten

In Mantova I have seen in no particular order :

A lovely little shop selling only buttons, but millions of interesting ones

Many shops with beautiful clothes for high prices.
Some shops with beautiful clothes for reasonable prices.

Many more childrens clothes shops as a proportion of total clothes shops than in Aust.
A Baby Dior shop. Nothing for a child older than 2. The cheapest thing in the window was a €34 Tshirt. At first I thought the most expensive thing in the window was a little dress (winter) at €119 , but then I saw a pink overcoat/jacket thing at €329. The fur around the collar was probably an ex – rare animal. Needless to say I did not buy my very precious granddaughter anything from this shop.

A butcher shop only selling horsemeat, though I read somewhere that they sometimes sell donkey meat as well.

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Other foods specialities / things new to me that I have had

In Ravenna I had squacquerone – a local fresh cheese. I had it baked with some veggies
And straight in a piadine – sandwich like thing of flat bread – with Italian rocket
Strazzapretti - long thin spaghetti like pasta
Scamorza – a smoked mozzarella like cheese

In Mantova :
Ceciata – flat bread made of chick pea flour.
Tortelli di zucca – large ravioli like shapes of pasta filled with a mixture of pumpkin (mainly) and crushed amaretti biscuits
A typical Mantovan risotto with funny little bits of meat – drier than we serve risotto.
Scaglie di grana ( an aged hard cheese) with mustard preserved fruit


An aperative Spritz –aperol, white wine and soda
Valpolicella – a red from somewhere around
Moscato – from this area . Funny – it smelt sweet but tasted dry