A Day in Ferrara...

...or, more aptly titled, 5 hours in Ferrara.  This Saturday, Feb 16, the school had a "field trip" planned for us to Ferrara.  Ferrara is a pretty small city and it's on UNESCO's World Heritage site list for being the first city to be built (or enlarged) according to a specific design and build plan.  The leading family that ruled the city from about 1200ad to the 1500ad  were the D'Este's.  I know some of you will recognize that name from the fantastic villa and garden's of Villa D'Este in Tivoli, and yes, it is the same family.

Our tour was just an outside walking tour, but we got to the castle, the Palazzo dei Diamanti, the Cathedral, the Jewish Ghetto and one of the oldest streets in the city Via delle Volte.

The facade of the Cathedral was pretty cool, there was a very graphic and detailed sculpting of the Last Judgement around the doors.

We eat a traditional meal at lunchtime which consisted of an antipasto of meats with these amazing fried dough things (like sopapillas), then a duo of pasta the first being capellacci di zucca and the second was called pasticcio.  Our second course was salama al sugo and then it was all finished with a sampling of traditional desserts: tinarari, panpapato, crostata, and ravioli fritti. Oh, and I mustn't leave out the tradiitonal wine of Ferrara - Lambrusco! I of course didn't get pictures because I was too consumed with the eating part but below are some examples I stole from internet. And this is restaurant where we ate and which I HIGHLY reccomend for a fantastic lunch and a great price http://www.ristorantecadfrara.it/. 

Enjoy the pictures!

Palazzo dei Diamanti

The Cathedral - just about a full view.

Jenneth, Valentina and Brad.

Drawbridge of the castle.

Facade of the Cathedral.

Dolci ferraresi.

The Pasticcio.

Cappellacci di zucca al sugo.

Salama al sugo.