A Pasta Situation

Monday, June 16th

Funny story.

I decided to bring back pasta as souvenirs for people. Because what could be better than an edible souvenir from Italy? Nothing, that's what.

I had quite a bit of downtime today, so I decided to go get all the pasta I'd be bringing home. No reason to put it off till the end of the week.

I went to the grocery store and spent a long time finding just the right pasta, and eventually I found this great-looking brand that was on sale and had a variety of pastas.

I bought five packages of pasta (penne, mafalda, casarecce—a few different kinds).

Then I went home, excited that I got some great pasta and my souvenirs were all taken care of and I could relax the rest of the week. Hooray!

So I worked on my Venice blog post for a while, then hung out with some friends for a while, then ate some dinner. After dinner, my mom FaceTimed me for a little bit since we hadn't talked for a while.

I was so excited about all the things I bought this past weekend that I started showing her my gifts (for myself and others). I showed her the Venice t-shirt I bought for myself, the keychain I bought for myself, and finally—the pasta!

Me: "Look! I bought all this pasta to give to people! I even got different kinds."
Mom: *looks at it through the camera* "Cool! Wait. Let me see that again?"
Me: *holds up pasta to camera* "Isn't it great?!"
Mom: "Oh, yeah. They sell that at Costco."

. . .  world. shattered.

I was SO DARN EXCITED about getting this amazing just in Italy pasta and then I go and pick the one they sell at Costco. Costco. Gah.

But the packaging is all in Italian, and it says it was made in Napoli! Still. Costco. Ugghhhh.

the culprit

So, I might be leaving the pasta with my host parents and finding something else, some other—TRUE ITALIAN—pasta to bring home. We'll see.

A domani,
Ciao!