La fine della Londra

Last bits of London: The National Theater; Liz Me and Big Ben; a church and cool statue; me being "The South Bank Lion"

I'm not really sure what much I have left to say about London, but I still had some fun pictures that I felt I needed to share. As soon as Facebook is done being stupid, I'll upload all the rest of my pictures there so you can peruse at your own leisure.

The only thing I feel I still need to talk about is the play I went to see one night at the National Theater. It was called "Mother Courage", the most recent incarnation of the Brecht play. It was really good, and the cast included the woman who played Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies (she was Mother Courage) and the guy who plays Dudley (who was her son again in the play!) It was really good, and even though the play is set during the Wars of Religion between Poland and Sweeden, there were a lot of really cool anachronisms that made it more relevant (and probably alluding to the war in Iraq). It's all about a woman, Mother Courage, who is torn between her love for her children and her love for making money off of war profiteering. The latter wins out.

But enough about London. I went to Modena today with a trip arranged through NYU. We got to have a real Balsamic Vinegar tasting, because apparently the stuff they sell in the stores is just a crappy reduction of the real thing. The stuff we saw today was over a hundred years old, and is passed down through families. They have a system of making it in barrels in their attic, and it takes 12 years from start to finish to make a decent batch. It's a lot thicker and has a MUCH stronger taste. You use drops, and sparingly too. This all happened at the house of an 83-year-old woman. She was spry and hilarious, and loved talking to us in Italian. She didn't speak a word of English. I really wanted to buy some to bring back to the family, but it's $60 for about 12 ounces. Sorry folks, but we'll make due with the store bought kind. Or start fermenting it in the basement. Your choice!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Balsamafied" Yazge