Leather

Yesterday -- steady rain all day and my last day of teaching in Vercelli; in the afternoon K., my traveling companion, gave a workshop to Univ. Torino women's studies and leaders in city government about workplace-sexual harassment. I had dinner with a colleague, an Americanist scholar in Torino, and his wife, at their home on the other side of the Po River. Home-made pesto with potato gnocchi; roast beef; a vegetable-cheese-ham loaf, grilled eggplant, zuccini and roasted peppers. For dessert, fresh strawberries dressed with lemon juice, a nice combination. Dolcetta wine that came from a friend-of-the-family's vintner's jug. Discussion ranged from influence of the Pope in Italian public policy to the Sopranos and Borat.

Today: K left for home this morning, after breakfast. I went with M&M to Serravalle, a designer-outlet mall about one hour from Torino. It is well situated, about equidistant from Torino, Milan, and Genoa (though a bit closer to the latter two). Although there are single-manufacturer-factory outlets in Italy (the Prada one in Tuscany is notoriously hard to find) the outlet mall is a new thing in Italy. To which we say: Bravo! Now, this was *serious* business. The Prada store was a bust (wierd shoes, no bags) but other stores had fantastic stuff, even if just to admire (Cavalli, Versace, etc). The Italian shoppers are keen on the US-brand outlets (Nike, Timberland, Calvin Klein) but of course I skipped all of these and concentrated on the Euro stores. I left with leather, leather, and more leather (jacket, bag, and bag...) plus some gifts for the folks at home.