Karl and Leslie Ruth continue to learn

As if studying Italian, with its prepositions and pronouns and the such weren’t enough to tax their brains, Karl and Leslie Ruth are diligently studying Italian culture as well. Each Tuesday evening, at 6:30, the students and instructors meet at Bar Manganelli for a course of study entitled “The Aperitivo In Its Many Forms, Including Apericena.”

We studied this last year, mastering Tuscan wine (red, white, and sparkling) and were ready to move to a more advanced level. So, this week, we studied Prosecco Manganelli, a wonderful drink made with Prosecco, a sparkling white wine, strawberries, and fresh mint leaves, served over small ice cubes in a large wine glass. We did well, and felt we had made great progress on this aperitivo.

Aperitivo, at Bar Manganelli, is really “Apericena,” offering a buffet with enough food to make a dinner (“cena”) out of it. Increasingly, Italian bars are beginning to call this “Happy Hour” (actually, “’Appy ‘Our” since the Italians really don’t do well with the letter H).

To make sure we had mastered this important part of the curriculum, we returned on Wednesday evening for Independent Study. This being Leslie Ruth’s birthday, we studied really hard, which we regretted a bit the next morning. But, we feel we have really mastered the aperitivo.