Touring Italy with Ashelina

Once a month the activities team works with the kitchen to make a day revolve around a certain type of food or custom that can be related to eating. Last month's was Greek day. This month we celebrated Italy and while the kitchen was busy whipping up classic Italian food, I temporarily turned myself into Ashelina, a denizen of the boot.

To begin I brewed Italian roast coffee (medium with a hint of dark chocolate) to entice passersby. I let the earliest residents choose among the three Italian cafe music CD's I had gotten from the library to play first. On the schedule I had included a note to wear red, white, and green for the day. I also mentioned it the previous day and was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who picked out their outfits accordingly. It added to the festivities. On a white board headed by the title "Cafe Italy with Ashelina" were the following coffee descriptions:

• caffè (espresso)—a small cup of very strong coffee, i.e., espresso
• caffè Americano—American-style coffee, but stronger; weaker than espresso and served in a large cup
• caffè corretto—coffee "corrected" with a shot of grappa, cognac, or other spirit
• caffè doppio—double espresso
• caffè freddo—iced coffee
• caffè Hag—decaffeinated coffee
• caffè latte—hot milk mixed with coffee and served in a glass for breakfast
• caffè macchiato—espresso "stained" with a drop of steamed milk: small version of a cappuccino
• caffè marocchino—espresso with a dash of hot milk and cacao powder
• caffè stretto—espresso with less water; rocket fuel!
• cappuccino—espresso infused with steamed milk and drunk in the morning, but never after lunch or dinner
• granita di caffè con panna—frozen, iced beverage (similar to a slush, but ice shavings make it authentic) and topped with whipped cream 

Most residents wanted to try their coffee as a caffe latte. I served them as they wished but asked that they used the special straws we made the previous day to drink. The straws were pizzazzed with paper mustaches we had attached during an activity called "I Mustache You a Question". Had I had enough character space, I would have called it "I Mustache You a Question, What is Your Favorite Italian Sportscar?" because we also cut out pictures I had drawn from the pictures of the back of famous vehicles. These we taped to the backs of seats and wheelchairs to make it seem, in our patriotic colors, that we had all hopped in to our national cars to drive to our favorite coffee spot to chat with our flambouantly mustached neighbors. 

Ferrari F360

Guidebooks I had brought from the library helped further discussions about past trips to Italy and dream vacations there. Then we visited the "art gallery" where an educational DVD about Renaissance Art was playing and additional books about painters like Da Vinci put everyone in the mood for Italian lunch.