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We traveled on a charter bus to Orvieto from Rome. It was a beautiful small village like the one I once saw in a picture book. Since it was famous for wooden handiwork, there were many stores for it along the narrow street. I found handmade wooden dolls and got one of those as a souvenir. It looked an authentic Pinocchio to me. The lunch included in the tour was at a restaurant also looking like a place in a picture book, which had round wooden tables covered by tablecloths with red and white checks. A main dish came with all-you-can-eat pasta, which the server dished up on request. It was simple pasta with basil and salt, but the best pasta I’d ever eaten. I had lost my appetite since I landed on Europe and hadn’t recovered it yet. But that pasta instantly cured it, and I regained appetite finally after one whole week. I asked for the pasta repeatedly and gobbled it. I literally ignored the main dish that was obviously much more expensive than the pasta. I saw some locals having lunch at a distant table and they had wine. I had assumed that alcohol was strictly for dinnertime until then. It was kind of a culture shock for me to see people enjoy wine at lunch. In my adult life, I often cook basil and salt pasta, and have wine at lunch regularly. I think my custom has to do with my experience in Orvieto, somehow, unconsciously. Because of the too-delicious pasta, I can’t remember the main dish there though. Cheap stuff appealed to me even in Europe…
