I went for lunch today with Antonio, Caterina, Andrina, Chiara and Bastian, to a great little trattoria called Ermes. Ermes is the man who owns the place. He is about 60 or so. His wife cooks, his friend Aldo, who works in a jewellry shop down the road is a waiter at lunch time (he closes up his shop), and Ermes' son, who works in a bank, also helps at lunch. I am going to interview them for my essay.

The food was magic. We had antipasti of ciccione and salame with bread, I had the spaghetti al tonno, and then scallopina with balsamci vinegar and oil, which is one of my favourites. We sent this all down with lambrusco. The most overwhelming part of the meal was not really the food, even though it was great, but it was more the people in the trattoria. For example, we were all debating what to eat for the main course, and the man sitting on the table next to us over heard us, and promptly took a big chunk of the liver and onions off his plate, poured some balsamic vinegar on it, and presented it to me, telling me to try it. It was excellent, although I am still not convinced by liver, even if I try really hard to like it.

Later on, he gave me some parmeggiano to try with the vinegar, and we had a good chat about grappa. We then got chatting to a gentleman on the other table, who turned out to be the deputy mayor of Modena, who gave me his card, and told me to get in touch if I needed any help with anything. He then gave me a glass of his home made grappa that he seems to carry on him at all times, in cases of emergency perhaps.