Italy Journal
Tues-Thurs, November
20-22, 2012
Tuesday was my day to have my Italian lesson. I must be
getting much better at Italian or else Sara is speaking much slower. I seem to
be understanding more and more of what she is saying. She almost always speaks
Italian to me in class.
I’m also meeting with Sara as often as possible now to help
her get ready to do her local tours in perfect English. We have a great time
working on this, and I’m getting lots of super information from her tours.
Thanks, Sara, for including me in this fun.
My massage today was super. Stephanie did a warm treatment
with my left wrist and hand that really made it feel so much more supple than
it has. I will ask her to include that in the future, until my wrist is all the
way better. I’m realizing, too, that typing on the computer makes my fingers
and wrist stiff, so I’m trying to hold my hands more like playing a piano when
I type. It’s not an option to stop writing my journal, though.
Tonight’s dinner with Ashley, a student in the new masters
program that starts tomorrow was really nice. We had leftovers from some of
Peter’s cooking, which is always good. It was fun to get to know her a little
better. She’s from Canada and is excited about the program. She likes to go for
long walks, like me, so I plan to include her in my Pocopaglia (“poe koe PAH
lia”) hike on Saturday morning.
Wednesday, November
21, 2012
I had a treat today. I went into Grimaldi’s Pasta Shop that
is owned by our friends Mara and Valerio, and I got to meet Mara’s parents Peter
and Terry. Neither spoke any English to me, but he especially got by teasing me
well enough in Italian. He told me that it’s always better to smile than to
frown, and I was very good at smiling. I told him he taught me well! I was so
glad to meet both of them, and I hope we can see more of them, as well as Mara
and Valerio and crew.
I went by the street market on the way home to buy some
beautiful fresh flowers to cheer up the house for our Thanksgiving Dinner
tomorrow. I was very pleased with what I found. I’m so glad Peter got a flower
vase from IKEA when we first arrived in Italy. We use it a lot.
In the afternoon, I picked up Alida from the University, and
Elizabeth was with her. Elizabeth was invited to come to dinner tomorrow, so
Alida invited her to go shopping with us at Eataly this afternoon. We just HAVE
TO HAVE brussel sprouts., and we did find some very nice ones there. I’m glad I
can drive the other students there. It’s a great place to get fresh foods, and
it’s too far away to walk.
Enzo and Lisa invited me for supper tonight, and I really
enjoyed visiting with them, as always. Enzo made the wonderful cheese with
prosciutto wrapped in pastry that I love so much, and he followed it with some
of his great pasta. I took half of the magnificent frutta del bosco and
albicocca (berries and apricot) torta that Mara had made for me, and Lisa’s
daughter Alice (pronounced “ah LEE chay”) was there to join us for the meal. It
was nice of all of them to include me.
Thanksgiving Day,
November 22, 2012
It’s Thanksgiving Day, and I received a text from Mara
earlier that said there was not a tennis court available for us today, so we
will play next Thursday. I really needed some exercise, and I took off for a
long walk. I made a stop in a makeup store (Yes, really!) on the way and found
the exact color of lipstick that I have been searching for about 3 weeks. That
was great!
Alida called for me to come around the corner to her
apartment and help her bring her food to my house about 1:30, and the fun
began. She’s an independent chef, so I went about cleaning the house and
setting up the table while she started prepping all the food. She decided that
we would probably have one or two more than the current number of 8, so I put
all the leaves in the dining room table so that it was very easy to just set
another place when Anika did appear asking if she could join us. Of course, we
were glad to include her…and her nice bottle of wine.
Alida made cranberry sauce with orange, the turkey, stuffing
with chestnuts, gravy, small baked sweet potatoes and delicious leeks. As the
rest of the group appeared at 7:30, we added cornbread and pecan pie made by Chiara,
Conny’s raisin bread and rice with chard yummy dish, Elizabeth’s buttery
brussel sprouts, creamy mashed potatoes from our next door neighbors Bianca and
Nora, and Veronika’s German apple strudel. Peter had left some wine in the
refrigerator, so we served that to those who wanted it. We all had such a
wonderful time. Conny helped to cut the turkey and took a turkey leg/thigh as
his well-deserved payment. It was great to get to know everyone. They all said they had a wonderful time. We
missed Peter, but everyone left their leftovers with me, so Peter will have his
share when he gets home tomorrow night… not a moment too soon!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
Colleen
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