Ten Courses Later.....

I am happy. Really really happy. I had a great weekend. I'll tell ya why.

Friday night we went to dinner at Tony's which is my favorite and I had chicken parmesan and they gave us two bottles of the house white and lemon gelato for free. Fab.

Saturday we had a tour of Hadrian's Villa (the 40 excavated acres) where I gave a presentation on his bathroom, so that was fun and then we went to this beauuuuutiful garden full of fountains and statues and waterfalls and plants. Absolutely gorgeous. One of those places a camera couldn't capture, and I loved that about it. It was the same garden part of the Lizzie McGuire movie was filmed and yes, I did run through it and pretend I was running with Paulo singing "This Is What Dreams Are Made Of." Anyways, after that we went to another ancient town and climbed a huge structure and saw some more ancient stuff and headed back to the hotel. We showered, went to dinner at Mimi and Coco's and got a seafood pasta dish and then we went out to our stomping grounds: the Drunken Ship. It's never the place we wanna go, but it's kinda like the place we always end up. Somehow. Saturday night ended with Gina and I running right into each other and an entire gin and tonic getting spilled down my front. After that little mishap, me and my gin soaked outfit called it quits and headed home.

Sunday we woke up and got ready to visit Gina's great aunt and cousins in a tiny village 200 miles south of Rome. It was actually the greatest. We got off the train and realized there were no cabs. We went into the train station and asked and he was like "it's Sunday... there's no cabs." Todo, we aren't in Rome anymore. We ask a guy working at the station and we call a random number given to us by the guy and somehow in broken Italian, we get a cab. Cab shows up. It's like a 1970 Cadilac. Not kidding. Two back seats, fits all 6 of us, it's like actually hysterical. He's driving like a typical maniac and suddenly stops and asks a man on the street if he knows the address. The bystander responded by asking for Gina's family name and immediately knew who Lillina was and where she lived. That's how tiny this town is. We get there and are greeted by her Aunt Lina and cousin Maria. They each hugged us and kissed us as we introduced ourselves. They both spoke absolutely zero English so communicating with them was a bit of a struggle at first. Gina's English speaking cousin arrived soon and really helped us out with the language barrier. As soon as we walked in, Zia Lina says, "eat!" So we sit down at a table set for us. First we have homemade bread and olives from her garden. Then this like salami meat thing that we put on the bread. It was so good. I hate cold meat but I really liked it.Then big penne noodles in an amaaaaazzzzzinngggg homemade tomato sauce she made by cooking the tomatoes with meat bones for flavor then removing the bones. Actually best thing I've eaten here. Both vegetarians were so disappointed they couldn't have it. At one point, Meg, who hasn't eaten meat since age five. questioned her life choices and actually regretted not eating the sauce even though we are pretty sure her body would just shut down. That's another thing. Zia Lina didn't really comprehend the whole no meat thing. Then we had the best meatballs I've ever eaten. Ever. Ever ever. Then we moved on to thin breaded pan fried chicken. Then different kinds of creamy cheese. Then salad. Then fresh fruit including super sweet pears and huge grapes. Then we had a cake made completely from scratch. To finish it off, we had Italian coffee. Ten courses. It was the greatest meal I had in a longggg time. It was perfect. Then we walked around the town and saw where Gina's family was from. Everyone we met was so sweet and kind and loving. The treated all of us like their own kids and could not have been more welcoming. It was so nice to be hugged and be in a house instead of a hotel. It was honestly the best day. When we left, they sent us with homemade cookies and hugs and kisses. Each of them said "I love you" as they hugged all of us. It was the cutest. We already made plans to go back during finals week.

All in all, great weekend in great places. Too much love in my heart right now.