Just got back Monday night from spending 4 days in the Italian countryside! Here are the entries I wrote during my time there. Also, gorgeous pics of it all!
Day 1
I’ll admit, with some hesitance, that there have been a significant number of times when I’ve wondered if this was the right choice to make. These are usually when I’m missing the familiarity of the U.S. (and it never fails to amaze me of how many, many differences there are), or when my work-day has been particularly stressful, or what have you. I’ve had a fair share of rough days and lonely nights.
Then, there are the days like today, when it hits me with an astounding gravity: I am living in Italy, one of the most unique, beautiful, and culturally saturated countries in the world.
The child, mother and I are staying with G’s grandparents in a little town in the countryside of southern Italy for a handful of days, and Day 1 has been absolutely wonderful. This area is famous for the trullo, a world culture protected by UNESCO, and we are staying in one to my intense delight. I never even knew these things existed! And it’s not just a little cluster that’s like this– it’s literally the entire area with these types of houses. They really do work too– I never knew a house could be so cool inside (without air conditioning) when it’s over 100 degrees outside.
So not only is the scenery in itself a total trip, but holy GOD the grandmother cooked the MOST AMAZING lunch, including grilled peppers from her own garden; in fact I’m eating a plum which I just picked off the tree right behind me, as I write this sitting out on their porch in 75 degrees with a perfectly cool wind at midnight.
Anyway, around 8pm we went into town for the festival of the guardian saint of the town. The streets were FLOODED. The best way to describe it is as a gigantic flea market, except the vendors span the entirety of the city center streets, and the food vendors have buckets after buckets of the most amazing olives and nuts of infinite varieties, and also candy like you wouldn’t believe. Also, I’m pretty sure every inhabitant comes out for this. There was a group of maybe 10 of us, including Stef’s awesome sister (who went to law school) and her boyfriend, and a bunch of the grandparents’ friends, haha.
The funny thing is that everyone seems to LOVE these flea market-ish tents on the street. 5 euro shoes, knock-off bags, cheap toys that will break in the car, all sorts of cheap shit you’d see on the Reynosa border. I swear though, I could have spent my week’s earnings on bags of olives and nuts. I limited myself to just one gelato and mooching off the bag of olives Stef’s dad bought, which we finished before getting back home.
I think it’s a distinct possibility that the family is hanging out with me on the porch just to keep me company, so I’m gonna stop now. More on how incredibly nice of a family these people are tomorrow. Surprise, surprise- we’ll be spending the day at the beach.
Day 2
So not only did I wake up to the most gorgeous cool morning weather and have delicious Italian espresso and biscuits brought out to me on the patio, but Giulia didn’t feel like going to the beach and we therefore went without her!!! Stef told me G would stay here at the house with her grandparents, and in the mother’s own words, “Today, we are free!” which pretty much summed it up better than she realized. An entire six hours at the beach and being able to do whatever I wanted!!! I was so thrilled I got a sunburn.
For the night, we headed over to some friends-of-the-family’s terrace for dinner and watching fireworks for the continued guardian saint celebrations. Everything was going splendidly, and then disaster struck. I have been complaining intensely about the quality of Italian breads. Don’t get me wrong- it all tastes great, but why, WHY do they not understand the concept of soft bread? I’ve gotten so tired of struggling to rip and tear apart my sandwiches. Anyway, I was served one tonight, and I didn’t want to be rude and decline in front of a big group of people, or be a blatant foreigner and use a knife and fork to eat my sandwich, so I (quite literally) bit the bullet. Then I noticed something funny-feeling in my mouth. I excused myself to the bathroom, looked into the mirror, and let out a huge sigh of relief to see that my front tooth, of which half is fake, was still there. Then, I touched it, and off it came.
I called Stef in and started crying, but luckily she has a friend who’s a dentist and will supposedly fix it for me for free so I don’t look like a damn gap-toothed hillbilly. Anyway, everyone was really nice about it, and when Stef told Giulia why I had been absent from the table for awhile, G immediately yelled out (which I heard from the bathroom) “ASHLEE WHERE ARE YOU??? ARE YOU OKAY?!?!” all in this cute panicked voice.
The rest of the night was pretty much a downer, but I’ve just been telling myself, thank god this didn’t happen in Venice.
Day 3
Woke up and went to a massive antique street market event with the family. Also happened to catch a lunar eclipse. The highlight of the day though was going for another huge family dinner, this time at Stef’s uncle’s GORGEOUS trullo. I took a ton of pics of the inside so Dad could see.
I really like the way Italian family dinners feel. Everyone has continuously been so nice to me, and in a very honest way. Everyone is always hyper-talkative but it’s all equal amongst everyone, and I don’t feel excluded either. I’m really impressed at what good conversationalists Italians are. On top of that, it’s hilarious to watch them talk with their hands all the time.
If that wasn’t enough, this dinner had 8 courses, to my count, which included 2 different types of focaccia, multiple pizza varieties, salads and a ton of other things I can’t remember. There was also about 5 different kinds of german beer to choose from with the pizza, then an amazing rose wine later, amaretto with the gelato, and 3 or 4 different kinds of liquor for the final push.
Day 4
I’m obviously writing the latter part of this blog being back in Lecce already, so not quite as detailed. The highlight was going to this farm, where it was just really pretty and such. What was awesome is that we bought a huge bag of bite-sized mozzarella balls that were hand-made in the kitchen probably about 10 minutes before. We sat out in the grass and ate, and it literally fell off like string-cheese, except 100 times better.
So all in all it was a pretty fun time, despite the tooth incident. I’m also getting better at Italian.
Venice in 7 days. Tonight, we agreed on an ending date for my time here in Italy to be mid-October, and then it’s off to my next European country. Anyone know of a job for me (NOT babysitting)?
Pictures here, including a new folder with pics of Giulia’s 6th birthday party.
