Went to dinner with about 50 colleagues and their families last night…So I’m slowly figuring out the italian dinner scheme…appetizer is usually raw meat/bacon, cheese, and one or two types of bread (with wine). First plate (primo piatto I think) is s small dish like Rice (riso) with mushrooms (funghi) or some kind of pasta (with wine), and normally the secondplate (secondo piatto?) would be the main dish, but last night we had two first plates (rice, then a delicious stuffed pasta thingy).
The second plate (main dish) was potatoes with two differently prepared beef…beefs?….Beef prepared two ways…I hope someone understands what I’m trying to say…Followed by dessert (dolce) and champagne.
I told my table that it’s much easier in the states…Burger, fries, two hands, one mouth. Eat as fast as you can!!!
READY….GO!!!!!! RrrreeeeaaaaadddddDDDYYYYYYYY GO!!!!

Since this was actually a birthday party there was a dance break in between the second first plate and the first second plate. The italians love to dance. People kept bugging me to go dance, but I said it was just better for everyone if I didn’t…is italy ready for the “riding lawn mower”?
is italy ready for a crash and burn!!!

It was a great night. I got my first face slap…I’m not sure if it was intentional or not…italians are very fond of back-slapping and glad-handing. So I don’t know if the face slap was an insult, a compliment, or a badly aimed slap aimed for another part of my body 🙂
the italians are great…I’m loving it here!

It is strange to see how close the families are here. That sense of family in italians is not exaggerated. It’s nice to see, but also unusual to look at.

it’s a gorgeous day…I think it must be 23 or 24° today.

Gonna watch a movie now…