Ciao ciao tutti!

We arrived last night in Vitero and caught Nonna leaving the house to go to Boy Scouts (which in Italian is “masi”–I need to double check that spelling when I have more time). It is interesting to be staying in the house and writing on the same computer that I used 4 years ago to send home my daily emails from that trip. I am having a rush of emotions being here again…and this time, sharing it with Richard,

After a rather unfortunate mishap with Lillo’s new car last night, we made our way to a little pizza joint out in the countryside, just outside of Viterbo. Lillo, Alessandra, Richard, and I started with a crostini “sampler” platter that consisted of 6 different crostini (bread baked in the oven with a topping on it). Some were with beans, another was with mushrooms, there was one with olive paste, one with huge chunks of tomatoes…all very, very good. Our pizzas arrived with the edges slightly charred from the wood-burning oven. We ended dinner with dolci–desserts: panna cotte with berries (Lillo), panna cotta with Nutella (me), gelato affucato (ice cream with espresso poured over it) (Richard), while Alessandra had lemon sorbert served in a frozen huge half of lemon from Sorrento–Heaven!

This morning when we came downstairs for breakfast…very late, around 10:30am, Nonna and Alessandra had the table set and were waiting on us for breakfast. I have to admit that we are spoiled here. Nonna brought out her homemade fig jam, while Alessandra made Richard a “caffè lungo”–a tall coffee. Our breakfast was simple, but we felt like Princes.

Nonna is making pork ribs in tomato sauce for lunch. The sauce will be served with Pici–a tube-like spaghetti–and the ribs will be eaten afteward as the meat course. I have to make a video of Nonna describing how she made the sauce and then post it when we return. This afternoon, we are going to check out a couple of local sights and then come back for dinner tonight. The family has begged us to stay with them until we leave on Sunday, but that is not possible because of our we booked the car and the apt in Rome. A pity actually, since we are truly family now.

I am looking forward to returning home and writing about every day of our vacation and including photos and, hopefully, some video of Nonna cooking.

Ciao e a presto–

Mark