It was a molto fun party! It wasn’t for the hotel guests but rather some of the friends she had mentioned who get together frequently and are from all over the world including Japan, England, US, and Italy. There were 14 of us and we sat at a long table on the terrace, Carmel at one end with mostly English speakers and Pino at other end with those fluent in Italian.
Wine and prosecco flowed readily. One gentleman, Frank, had just been to a wine festival in the hills of Tuscany that morning and brought back a nice bottle of Chianti.🍷
Turns out Pino is quite the chef! We were treated to several platters of salami and cappicolo and cheeses and olives. Then his star dish was an elbow-like pasta carbonara with salmon instead of bacon. Molto bene!😋
Conversations were interesting and smart and funny. Carmel told lots of jokes and we all laughed a lot.
Everyone was encouraging about learning Italian. Most said it took them awhile to learn it. I think it helped me lighten up a bit because this morning I walked up to Pino and said with confidence, “Grazie per la deliziosa cena di ieri sera.” (Thanks for the delicious dinner last night.)
I’m dragging a bit today. Walked around a little but there’s a big storm coming so I’m gonna relax and read and give my feet a rest. It’s hard to believe I’ve only been here 72 hours!
We are all in this together 