Era un buon natale!

Just when I thought I couldn't have eaten any more, Christmas in abruzzo, italia happens. This christmas was an experience I will appreciate for all the years of my life. Here, christmas seems like a span of 3 days. In lanciano, which is the most dearest town i've ever seen, there is a tradition called "squilla" which is when a bell rings for and hour to call all the towns people together. yeah so that didn't really happen, i just read about it in one the tourist books Lorenza's mother helped me get. So, for "squilla" we went over to Lorenza's nonna's house for dinner and exchange of gifts. it was a beautiful time with plenty of good food:
fagioli, pane fritte, some other fritte, pepperz?

I enjoyed every second of it. and this was only the beginning there was more to come. Upon the morning, I could not get out of bed. Yes, the impending doom of the fever has fallen over me. I was faced with the cold hard reality that perhaps i will not get to celebrate christmas eve, which is the best part! So, with this knowledge, i was determined to get out of the fever and stay in bed all day. After passing the day in bed, i checked my temp and it read to be 37, which i believe is the normal. and this news was good, and proceeded onto the most beautiful house in all of abruzzo. i wish i took more pictures of it:it was a huge house. When we arrived we went down stairs, or upstairs? both yes. and there lorenza made the nice menus with her wonderful design skills. while this was happening two large people, a man and a woman, came in through a back entrance of the kitchen. they claimed to be the babbo natales (santas). I just stood there and watched them throw on the outfits grab a large bag and bagpipe and go back out the back door. Lorenza told me to go downs stairs so i dont miss the show.



it was something like this. Hands down the best santa experience i've had in my life.

and so, following this was the never ending coming of food. the menu with some items missing:

so much goodness. so much beauty. I think I exploded. I'm pretty sure i did. that isn't all. though christmas day comes. and Lorenza visits the ER for her ear again. she has to stay behind for 10 days at home on antibiotics. Not so wonderful at all. so we proceed on to Vasto, Italy, which is probably 30 minutes or more away from lanciano, where i was, near the sea where there was more beauty and goodness:appetizers; finallly got to experience, prosciutto and melon. mmmm.

This blog is making me hungry. are you hungry? we ended christmas with a walk around vasto:



it was beautiful. I felt like I was walking through disneyland with the piazzas and castle:



and we returned to the fill the rest of the evening with games, and headed back on home.

I returned to Milan on the 27th. I turned 24 yesterday and had a lovely day around Milan, and now i'm here thinking up what is next!

martin was right, this seems a lot like a food blog than anything else...although it was my homework to take pictures of food. That was no problem, i was going to take them anyway. hahaha.

Ciao, Roma...

So this last weekend I went to rome. It is vacation this week so i decided, hey why not go to Rome! I booked 2 nights in Hostel Alessandro and went on my way to rome; an adventure by on my own. Scary thought at first but once I got there a flood of possibilities and beauty flowed into my mind. I arrived at the Hostel, a very nice hostel to be honest, not much of a walk from the train station and not far from the metro. They offered free pizza at 8:30 but i never bothered to try because the lady said the stuff went fast and i just didn't want to have to go back to the hostel for it. but otherwise it was a good idea. My adventure started and it was becoming dark so i decided to head on to the spanish steps and walk around from there. It being a sunday and a holiday weekend, the place was packed full of people.a river of people flowing down via condotti. after spending time on the steps I decided to follow my map for the typical "night stroll" from the spanish steps to the pantheon. but I could not follow the map exactly because everywhere I turned there was something to look at. walking less then a few steps at every corner was something to discover. I stumbled upon the trine fountain. I can't describe the feeling of wandering around this place and stumbling upon these sights. it's just like you're wandering and wandering and all of a sudden you turn the corner and you see this:
this is where i lost my map and thought well, i wasn't really following it anyway, it is no problem so i continue on wandering the beautiful night and i stumble upon music, dancing and a large crowd. I wasn't sure at first what was going on but i saw a huge menorah looking thing that said chanuka on it so i figured hey! its a jewish celebration, and decided to check it out and celebrate, clap and join in the fun.
After that i continued on walking and came upon this:
the great Colosseum where gladiators fought. it's huge. i couldn't believe i was just walking and all of a sudden there it is. i mean come on. this is probably the best evening stroll i've ever taken in my life. I spent some time hanging out with the structure and decided to go on the find something to eat. or maybe i ate before I dont remember but the man in the pizzeria was nice and the calezone was good.
I eventually grew tired of walking and headed back to the hostel. there were 3 other girls there, i did not really talk to them at first but they were all from different places, london, singapore and brazil, but ill talk about them later. I got ready for bed and fell asleep when i woke up the voice in my head said "You're in rome!" OMG! i'm in rome. i wake up early and decide to try out vatican city. this part of the city is so amazing. its just full of life and different things to see. it started to loook like rain when i got there and there was a line to get into the vatican. i wait there and then looked at all the things inside. it was beautiful. I came out and it started raining more so i decided i would go get my umbrella, rest a little bit and go back. but when i returned to my room, the girl from london started talking to me. Her story: she moved to rome on impulse and is now teaching english. beautiful. she had a lot to say and complain about but i decided to embrace her. we went for the walk i went on the night before with a few different turns and a few new things to see. I thought it would be nice to see the things again in a different light. and it was. it grew dark and our legs grew tired. we return to the hostel where i decided to take a quick nap before i decided to take a food adventure. I wake up and look to rick steve's for some food advice. i wanted something typical so i found ristorante da giovanni to be interesting. I tell the girl from london about it and she begins to help me find the quickest easiest route to get there. she comes over and starts explaining it to me and i'm like okay awesome! The girl from sigapore, not knowing what we were talking about, says "you're going here?!" pointing to the metro stop, "what are you going to see?!" me- "a restaurant to eat" her- "You're just going to eat?! I thought you were going somewhere to see the sites! all this for just eating! My god you are passionate about food!" -me "yes, yes i am". I learned quickly that food in italy is no joke. Just don't eat anything. it is an art. even elizabeth gilbert says so. she wasn't lying either. Eat. yes. So i head over the ristorante and was greeted by the sweetest old lady working in the kitchen and she says to sit sit go go. The owner explains the menu to me and i ordered the specialty "fettucine da giovanni" and a glass of wine. and for dessert some kind of lemon cream thing that was very good.


mmmmm. yeah. so after that i skipped on "home" ready to take on the next day. and on the third day, i decided to spend some time amongst the ancient ruins. and it was beautiful, and nice to just relax and stare at old things. then i went to vatican city again because i thought i did not spend enough time there before so i roamed around (haha) and ate a pizza and pastery and wandered around and ended up back at the spanish steps where i started and headed on back to milan. :)