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Published: February 13th 2009
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(...continued from previous blog entry)
Saturday Feb. 7th: On Saturday I woke up extremely late because we stayed up until about 2:30 or 3am watching our rather interesting "soft-core" television show. If you don't understand this, read the corresponding blog. When I came downstairs, Donatella said in a very serious voice "Michael, you are alright? Or do feel sick?." I started laughing and then told her in Italian that I was tired because I stayed up very late. After I got ready, Christian and I went out and walked around Rome because Consuelo had to study math and Corinne had to go to school because Italians have school on Saturday. Christian and I went out from about 12:30pm to 4pm and although we were in the same general area that Fabio and I had gone to the day before, we saw a lot of famous sites within Rome. Some of these were The Trevi Fountain, Panteon, and a famous castle that I've visited before but cannot remember the name. At about 2:00pm we went to a tiny restaurant down one of the MANY small side roads in Rome. It ordered Spaghetti bolognese for the 'primo piatto' and veal con limòn
for the 'secondo piatto' and even decided to try a cappucino (I am not a coffee drinker). *Actually, it was only the day before that I tried coffee for the first time and it was a small cup of 'espresso' prepared for me by Donatella. Corinne must have seen the 'worried' look on my face when Donatella was pouring it, so she tossed some sugar and chocolate whipped cream in my cup. It was unbelievable good, but hopefully it doesn't lead to a coffee or 'caffè' addiction!* After our lunch we walked around a bit more and then headed home at around 4pm. I was tired from our walk so I actually fell asleep for 45 minutes while sitting on the couch watching American news on the television....maybe it's because I was watching Fox News.
At about 8:30pm myself and all of the Cianfarini's drove down the road to Giuliana's house because it was her birthday so she was having a party. I didn't really want to use my Italian at first because although I can get around Rome and Milan fairly easy, it is somewhat broken Italian and I didn't know most of these people at first and
didn't want to embaress myself. However, once I met Alessandro, Viola, Roberto and some of the other kids and sat with my cousins, we started talking in mostly Italian. At one point, Christian had the idea that he wanted all 8 or 9 Italians at the 'kids table' to give a brief presentation to me in English. For the most part, these consisted of "Hello, my name is___. I am __ years old. I like ____ and ____, and I play soccer." It was really funny when they were doing this because even if they didn't want to speak in English, Christian(25) is the oldest cousin so they all had to listen to him.
After dinner we were trying to decide where to go for a long time and ended up leaving at around 12:30am. We couldn't have picked a worse time to try and go to a club or 'discoteca' in Rome because everything was jam-packed and after driving around to 4 or 5 places, we decided that none of us wanted to wait 1+ hour to get in. We ended up going to a place that proclaimed itself as a 'beer-only bar' and it was called
"4:20".
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The men who built this statue/fountain & the church that is right across from it were enemies. The artist who made the statue made a man with his hands in the air to signify that his rival built bad churches and it might fall down on the statue. I tried to explain the underlying meaning to my cousins but they didn't seem to understand it. It was after this that I started to realize that many things are lost in translation in the explanation of things as well as when trying to make jokes. For example: like many situations when kids of different languages and nationalities are brought together, at some point the conversation is about how to say the worst swear words in your language. That night I learned "testa di cazzo", "merda", "testa di merda", "Vaffanculo", etc. I have since taken these words back with me to Milan. After we had a few drinks we drove over to a bakery that is very popular among young Italians for late-night food. By this time it was already about 3am and they all knew that I had walked around the city with Fabio and Christian, but they wanted to show me 'Rome by night'. We walked around for about an hour or so and then we all headed to bed at around 4am.
Sunday Feb. 8th: We all woke up late the next morning to catch up on some much needed sleep. I woke up so late
that less than an hour after eating my breakfast, Donatella called everyone to the kitchen because she had cooked lunch and it was time to eat. Consuelo and Corinne had to to schoolwork again to prepare for class on Monday, so Christian and I had most of the day to ourselves. I wanted to go see the Tyrrhenian/Mediterranean Sea, so Christian and I drove to a marina that was about 25 minutes from the house. It was very nice and there were hundreds of unbelievable Italian yachts, because I don't think the majority of them would even classify as simply a 'boat'. I actually ended up running into Lady Liberty at the marina...but Lady Liberty turned out to be a man (see the corresponding picture). After we left, we met up with some friends of Christian's named Flavio, Laura and Simone and went to an 'aperitivo' at a restaurant. Aperitivo's are very common in both Roma and Milano, and you pay 8-10 euro's for an unlimited buffet of appetizers and finger-food and there are usually 1 or 2 drinks included in the price. It is a very good deal and I have been to 3 since coming back from Rome.
At about 6pm we left and headed back to the house to hang out for the rest of the night. Letizia, Fabio, Alessandro (and his friend Diego) came over at about 8pm and we all played Wii bowling, baseball and tennis for a couple of hours. Alessandro and Diego told me that they have a good friend who lives in Milan so hopefully those guys will make it up here sometime soon.
The next morning after I was all packed up and getting ready to go with Fiorenzo to the airport, Donatella, Consuelo and Corinne kept asking me when I was going to be coming to Rome again. I had a great weekend spending time with my family and will hopefully be making another trip there in April and eventually another trip to their even more impressive beach house in San Nichola in July when my little brother comes to visit me for 2 weeks.
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Andrea
non-member comment
Coffee!
"It was unbelievable good, but hopefully it doesn't lead to a coffee or 'caffè' addiction!" Ha! But I'm glad you liked it. Coffee is amazing. *takes a sip from her Venti cup* But I wouldn't worry. You won't get addicted to it unless you make a conscious effort to do so. You'd have to drink it every day for weeks. "maybe it's because I was watching Fox News." ...duh. Holy crap! A beach house! That thing is going to be massively awesome. Keep those pictures coming!