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Published: July 28th 2014
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Well today was a crazy day. I introduced Ray to the Italian breakfast, which like most continental european breakfasts is very tasty but very underwhelming. However, if you appreciate it for what it is, then it is rather enjoyable. Though, if you put me to a vote of the worlds best breakfast, I would vote USA in a heartbeat. You may dispute this as many have tried. The French bragged to me about their baguettes et beurre, the Belgians flaunted their brood en jam (le pain et de la confiture) and the Italians touted their cornetto al cioccolato; trust me I’ve heard it all before. To that I have only one word...bacon. Quite frankly, that is the only word you need. Game, set, match!
I struck a conversation with an italian woman in the bar run by chinese people. How the world has grown. The chinese bar owners spoke better Italian than me, but no English which the woman thought was the funniest thing, as I am an Italian who speaks English but little Italian. She also did not speak English very well, but from her Italian, I learned that her daughter was attending a university in Milan,
and all she wants to do now is speak English. I encouraged her to keep learning as she did to me with my Italian. From there we took the train to Rome.
The train ride was very nice, and Rome was as grand as I remember it. I spoke with my friend Riccarda over the phone and she invited us out for dinner at her house. I actually only met Riccarda once at an Italian language meetup group in New York City, but I was blown away by her kindness. We tried to go to the Vatican before, but we got lost on the bus. We went in the wrong direction and ended up far away from the Vatican before we realized our error. Granted we were told to go on that bus by a friend who shall remain nameless with a “map” not even close to scale, but still we should have figured out we were going the wrong way. Luckily we took the correct bus to Riccarda’s home and boy was I happy about that.
We wanted to find a store to buy a cake or a bottle of wine, but unfortunately,
nothing was open by Riccarda that we could see and we were already running late as it was. When we arrived, Riccarda was more than generous in a true showing of Italian hospitality. I felt like I was at home at her apartment. She had antipasto, pasta, chicken, potatoes, coffee, cake, salad and wine! It was amazing! Her daughter and her friend were very social. When we left I offered to return the hospitality when she is in New York, an occasion that I am looking forward too.
As we waited for our bus back to the pilgrim site, I looked over and saw a very beautiful woman standing at the bus stop. Ray and I are talking English and she is ignoring us as she most likely did not understand us. There was something off about her though and then I noticed it...SHE WASN’T WEARING ANY PANTS! She had a skirt that was the equivalent of a tube top with all her business on display...she had to be a call girl. As we passed other stops there were other women of the night working hard, though none compared to the pretty woman...with no pants.
We returned to the Pilgrim site around 12:30 am only to find the gates locked! Luckily we were able to find a knight to let us in as the neighborhood south of Termine Stazione was a little wild at that hour. We met with Fr. John, Tom and some of the KofC afterwards for a beer at a local bar. It seemed like the bar was a popular college hangout and well people were doing what college kids do. There was drinking, dancing and I was offered various types of “recreational substances” and naturally I declined on our way there. It was great hanging out with FJ again. We reminisced about our old adventures, enjoyed a beer and un pocheto sigaro. Tomorrow the festivities begin. Hopefully, we are not destined for trouble. As gli italiani say, alla prossima.
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