San Benedetto And Grottommare
Sept 16th
The drive to San benedetto was gorgeous. We drove through some of the biggest mountains in Italy. It was amazing. To get there we had to pay a toll road fee. 12 euros for 180KM, kind of silly to think you pay like $6 just to gross the golden gate bridge. We hit some traffic enterting the city but finally arrived at the church we were staying at. I was kind of confused because I thought we were staying at a hotel, I just felt a little wrong carrying in my cosmo. Specially a catholic church in Italy because it all just seems so sacred. So above the church are apartments and we reserved two of them. After my mom and I settled in we came to the conclusion that we must be occupying nuns room. There were two twin beds with bedside tables, a desk, a closet and the walls were completely white.
After dropping off our stuff we headed to Grottammare to Cristina’s parents house. As we start driving up a hill, I knew their house was going to be awesome. We enter these gates and im right. Crisitinas parents are amazing. We meet her siblings, come to find she is 1 of 8, crazy. We sit at the table and there is already food set up: Bread, olive, artichoke hearts pizza (with tomatoes that they gew) prosciutto and wine. As we eat dinner, Isaac tel me that they grow most of things that they eat. They also cook most things from scratch, meaning our pizza and the vino. It was all delicious. After the antipasti, her dad disappears outs and comes back with a plate of lamb and potatoe seasoned with rosemary. From whati understood he cooked it outsiden like a redbrick ovn. It was the tastiest and most tender lamb I’ve ever had. After the lamb, they brought out more potatoes and chicken. My mom and aunts and I were kinda just like… for real? We just stuffed ourselves with lamb. We all ate a piece of chicken and had more vino. Cristinas family is more what I imagine big Italian families to be like. Very loud and animated. Her dad was a very funny guy. After the chicken cristina disappears and I am literally shocked to see her come back with two other dishes. I don’t know if I just forgot what its was like or what but this was literally the most food I have ever had. It was seasoned bell peppers and eggplant. I was officially in heaven. After our plates were cleared and three bottles of wne later, her parents clear off the table and set out champagne glasses. They bring out baskets of rasin (oatmealish) cookies, thin almond cookies and confetti (aka Jordan almond eggs but with chocolate in them) We all chears and the rest of the night was two families conversating, translating and having a good time. By midnight we leave back to the church.
Our plan was to spend the next morning doing wedding stuff, however, seeing as I still hadn’t adjusted to the time difference, by the time I woke up, all the wedding stuff was done. So we got ready and headed to the beach. We saw the marne andratico (Adriatic sea). I splashed around a bit, collected a few more seashells and then we went to have lunch. We ordered two big bowls of pasta with clams. No matter how hard I try, I cannot handle the texture of clams. We ate and then went walking around the center of San Benedetto. We got gelato (frutti de bosco * cookes) and just wandered around. When we got back to our apt, I relaxed with my aunt and uncle. One of the things I liked most of the trip was how cultural I was being. Whether im trying to speak in Italian or Amharic, it was all special. I made my uncle a promise that night. My mom told me he seems me has his daughter and this is evident in the conversation we had. His son is a few tests away from finishing up his masters and Sara is finishing up her BA and will continue on to study towards her masters and he had me promise to get mine. He said “I want all my kids to have master degrees” And that is a promise I’d like to keep.
So along with moving to Santa Clara when I get back, im going to look into winter courses at de anza. Take Italian, refresh my memory of some general ed classes and prepare for grad school. Progress, some ideas..it feels great!
Sept 18th. WEDDING DAY.
Mosquito bite count: 12
Woke up to an empty apartment because of course my family woke up at 5 but lucky for my mom and I, we got to sleep in. we didn’t have to get ready until 2pm.
Today was a long day and I retract my statement of dinner at Cristinas being the most food ive ever eaten. We leave for the church cermemony around 345 and get there at 4. The church is in Grottammare. The church service starts at 430 and is about two hours long. Since I cant really understand Italian, its pretty mucht he longest two hours ever, BUT, I cant complain because it was in a GORGEOUS Italian church. From all the non verbal communication I was able to get the religious gist of it. I feel what actually took a long time was the communion and blessing them. From what I got from them, it was a traditional catholic Italian wedding with a few modern twists. There was a lot of singing and standing. The funniest part to me was the very end when the families, priest, bride and groomsmen all circled around the alter and moved in a circular form singing. It was funny to see all four priest doing it.. I also thought that it was interesting that the communion, although apart of the wedding was open to the public.
After the church services we drove to Lerici to have the reception at Ristroante Cristallo. I’ll say this was the most food ive ever eaten and then longest meal ever. It started at about 730 with a buffet style appetizer with lots of things. I was afraid to try most of the things because a lot of them were seafood-ish. Although we were on the water and it was all fresh, im just weird about seafood.
Once we got inside the feasting begins. The first plate was pesto shrimp (which I actually liked), Calamari (too chewy) and what I think was prosciutto, and something else called the fantasia di mare (crab and lobster plates). The next plate was Chittarrina di Pasta Fresca con Scampini Calamaretti e pomodorini. Translation: Spaghetti with tomato sauce, shrimp and Calamari. That was also really tasty.
Next was Risotto di Vialone nano al Radicchio e champagne. This was probably the most delicious dish so far, probably because there was no seafood in it. But of course, that dish was quickly topped with the next, Coscio di Vitello al Forno con prosciutto e bacche di Ginepro, Patate al Rosmarino, Zucchine Fritte e radicchio trevigiono. And if im correct, it was veal with potatoes, zucchini, and cabbage. Next they brought us Sorbello di Limone con dadolata di kiwi al Calvades. (lemon sorbet with kiwi). My mom and I thought this was desert, but Maria Garica told us that this was just something to refresh our mouths because more food was coming. They brough out a salad and Frittura mista di Paranza dell Adriatico (misticonze croccanti di campo). By this point I had to pass up those two dishes because I was full and overwhelmed by all the different foods I had tried. The cake they had was Torta Nuziae which was like our Napolean pastry but with chocolate chips and powdered sugar on top. It was delicious and the last thing that they brought us. There were four different types of drinks at the wedding, each drink corresponded with our meals. We had Montepulciano D’ Abruzzo, Trebbiano D’ Abruzzo, Valdobblandere Cuvee di Boj and Muscato d’ Asti.
The sweater desert wine was my favorite but I gave each kind a chance ;)
Overall the Italian wedding was interesting. There was no dancing. They played a mix of Italian music and like old 70s and 90s American music. They yelled a lot a lot too . The closest thing we did to dancing was the conga. We didn’t leave the restaurant until 2am which is crazy because that means from like 8pm- 2am we sat at one table, ate and talked. Its crazy but not surprising. Eating and talking seem to be italian’s favorite pastime. Overall the wedding was beautiful and very Italiano!
Sept 16th
The drive to San benedetto was gorgeous. We drove through some of the biggest mountains in Italy. It was amazing. To get there we had to pay a toll road fee. 12 euros for 180KM, kind of silly to think you pay like $6 just to gross the golden gate bridge. We hit some traffic enterting the city but finally arrived at the church we were staying at. I was kind of confused because I thought we were staying at a hotel, I just felt a little wrong carrying in my cosmo. Specially a catholic church in Italy because it all just seems so sacred. So above the church are apartments and we reserved two of them. After my mom and I settled in we came to the conclusion that we must be occupying nuns room. There were two twin beds with bedside tables, a desk, a closet and the walls were completely white.
After dropping off our stuff we headed to Grottammare to Cristina’s parents house. As we start driving up a hill, I knew their house was going to be awesome. We enter these gates and im right. Crisitinas parents are amazing. We meet her siblings, come to find she is 1 of 8, crazy. We sit at the table and there is already food set up: Bread, olive, artichoke hearts pizza (with tomatoes that they gew) prosciutto and wine. As we eat dinner, Isaac tel me that they grow most of things that they eat. They also cook most things from scratch, meaning our pizza and the vino. It was all delicious. After the antipasti, her dad disappears outs and comes back with a plate of lamb and potatoe seasoned with rosemary. From whati understood he cooked it outsiden like a redbrick ovn. It was the tastiest and most tender lamb I’ve ever had. After the lamb, they brought out more potatoes and chicken. My mom and aunts and I were kinda just like… for real? We just stuffed ourselves with lamb. We all ate a piece of chicken and had more vino. Cristinas family is more what I imagine big Italian families to be like. Very loud and animated. Her dad was a very funny guy. After the chicken cristina disappears and I am literally shocked to see her come back with two other dishes. I don’t know if I just forgot what its was like or what but this was literally the most food I have ever had. It was seasoned bell peppers and eggplant. I was officially in heaven. After our plates were cleared and three bottles of wne later, her parents clear off the table and set out champagne glasses. They bring out baskets of rasin (oatmealish) cookies, thin almond cookies and confetti (aka Jordan almond eggs but with chocolate in them) We all chears and the rest of the night was two families conversating, translating and having a good time. By midnight we leave back to the church.
Our plan was to spend the next morning doing wedding stuff, however, seeing as I still hadn’t adjusted to the time difference, by the time I woke up, all the wedding stuff was done. So we got ready and headed to the beach. We saw the marne andratico (Adriatic sea). I splashed around a bit, collected a few more seashells and then we went to have lunch. We ordered two big bowls of pasta with clams. No matter how hard I try, I cannot handle the texture of clams. We ate and then went walking around the center of San Benedetto. We got gelato (frutti de bosco * cookes) and just wandered around. When we got back to our apt, I relaxed with my aunt and uncle. One of the things I liked most of the trip was how cultural I was being. Whether im trying to speak in Italian or Amharic, it was all special. I made my uncle a promise that night. My mom told me he seems me has his daughter and this is evident in the conversation we had. His son is a few tests away from finishing up his masters and Sara is finishing up her BA and will continue on to study towards her masters and he had me promise to get mine. He said “I want all my kids to have master degrees” And that is a promise I’d like to keep.
So along with moving to Santa Clara when I get back, im going to look into winter courses at de anza. Take Italian, refresh my memory of some general ed classes and prepare for grad school. Progress, some ideas..it feels great!
Sept 18th. WEDDING DAY.
Mosquito bite count: 12
Woke up to an empty apartment because of course my family woke up at 5 but lucky for my mom and I, we got to sleep in. we didn’t have to get ready until 2pm.
Today was a long day and I retract my statement of dinner at Cristinas being the most food ive ever eaten. We leave for the church cermemony around 345 and get there at 4. The church is in Grottammare. The church service starts at 430 and is about two hours long. Since I cant really understand Italian, its pretty mucht he longest two hours ever, BUT, I cant complain because it was in a GORGEOUS Italian church. From all the non verbal communication I was able to get the religious gist of it. I feel what actually took a long time was the communion and blessing them. From what I got from them, it was a traditional catholic Italian wedding with a few modern twists. There was a lot of singing and standing. The funniest part to me was the very end when the families, priest, bride and groomsmen all circled around the alter and moved in a circular form singing. It was funny to see all four priest doing it.. I also thought that it was interesting that the communion, although apart of the wedding was open to the public.
After the church services we drove to Lerici to have the reception at Ristroante Cristallo. I’ll say this was the most food ive ever eaten and then longest meal ever. It started at about 730 with a buffet style appetizer with lots of things. I was afraid to try most of the things because a lot of them were seafood-ish. Although we were on the water and it was all fresh, im just weird about seafood.
Once we got inside the feasting begins. The first plate was pesto shrimp (which I actually liked), Calamari (too chewy) and what I think was prosciutto, and something else called the fantasia di mare (crab and lobster plates). The next plate was Chittarrina di Pasta Fresca con Scampini Calamaretti e pomodorini. Translation: Spaghetti with tomato sauce, shrimp and Calamari. That was also really tasty.
Next was Risotto di Vialone nano al Radicchio e champagne. This was probably the most delicious dish so far, probably because there was no seafood in it. But of course, that dish was quickly topped with the next, Coscio di Vitello al Forno con prosciutto e bacche di Ginepro, Patate al Rosmarino, Zucchine Fritte e radicchio trevigiono. And if im correct, it was veal with potatoes, zucchini, and cabbage. Next they brought us Sorbello di Limone con dadolata di kiwi al Calvades. (lemon sorbet with kiwi). My mom and I thought this was desert, but Maria Garica told us that this was just something to refresh our mouths because more food was coming. They brough out a salad and Frittura mista di Paranza dell Adriatico (misticonze croccanti di campo). By this point I had to pass up those two dishes because I was full and overwhelmed by all the different foods I had tried. The cake they had was Torta Nuziae which was like our Napolean pastry but with chocolate chips and powdered sugar on top. It was delicious and the last thing that they brought us. There were four different types of drinks at the wedding, each drink corresponded with our meals. We had Montepulciano D’ Abruzzo, Trebbiano D’ Abruzzo, Valdobblandere Cuvee di Boj and Muscato d’ Asti.
The sweater desert wine was my favorite but I gave each kind a chance ;)
Overall the Italian wedding was interesting. There was no dancing. They played a mix of Italian music and like old 70s and 90s American music. They yelled a lot a lot too . The closest thing we did to dancing was the conga. We didn’t leave the restaurant until 2am which is crazy because that means from like 8pm- 2am we sat at one table, ate and talked. Its crazy but not surprising. Eating and talking seem to be italian’s favorite pastime. Overall the wedding was beautiful and very Italiano!
No comments:
Post a Comment