An Extended Roman Holiday

And finally, to our apartment! Have spent the last five days unpacking, organizing, washing, and shopping. NEVER move into a new house the same week as Thanksgiving — I have been to the grocery store like 17 times in this week! That said it feels wonderful to finally be in our place and settling in.

That said, I could use a vacation after all this work! So we are leaving today to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends from the Embassy in Umbria.  We’ve all chipped in to rent a house out in the country (www.collesanpaolo.it), a practice the Italians refer to as “agriturismo.” Weather here has been mild and sunny so it should be a wonderful weekend. Of the many things we’ll be eating, Vinny and I made a delicious butternut squash soup, for which I had to trek all over Rome to find squashes which cost about $7 each! As well as apple-chestnut stuffing and cranberry sauce with cider and cinnamon… Hope yours is just as tasty and relaxing.

Our furniture still isn’t here and so we have moved on from our “dolce-vita” digs into a new, more contemporary hotel, which I have been telling everyone is part residence, part art gallery — crazy, contemporary art gallery! Although I am yet to take pictures of the pieces (I will), Vinny snapped some beautiful shots of the view from our balcony, which I wanted to share.

Fall in Rome

November sunset in Rome

Last night our friend Daniele invited us to a pro basketball game between Roma and Biella, a town in the north of Italy. Daniele is a courtside referee and got us great tickets.
After two hours, the teams were neck and neck, heading into overtime only to have Biella clinch the win after a few lucky foul shots! We enjoyed the wild fans, Roman fight songs and meeting Daniele’s sweet mother. (She even invited us to their house for Christmas — yeah for surrogate mothers!)

Roma versus Biella

To answer the question about whether or not Italians celebrate Halloween: We saw a few trick-or-treater’s about town yesterday, one of whom came into the pasticierra (bakery) where we were picking up a torta (cake) to bring to our dinner last night. The little witch asked “dolcetto o scherzetto” — their version of “treats or tricks” (literally) — and was answered with upturned palms and a shrug of the barista’s shoulders. Although we have seen some decorations and a few costumes being sold in toy stores, I guess the actual practice of trick-or-treating isn’t too common here… funny though because the bakery was selling some pretty spookily decorated cookies and cakes!

We’re enjoying another lazy Sunday after a staggeringly large Saturday night meal with Italians that Vinny is meeting for work (same pattern as last weekend). The weather is crisp but sunny with not a cloud in the bluest of skies.

But we’re not in the mood to wander too much after spending yesterday morning walking all over our neighborhood (found hardware stores, barber shops for Vin, possible salon for me, bakeries, shoe repair, fresh pasta shop & many lovely looking cafe’s to try)… so today we have looked up which theaters are showing in English and plan to see Heath Ledger’s last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, later this afternoon.

Afterwards I am thinking about trying an Indian restaurant in the area as we have also seemed to have established a non-Italian Sunday dinner tradition, last weekend trying out an English tea house I am eager to which I am eager to bring my parents when they come.  Am in the mood for the variety of dishes and diversity of spices that I know Indian food promises — quite the opposite of last Sunday when all we wanted was something simple like toasted scones with a cup of tea!