home again in parma
i have said it before but i'll repeat myself for the sake of needlessly enforcing a truism: time fly's when one eats plate after plate of incredible home-made italian food, especially when one is in parma.
this visit has been two short, and when we awake tomorrow from our second nights sleep under liliana and stefano's roof we will be whisking ourselves away to paris. in the end we were lucky to have 2 nights here because i only remembered* that our flight was on the 3rd, as opposed to the presummed 4th, during one of our morning internet sessions in lecce. had to hotfoot it that night and forego a third night drinking magnum's in lecce which was sad but i definitely don't regret ensuring the 2 nights here in parma. it is so comforting to be amongst the family after what feels, in retrospect, like an extremely whirlwind tour of italy. there is so much to see in this country and seventeen nights wasn't enough. i am glad we opted for more nights in the destinations that we visited rather than less nights and more variety becasue otherwise it would all be names and no memories. no doubt i'll be returning to italy in the future, if only to see the bianchi's and help anna maria make "capaletti" again and maybe watch bruno work on restoring an antique table or so.
today was the sorbolo fair - a lovely arrangement of a fairly comprehensive array of market stalls and rides (or jostre in italiano) through several of the main streets of town. we spent the afternoon helping at riccarda and achille's stand blowing up balloons with their kindergarden/pool/health comlpex's logo on them and handing them out to little hands outstretched from passing prams. this work was interrupted by a fairly hefty stint overseeing leonardo drive like a roman around the dodgem-car track and then taking him on in sega rally and various other videogames. tough work.
for dinner we ate the delicious capaletti that lucy and i helped anna maria with yesterday; not too sure if i can remember the recipe for that one but you never know, i didn't think i could remember how to make chicken involtini until 3 days ago. i know i know, it's in the blood...
tomorrow it is paris and we are staying with lucy's mum in her appartment there. the arrangement is that we will cook the meals so the capaletti may be called upon earlier than expected. i'm really looking forward to spending some time in paris, and maybe a day trip or so to the various kids on exchange in the regional areas could be in order. i forsee much reading of books in cafe's while lucy is at work, but a stroke of luck has it that katie gould may be in town working at some electronics fair - something i'm not exactly shy of (hanging out with katie that is, goes without saying that i'll be excited by the electronics).
better pack, have to get to milan before noon. until prossima volta!
*by "remember" i mean grudgingly checking the booking upon lucy's demand and finding that indeed our flights were the day before i had assumed and that to change them would cost about 100euro each....
this visit has been two short, and when we awake tomorrow from our second nights sleep under liliana and stefano's roof we will be whisking ourselves away to paris. in the end we were lucky to have 2 nights here because i only remembered* that our flight was on the 3rd, as opposed to the presummed 4th, during one of our morning internet sessions in lecce. had to hotfoot it that night and forego a third night drinking magnum's in lecce which was sad but i definitely don't regret ensuring the 2 nights here in parma. it is so comforting to be amongst the family after what feels, in retrospect, like an extremely whirlwind tour of italy. there is so much to see in this country and seventeen nights wasn't enough. i am glad we opted for more nights in the destinations that we visited rather than less nights and more variety becasue otherwise it would all be names and no memories. no doubt i'll be returning to italy in the future, if only to see the bianchi's and help anna maria make "capaletti" again and maybe watch bruno work on restoring an antique table or so.
today was the sorbolo fair - a lovely arrangement of a fairly comprehensive array of market stalls and rides (or jostre in italiano) through several of the main streets of town. we spent the afternoon helping at riccarda and achille's stand blowing up balloons with their kindergarden/pool/health comlpex's logo on them and handing them out to little hands outstretched from passing prams. this work was interrupted by a fairly hefty stint overseeing leonardo drive like a roman around the dodgem-car track and then taking him on in sega rally and various other videogames. tough work.
for dinner we ate the delicious capaletti that lucy and i helped anna maria with yesterday; not too sure if i can remember the recipe for that one but you never know, i didn't think i could remember how to make chicken involtini until 3 days ago. i know i know, it's in the blood...
tomorrow it is paris and we are staying with lucy's mum in her appartment there. the arrangement is that we will cook the meals so the capaletti may be called upon earlier than expected. i'm really looking forward to spending some time in paris, and maybe a day trip or so to the various kids on exchange in the regional areas could be in order. i forsee much reading of books in cafe's while lucy is at work, but a stroke of luck has it that katie gould may be in town working at some electronics fair - something i'm not exactly shy of (hanging out with katie that is, goes without saying that i'll be excited by the electronics).
better pack, have to get to milan before noon. until prossima volta!
*by "remember" i mean grudgingly checking the booking upon lucy's demand and finding that indeed our flights were the day before i had assumed and that to change them would cost about 100euro each....
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