The Party!

Sunday night was a fun filled night! Lauren and I attended a party with about 20 Italians only 2 or 3 of which spoke English. It was a dinner party hosted by our Italian family. They had 20 of their closest friends over for dinner from the ages of 40 to 80 (most were over 50). I have no idea where to begin to tell you about this amazing get together! The party started at 8:00 and people showed up at 8:00 and went on until about 12:30. We met the most interesting people that I have met yet in Italy. Basically this party defined my Italian experience in the best way I could have ever imagined!

We met a man who had worked for Gucci for 30 years: he was completely decked out in Gucci apparel. We met his wife who is from Bulgaria and loved the fact that I knew what ‘mishka’ and ‘mutsuna’ meant (although I cannot spell them). Baba, this woman sends her greetings! She is also a tour guide in Florence and speaks 6 languages (none of which are English). We met a pipe maker who explained to us all about this big competition about who can smoke a pipe the longest and how his handmade pipes are the best in Italy. We met a man who must have been about 80 and who had lost his memory, so we were asked the same questions about 4 or 5 times, but he was so sweet. His memory had definitely reverted back to his 20’s so we were hearing stories about when he went to soccer games and got drunk. We met a man and his wife who live on a vineyard outside Florence. They provide the wine that the Leocota’s love so much. We met Giovana’s brother and his wife. Giovana’s brother is so much like Valerio it is not even funny: they are both sarcastic, enthusiastic, and fun loving Italians. He teased me the entire night for going back to the table with all the food multiple times :) We met three actors who are in a play that is opening in early December. One is the director and writer, while the other two are famous actors in Italy. One of them spoke English and did a lot of translating the whole night. He and his wife have been to the States many times to see tons of shows. His favorite by far is Wicked. They invited us to come see their play on the opening night and visit them backstage after the show!

All of the food was set up on the big dining room table and everyone went in and out sitting all around the house talking and eating. This went on for about 2 and half hours. Then people started to trickle out around 11:00 and we were left in the living room or ‘after dinner room’ with about 10 of the remaining guests. The conversation was half in English half in Italian. When the actor who spoke English talked to us he spoke in English and the whole room would get mad at him because they did not know what he was saying. So Lauren and I would answer in Italian. The conversation eventually turned to politics, mainly because Italians are very straight forward and I was asked straight up whether or not I liked Obama. I am not one to get into a political discussion but I went with it and it was really very interesting. I got the Italian view of politics and especially United States politics. I was asked the question as to whether or not it was an issue that Obama was black and if that effected racism in the US. I was asked my thoughts on September 11th and how it affected the entire world including Italy. We talked about family and how important it is to Italians. That dinner is the center of the day and how nice it is to have the family connection. We talked about how much Italian Lauren and I know and if we speak it all the time at school. We were asked about our future and what we wanted to do with our majors.

And finally the question as to what we liked most about Italy and what we disliked most came up. I knew it would so I was ready. I told them that I don’t like was that I have not been able to get used to the lack of smiling here. The fact that people on the street do not say hello to one another is so odd to me. To which they all agreed that Italy is a very closed off country and very family centered: if you know someone you welcome them in and if you don’t know them then there is no need to make eye contact. But they had an example of the opposite feeling when they visited the US. One of the couples was at Yellowstone or some national park and some random American came up to them and started talking, asking them questions, how they were, where they were from, what they were doing, and they were very caught off guard, a little intimidated, and personal space and privacy was a bit invaded. To which Lauren and I laughed and had to agree that Americans do not have as much of a sense of personal space, haha. Then to answer the question as to what I like most about Italy I said—most of you already know the answer to this—the art! Every corner has something new and beautiful to offer. Every building has something inside. And every street is literally paved with history! How much better can it get :)

We received so many compliments about how lucky the Leocota’s were to have us. How nice it was to meet such wonderful girls. And how much fun they had talking us. Which was so nice to hear because we know we represented the US and woman well. Our parents raised us right and we held ourselves very nicely with a large group of adult, opinionated, boisterous, Wonderful, Italians!

(P.S. the entry below this one is new too but I figured this was a different part of my weekend that deserved its own entry)