part 1

bah, ok, ok, i'll write.
would lie and say that i have just been way too busy with school and intensive farm labor to blog, but thats a lie and you'd know it. the truth is...well...

so, The Recap.
over all, i would say that the time that mama and the ross' + natalie spent in italy was A) smooth, in manner of sailing and B) totally wonderful.
i believe i left yall, dear readers, at the Evening of the Great Gewurztraminer, entitled thus because i had been saving that bottle of wine specially for that precious evening when I and those i love could sit around and share its magic. The day had been lovely; the ross' went to venice, skip went hiking wearing what i will describe only as the most mind-bogglingly obtuse shirt known to man (animal feces. various types of animal feces, sketches plus names. i am literally at a loss), and mama and i strutted around udine. That evening we all managed to convene in time for dinner at Giardinetto, a restaurant in cormons where one of italy's iron chefs works. you have to picture this though, the "convening". its as though each of us are larger than life in comparison to my tiny town, as though we are all 8ft tall (uncle jim and hitch, therefore, 10ft) and have wing spans like bald eagles and voices like catydids. it was almost as though, when i watched us all in the street outside of their hotel, i was looking through an inverted piece of glass. was strange, and i realised for the first time how adapted to the friulian culture i have kind of become. quiet, simple, keeping to myself, never making a scene. mom and i kept saying, just wait till rome; things will be normal in rome.
so, we all went to dinner. as the antipasti were served, i asked the waitress to open and chill the Gewurztraminer, and when it was time, it was ceremonious. each of us took a glass, and while swirling and smelling, i recounted the story of how this bottle was obtained (im going to do it again now, just to bragbragbrag): i told FL of my love for alto adige, he whisked me there for a romantic weekend minibreak, and, just when i thought we were set to leave, I saw the sign for the town of Tramin...he had found it, had made the trip specifically so that i could find my darling Gewurztraminer. the heart applauds a man like that, no?
so, we toast to FL, we toast to Italy, we toast to all of us being there, together, because really, who would have thought, and we drink. the consensus is, of course, well, this is a little slice of heaven, isnt it? so we eat various courses of the designer food, and plow through a nice bottle of spumante from Franciacorta (encore brava), and then mom made the practically fatal (to her) gaffe of pouring the rest of my Gewurztraminer into the ungreatful glass of skip. my response was instinctive, and swift. i took the glass, and insisted instead that we pass it around the table, each of us taking one last sip. was a bonding experience.
The next evening dinner was at that restuarant i had written about earlier, the one in gorizia that serves massive quantities of meat and pasta, where i almost died of overeating and love for FL. as i suspected, the response from our party was pretty much the same to mine: shock, and awe. when we got there, i took it upon myself to order for everyone, as this is a "family style" restaurant, where dishes are shared. we took three pastas, three meats, three vegis, copious amounts of beer and a little red wine. everyone ate till they were comotose, all the while noticing that the restaurant, full to the gills with italians, was full to the gills only with men. there were like 3 women in the whole place, instead only ravenous, beef-hungry boys talking jovially and eyeing the table of foreigners. was all v. cultural re: totally typical northern-italian slovenian-influenced food, and the voices filling the room were heavy friulian and slovenian. dinner was great fun, and rambunctous, hitch and jim and claudia and i washing down our beef with beer. however, i began to notice that skip looked rather miserable and pissed, and poor mom kept having to do that thing, the "do you like the pasta?" thing, to which he would respond with the "yeah. its ok." thing. annoying, so i just tried to ignore it. after dinner, we went up to pay at the front desk, and the bartender pulled out 4 bottles of liquor, grappa and lemoncello, and set out 8 glasses. "you work for me, now", he said, which was an invitation for us to help ourselves to the complimentary after dinner pick-me-up. love these people.
we all came back to cormons, and mama dropped H, C, and I off at my precious Porchis. FL was there, and greeted us with hugs and smiles and beers. we all hung out outside and drank and laughed, and FL told us about how the pool would be opened soon and we tried to talk hitch into just moving to cormons for the summer becuase its gonna be a good one. when porchis closed, FL told us that he'd drive us to the vineyard where we would be going for a wine tasting the next day, just to make sure we know where it is. we rode out through the country, and after finding the house, FL asked, "do you think theyd be opposed to riding to slovenia, for another beer?". i asked the kids, and , of course, they were enthralled at the idea. so we hopped the border. lots of conversation and spiritual assesment ensued at the little bar over the border, and the view back to italy was heartwarming. when we were on the way home, it was concluded that we were hungry. we had leftovers from dinner (lots), and it was decided that we'd have a picnic. FL brought us to his house, so he could grab some "supplies", and while he was busy H and C and I did a little exploring. theres an old (300 years or so) house right outside of FLs that has been abandoned for years and years. it is supposedly haunted, by whom i dont know, but the people of cormons are too supersticious to do anything about it. plus, supposedly again, its about to collapse. so the gorgeous place just sits, empty. claudia, hitch, and i, of course, climbed in through the window and went to work. the house is incredible: stone walls and fabric wall paper, carved and painted molding and stained glass doorways. its 3 stories tall and just spectacular. there were cobwebs that looked like the nets used to trap lobsters and, if there is a ghost, he seems to be a very friendly one. the house felt great, and claudia was convinced that we should buy it, fix it up, have ourselves a little "under the friulian sun" mansion. FL came and found us and was visibly nervous, so we hopped back out the window and went on our way.
FL drove us to a castle a little outside of town. it sits on the crest of a mountain, and from its stone wall the view is spectacular. as far as im concerned, from that point, you can see all of italy. we set up the picnic. we had the left over steak and pork, and FL had brought homemade wine, cheese, salami, bread, a cutting board and a knife (too cute). we all ate like we were starving, everything was so good, and we passed the wine bottle around and made toasts and reflected on how incredible life was. it was just a perfect night, really, just, in friulano, spetacul.
dropped hitch and claudia off at their hotel, and they were so gracious and amazing to FL, giving him hugs and thanking him and telling him how wonderful he was, how fantastic the night had been. FL, of course, shrugged it off with a smile as normale, no?
so. friday. day of reckoning. will recount this when i get out of class...
to be continued