Our Fabulous Landlord...

June 7, 2012

Our landlord, Andrea and his wife, Francesca, invited us over for dinner again.  This time we arrived in daylight, which was much easier.  It was a beautiful evening, so they set the table outside.  They have Tigleo trees in the back garden, and they were all in bloom, so we sat under a canopy of amazing fragrance.

The kids had plenty of space to run around and use up some of their energy.  Andrea has two daughters, Mari, age 2, and Sara, age 6.  (hence the name of our  apartment, Casa MariSara).  They also invited some friends over, Lucca and Christina who brought their daughter, Martina, age 8.  The kids had a great time together.

Francesca and Andrea went all out with the food.  We started with bruschetta along with cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto.   Francesca (with her back to us in the photo) has the plate of Cantaloupe in her hand here…

Andrea (far right) has the bruschetta…

In this picture, Lucca and Christina are off to the right…

Time just flew as we all got along so well.  David and I were able to speak some Italian.  In fact, I probably spoke more Italian at this dinner than I have then entire five months we have been here…

Before we even realized it, the sun had set.  Time flies when you are having fun J

The other great thing about being outside is that the kids could get up and play between courses…

The food kept rolling in as the next course was spaghetti with all kinds of seafood.  There were large and small shrimp, mussels, some sort of fish, and more.  They made huge quantities.   This is Francesca with the pasta, and then Andrea and I with what was left over after we all had eaten quite a bit!

Then we had chicken with pine nuts which was fabulous.  That was followed by a beautiful salad with olive oil from his dad’s groves mixed with balsamic vinegar… mmmmmmm J

Finally, they had made two large tarts, the size of pies.  One was apricot and the other was berries.  They call the berry one “frutta di bosco”, fruit of the forest.    This was also accompanied by HUGE watermelon  slices and fresh cherries.

We were having such a great time we had no idea how late it had gotten.  We didn’t get home until midnight and the kids have school in the morning, but it was well worth it!  Fat and happy.  Yes, I have spent five months here and gained 5 kilos…  Gotta love Italian food J

~Mary