Last Sunday, as I'm sure you're aware, was Easter or in Italian Pasqua. Earlier last week, Antonio invited us to eat Easter lunch with him and his family, I took him up on the invitation! I met him in the town center and we walked to his house. His wife, mother, sister, brother-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and her family were all there to greet me at the door! I guess his wife's sister and her family and their mother all live in different apartments in the same building as Antonio, interesting. We sat down at the table and food was brought out to us. There was ravioli, lamb, roast beef and potatoes. After that there was a special Pasqua dessert that Antonio's mother made, it is some sort of rice cake/bread like thing. There was also some sort of strawberry and possibly banana type dish served, it was delicious!
I was really happy to spend Easter with someone's family and not alone, and I am thankful that they invited me into their home to celebrate with them!
Turns out that Monday is also a celebrated holiday here, it is called Pasquetta. Typically people go to the beach and barbecue with family and friends and just relax all day. One of our friends, Fabiana, told us that we were welcome to come with her and her friends to the beach and barbecue with them! Of course, it decided to be an overcast day and not very pleasant beach weather. She sent us a text that morning saying that she would pick us up at 11 and we would go to Gaeta, a town about 30min. away. With very little details on what the day would have in store for us, we got dressed and packed our bathing suits just in case it cleared up. It didn't.
When we got in the car, she told us that we were going to some of her guy friends house in Gaeta, and they played volleyball for the men's Gaeta team. When we got there we were greeted by everyone, and some of them knew english and were very eager to speak to us! We sat there and had some appetizers, before the main meal, which was pasta, NOT BBQ (although we could smell it from another apartment). It wasn't raining but wasn't sunny, so afterwards we decided to walk down to the beach and try to play some beach volleyball. The courts were filled with people playing, so we just kinda passed the ball around until it started raining and we walked back to the house and had some dessert. After that we sat around and watched a mens match on TV and then headed back to Fondi.
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| The group walking to the beach |
It was fun to meet some new people and learn new sayings and laugh at the translations, those always provide hours of laughter.
Today, we had the day off, so Lynnea and I decided to go to Rome and go to the big mall (centro commerciale) that they have there. So we looked up what bus to get on from the train station and where to get off. Once we got to the train station we successfully asked where Line (Linea) 38 was and if the ticket we had would work for it, then got the bus and figured out that we had to get off at the last stop, in front of the mall. It was quite a long bus ride because the mall is outside of the center of Rome. At the second to last stop (which was in front of the mall) we debated on getting off because other people were and we could see the mall, but we decided that we would listen to the directions that the mall website gave us. We waited until the last stop, which was a bus hub for that area and NOWHERE near the mall. We figured out that we should have gotten off at the second to last stop, even though the directions said the last one. So we waited about 15 min for the next Linea 38 bus to come around and hopped on, this time getting off at the correct stop. We entered the mall, and spent the day there! It was fun, we found a place for lunch that was similar to Noodles and Company, and had some Pad Thai, it was AMAZING!!!! Then afterwards we headed back out to the bus stop to catch the Linea 38 bus back to the train station and hopped back on the train to Fondi. I would say we successfully conquered Rome! hahaha it feels GREAT!
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| Lynnea and Me on the beach in Gaeta |
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