Ariccia

It’s amazing how much can happen in one day while in Italy. After my post yesterday I went to lunch which was hilarious because almost all the guys who can actually speak decent English are out of town for the weekend, so I am left with the guys who can barely stumble through. This of course makes for very interesting table conversation. Individually they keep asking me “Quando io parlo Inglese, tu corregi me?” which means “When I speak English, will you correct me?” To which I reply “Si, ma tu corregi mio Italiano.” It seems to work out in the end.
After lunch I met a guy who had just returned from visiting his home in a town near Napoli. A group of us stood around after eating and just talked. These kind of encounters are my favorite because it’s a mix of them trying to get me to speak in Italian, while also testing their own English skills. We talked about soccer, which after telling them that I’m a Germany fan, they were quick to tell me to support their own individual soccer clubs. Gennaro (the guy who just returned to Villa) seemed to be the most convincing so I learned to say “Io tiffo Napoli!” (“I support Naples!”) These guys crack me up.
After departing from the guys I went out the garden in front of Villa and read in the sunlight. I didn’t have much time before we were leaving for Ariccia, so I decided to at least be outside even if I didn’t have time to do some city exploring. It’s incredible how much Italy can get your creative juices flowing. I ended up going back to my room and writing for almost an hour. It was a good afternoon.
Finally it was time to hit the road for Ariccia. This is where the grand adventure really started. We were supposed to leave at 5 which turned into 5:30 when we finally headed for the car. Then we apparently couldn’t figure out who all was supposed to come with us. Finally we left after about 20 minutes of phone calls. We drove around the block, got gas, then realized that we needed one more person. They met us, we waited for the other car, and when it finally came, we were on our way… at 6:15. I found the whole ordeal very funny while the other guys seemed very annoyed. Sometimes it’s fun to not be the responsible one. 
The city is south of Rome in the hills and on our way there, we missed an exit which added another 10 minutes to our drive. Now, for those of you who have been to Europe, you know that most of the cars are relatively small. We had three fully grown guys in the back of a two door Citroen. This caused the entire drive to be quite… tight. Ascending the mountains was beautiful. We passed a hillside city called Marino and on the other side of Marino was a lake which we stopped to look at. It was gorgeous. We parked next to a mobile café that had tables set up, people drinking and being merry, the sun just beginning to think about setting, the trees all green, the water a deep blue, certainly a wonderful time to whip out that new digital camera and snap away some perfect shots of the Italian hillside, right? Oh wait, of course now is the moment that you suddenly realize that you forgot that one precious little piece of equipment, the ONE and only electronic device that you really even need in Italy, the ONE and only thing that you bring to Italy that is worth ANYTHING. But no, you don’t have that, and you’re 35 minutes from where it is, and you haven’t even reached your destination yet. There is only one word that can adequately describe this incredibly huge faux pas: FAIL!
But I did not really start kicking myself until we had arrived in Ariccia. Ariccia is really only famous for two things which is a church and a palace that were built by the 17th century artist Bernini, and a wonderfully amazing kind of pork called porchetto. However, another thing it should be famous for, is the view. There is a bridge that connects the highway to the main section of Ariccia where the church and palace is (The Old Bridge), and from this bridge, you can see Rome… all of Rome. There is not just Rome, but the city of Ariccia cascading down the hillside in brightly painted and rundown apartment buildings with little ladies hanging their linen to dry on windows, kids running up and down the tight alley ways between the buildings, farms covered in different kinds of plants, trees everywhere, the whole of Italian charm right there from this old cobblestone bridge just begging to be photographed. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to scream so badly in my whole life.
Finally I realized that being pissed at myself was not going to bring me my camera, so I put my mental memory to work and did my best to remember every detail about this quaint and yet amazing little village. The palace had already closed for the day but the church was still open, with a concert about to take place. The concert was performed by the Alpini which are an old faction of Italian guard that fought in WWII. Nowadays that can be found wearing cool hats with feathers on the side. But you really can’t make fun of their hats, because they are one kickass choir. We only stayed for a couple songs because we had to meet the rest of the Villa crew that were coming later, but just those few songs were amazing.
You really don’t understand just how much music can make a profound effect on you until you are in a 17th century church, on a hill, at dusk, paintings all around you, and the robust yet gentle voices of men filling the old walls with sound. The experience was enriching and gratifying. But, on to porchetta. We walked around Ariccia trying to figure out where to meet the others for a while, the whole time I was talking to Gennaro who spoke very little English. It was a fun conversation because we both found amusement in trying to understand the other. We finally stopped in front of a row of restaurants and waited for the others. I really didn’t know how many more we would have. We ended up being a party of 21. This was the most amazing night I have had in a long time.
The menu was of course set up for family style eating. I have never ever eaten so much in my entire life. We of course started with wine and bread and everyone was toasting and the large party of guys next to us kept toasting along with us (Italians are very loud about toasting) and there was singing and then they toasted to their “amico americano” (that’s me!!). It was awesome. Here was the menu: lots of wine, bread, more wine, 2 kinds of salami, 3 kinds of sausage, prosciutto, porchetto (OMG SO GOOD!!), lentils, beans, more wine (this was just the antipasto course), then you could have pasta carbonara, Amatriciana, or gnocchi (I had carbonara), and of course more wine. We washed it all down with espresso and limoncello. I was stuffed.
Now, everyone was full of wine and quite relaxed, which apparently meant “Let’s talk to the American!” Everyone was teaching me phrases from their own dialects, taking pictures with me, asking if I liked this or that, how I liked Italy, who I should support in soccer, which operas I liked, if I had a girlfriend, did I want a girlfriend, did I like Rome, did I like Italian wine… etc etc. I can’t describe this night to you in enough detail to have you actually understand just how amazing it was. We made it back to Villa and after having to answer my door twice for guys who wanted to say goodnight, I finally, exhausted, crashed on my bed.

As always, more later. Ciao!