Party, party
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014
This latest Sunday I went to two, count ’em, two parties. The first was for a lunch at Paolo’s house in the country. I took a train to the nearest train station and he came to pick me up. There were already a bunch of people there, for the most part people that Paolo knows from work. The are dentists or  work in some other capacity at a dental office where he works once or twice a week. The total count of people was over twenty. We had food cooked “alla brace” (over coals). As you can see in the photos, he was two fire places. In one he keeps a roaring fire. After awhile he bangs on the fire with a big stick which causes coals to drop down and then he uses a fireplace shovel to move them to the other fireplace where the actual cooking takes place. Periodically he transfers other coals to maintain the heat under the food. First came bruschetta followed by grilled peppers. Then there were spiedini (skewers), sausages and finally pork chops. Oh, yes, there was also salad. All accompanied by red and white wind and water both still and bubbly. As if we weren’t all full enough then there were 5 different desserts, only 3 of which are pictured. Then, of course, the inevitable coffee and liquors: lemoncello, nocino (pretty local and made from green walnuts) and some other after dinner drink which was delicious but don’t remember the name. I was a good boy and didn’t drink too much since I knew that there was a party that evening. Here of the photos. I apologize for the quality of some of the photos. My camera works great but I got a little lazy and used my iPhone for the fuzzy one.
The fire
Ttransferring the coals to the cooking fireplace
Bread for bruchetta and the peppers
The meats waiting their turn
The spiedini on the grill
The table is set
Paolo’s “partner” Cinzia – Paolo is in the background with the gloves.
A cute little girl at the party with her mother – some defect in the photo. There was nothing on her face.
The two month old
The tiramisu
Chocolate and cream and raspberrys – oh, my!
My first plate – there were two more desserts that I also sampled.
I got a ride from Luciano back to the city. He ranted a bit about politics including his conclusion that maybe we should drop just a “little” atomic bomb on ISIS to scare them! When he dropped me off I told him that I was glad that he couldn’t give the order to drop the bomb. That evening I proceeded to a party at the apartment of Lisa. She’s an American who has lived in Bologna for about 25 or years and just last year moved into an apartment in a great location in the center of the city. Her passion is singing and so she knows a bunch of musicians of various sorts. So there was a lot of singing, hers and others, all very talented musicians along with some dancing. It all had to stop at 10PM to comply with the rules of the condominium (which certainly makes sense). More fuzzy photos follow.
Lisa (with microphone)
Dancing
Other singers in the following photos
Just part of the social whirl here in Bologna. I’ve also gone out with other friends; Renata, Gaudio, Marco, Vittorio, Claudia and Gianluca. Of course I forgot to take any photos but will see most of them again and will be less lazy and take some photos. Especially of a place that I went with Claudia last Friday evening. There’s a great little place in Giardina Margherita that I found really charming. It’s hard to describe without photos. I met a guy, Lorenzo, there that I hadn’t seen for two years. It turns out that he’s a partner in the place and said that he’s there almost every night so I’m sure to go back. And this time I’ll remember to take photos and get the name of the place!
