Farewell Dinners - Le Arrivederci Cene
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2011
1
36
57
Trip End
Apr 30, 2011
Perugia, Umbria, Italy
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
I keep this blog and these pictures as much for my own memories as for sharing with my loyal "bloggies." It has been wonderful to be able to share these experiences with you.
So you will see here pictures of our various dinners with local friends. I've included explanations for each picture but one of them needs its own paragraph, so I'll include that here. The dinner with my gym buddies was pretty special. The gym class has 5 women (including me) and 1 man, all in our 50's - 60's. The instructor, Andrea, is about 27. This is the 3rd year that I've been attending the class - 3 mornings/week - and I still can't get over how kind and welcoming the others have been. So this week, one of the women - Leah - organized a pizza dinner for the class. I understood her to say (she speaks only Italian) that the dinner was for Andrea because he works so hard as our instructor (actually he never does any of the exercises but just instructs us - all in Italian, of course). Maybe she did say that, but at the end of the dinner, when Mike and I went to pay, she said "il gruppo" was treating us! We had a great time at the dinner. Leah's husband (Damiano) had lived in NYC for 2 years when he was young and his English was pretty good. Paulo (only man in the class besides instructor Andrea) brought his high school age daughter who had some English and another class member, Maria-Angela, is a professor of French literature at the University of Perugia and has a little English - so we managed, we think, to communicate warmly and effectively.
Now the best part was that Mike decided to prepare a speech. So with the help of an on-line translation program, he wrote out and delivered the following:
Vorrei fare un discorso molto piccolo. (I'd like to make a little speech)
Grazie per il vostro invito gentile per cena stasera. (Thank you for your kind invitation to dinner this evening)
Mi piace di incontrarlo finalmente. (I am pleased to finally meet you)
In primo luogo, I miei complimenti e ringraziamenti particolarmente ad Andrea - un insegnante molto bravo. (In the first place I give my compliments and thanks particularly to Andrea - a very good teacher)
E grazie tutti per l'aiuto del Judy per costruire i grandi muscoli! (And thanks to all of you for helping Judy to build big muscles!)
E lo ringrazio per essere il suo amico anche se il suo italiano è difettoso. (And thank you for being her friend even though her Italian is deficient) (big laughs here)!
Ma Il suo tempo alla palestra è tanto una parte importante di sua esperienza in Italia. (But her time at the gym has been a very important part of her experience in Italy)
Prometto questo: ricorderemo la vostra gentilezza quando siamo negli Stati Uniti. (I promise this: we will remember your kindness when we are in the United States).
Of course I was a bit embarrassed by all the attention on me but what could I say? I don't have enough Italian to say much of anything, so I just said "Bravo Michele!"
So today I had my last class at the gym. Andrea told me in perfect English that it is "too late" for me :-).
The farewell dinner marathon continued last night when we went to Francesco's bachelor pad for dinner. He served us a great dinner of bruschetta, pasta (bocallini) amatriciana, salad and a wonderful wine - Primitivo Sorrento. Dessert was a light ricotta cake with chocolate chips. We had another drenching cold rain day yesterday and Francesco was kind enough to pick us up and drive us home, even though he is suffering from a sinus infection.
Today is sunny but very cold and windy. Even the Perugini are cold - everyone walking aorund with their hoods up and scarves covering their mouths.
Weds. was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is a pretty big deal in Europe - the day commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz. After our farewell dinner with the students we made our way to the Sala di Notari - Room of the Notaries in the MIddle Ages, now a beautiful concert/lecture hall with frescoes on the walls and ceilings - and watched the most difficult Holocaust film I think I've ever seen. It is an early film by Alain Resnais (famous for Hiroshima, Mon Amour) and is called (in Italian) Notte e Nebbia - Night and Fog. Most of the film is live footage and it's pretty rough. The film was followed by a lovely concert given by a string quintet, featuring classical guitar. The music was calm and soothing - the perfect selection after the film.
On Thurs., we made our way to the Umbra Institute, assorted cookies in hand, to thank the staff for everything they do. They were actually thrilled with our humble cookie gift! We then went to lunch with our good friend John Sawyer - a Scot who has lived in Perugia for about 10 years now and whom we have known since our first year here. John is a retired old testament scholar who is amazingly knowledgeable and always interesting. We were joined by Ruggero Ranieri, a Perugian academic who taught at University of Manchester for about 25 years and is a descendant of a Perugian noble family. He has a small foundation and museum featuring the family library, jewels, furniture and art works. Some days I have to really pinch myself - I'm having lunch at the Caffe Di Perugia with a veritable Duke!!
I am writing this on Friday morning and we are packing. We will leave for Rome this afternoon and fly home tomorrow. So this blog will end for this year. I hope all of you have found it interesting and amusing and I look forward to seeing/talking with you soon!
A presto,
Giuditta
