Castle Party

Last night, Kevin, Maggie, Maggie, Andrea and myself had the honor of being invited to Benedetta's 18th birthday party in Castel di Poggio in beautiful Fiesole. Unfortunately, Andrea was sick and couldn't join us, but the rest of us met up in Piazza San Marco around 7:15 to take the bus together to Fiesole at 7:45. Before hopping on the bus, we shared a little champagne on a piazza bench in celebration of Maggie Rossi's 21st birthday, which would start at midnight. Then, we got on the bus and took it all the way to the end of the line. There, in Fiesole's central piazza were an aunt and uncle of Benedetta, who had been asked to pick us up and drive us to the castle. They were very sweet, though they never told me their names even though we all introduced ourselves. Italians seem to have a way of not doing the introduction thing, as we also found out later into the night.

Anyway, we arrived right at 8:30, when the party was scheduled to kick off. We had no choice but to be there on time, and clearly everyone else had chosen to come late. So, we kind of sat there for a half hour or so while a small group of Italians talked amongst themselves. A little bit later, my boy cousin Andrea arrived (not to be confused with my roommate, Andrea, who is a girl and didn't come to the party). We greeted each other and I followed him over to wherever he chose to put his present, so that I could put ours down too. He was with two Italian girls, one of whom is his girlfriend and all they did was stare at my weirdly. So, I turned around and introduced myself in Italian. They certainly did not seem very excited, or even falsely excited to meet me. I got a "ciao, piacere" and then they just stared into space. SO AWKWARD. So, as I said before, Italians don't do introductions very well.

Benedetta made her grand entrance around 9:30 and we snapped some photos before she walked around to greet every table. Her stressed demeanor reminded me of that of a bride's, although I wasn't fooled long since she had chosen a bright green dress and had no husband on her arm. I'm pretty sure she didn't get to eat very much throughout the night.

We, on the contrary, stuffed ourselves. The antipasti consisted of assorted breads with small dishes of liver pate, mushroom spread, and a cheesy olive oil spread. There were also mozzarella balls and mini tomatoes stuck into a pineapple with sticks, which looked pretty cool. There was a farro and tuna salad, which I liked a lot. And lastly, there was a nice assortment of really stinky cheeses that tasted awesome! The first course consisted of a green salad, paparadelle pasta with wild boar meat sauce, and risotto with shrimp and zucchini. The second course was pork with bacon and a side of awesome roasted potatoes.

So that whole eating extravaganza took about 2 hours, time in which we were able to form a friendship with a nice, Italian couple that was closer in age to us than the high schoolers we were surrounded by. Their names were Sara and Alessandro and Sara was a cousin of Benedetta's. I can't figure out if that made her my cousin too, but I don't think so. Anyway, they were both around 23 or so, and were the cutest couple ever! They were so normal in comparison to the other Italian couples that I've encountered. They absolutely love NY, so we spent a lot of time talking about that. It also seemed that they really liked to party and have a good time, so they weren't as judgmental of us Americans and our "party habits". We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and I suppose we're going to "prendere una birra insieme" some day soon. 15 minutes before midnight, Benedetta blew out the candles on her cakes and we all sang happy birthday in Italian, which was something new and exciting for me. Did you know they also do that "she's a jolly good fellow" song in Italian too!? Anyway, the cakes formed a huge 18 and were absolutely delicious. They are called "Torta millefoglie" and basically consisted of a cannoli-type cream with chocolate chips, a flaky crust, and tons of powdered sugar. So good! When the clock struck midnight, Maggie Rossi whipped out the nips that she had brought to welcome her 21st birthday. Our new Italian friends got a huge kick out of it and were so excited, so we all sat down and each took our nip shot in honor of Maggie's first American legal drink. It was very comical.

After cake (and shots), Benedetta started to open her presents, which I was a little surprised she was doing. After all, there were A LOT of presents, and that tends to be boring for guests when they have to watch someone else get all the things that they would probably enjoy having. However, we were pretty excited when she got to opening our present. Together we gave her a Holy Cross t-shirt, a map of NYC with our favorite (and her favorite) places marked and explained, an artistic map of Manhattan to hang on her wall, and I <3 NY shot glass, and a small NYC guide book in English. Our card was a little booklet that we had decorated, each taking up a spread and writing whatever we wanted. We called it "Benedetta's America Book," and I wrote English idiomatic phrases and expressions for the party scene, while Kevin went the dirty words route. Our idea is that she continues to use that book to write fun things that she learns in English. SHE LOVED IT.

Halfway through the presents, as I had anticipated, everyone got bored. So, we started dancing. Our new Italian friend, Sara definitely didn't take to the shot very well because she was certainly a little drunk and as a result, quite a fun dancer. We all had a great time and Alessandro, her boyfriend, was very amused. That continued until about 2:30 in the morning, when we had to try to find a ride home. Fortunately, Anarita (Benedetta's mom) had already planned it for us, and the people who had picked us up in the beginning were gracious enough to drive us all home, even though we live in completely opposite directions, and they live in a different town. We had told them that taking us to the center would have been fine because we could have taken cabs from there. But, they wouldn't allow the girls to "walk through the streets" at 3:00 am, even though the cabs were in plain sight. It was very nice of them to take us home though. Door to door service!

Anyway, the night was pretty awesome and I'm so happy to have been invited. It was really funny to be around so many high schoolers because it reminded me of the groups that were so present during that time for me. The nerdy kids, the hot girls, the charming boys. It's all the same in Italy! It was very amusing because my friends and I always say how old the Italian girls look. They look so much other than us, even! But, there is nothing that the boys can do to catch up. They can't wear makeup and fight their teenage pimples, so there was such a false age gap. Very funny. Also, the boys and the girls were very clique-y and definitely stuck to their own little groups. I think this was why we got along so well with Sara and Alessandro. They were a little older too, and past all that stuff.

Today, I'm going to the opera as a cultural outing. We'll see how this goes because I'm very tired and it's going to be all in Italian.

Ciao!