my birthday celebration

we celebrated my birthday saturday night on the 16th. almost everyone went to the old city café (where a couple of us had been before) for drinks. my group was late from the day trip we had taken so i had to meet everyone else there. everyone cheered and clapped when I walked in, and the owner remembered us from before. he told everyone (in his Italian accent) that I was the one who kept ordering drinks over and over again! it was funny. he gave me my first drink (a jack and coke, in honor of mario) in a large glass, double the size of everyone else’s, for free!

everyone had a really good time and had plenty to drink. the waitresses and bartenders like us because we’re american (and americans drink a lot). they tried to get us to dance on the tables. no one would do it except for logan…it was pretty ridiculous!

five or six of us stayed until the bar closed and made the trek back to the villa. we stayed up for a while longer in the dining room of the villa. dad sent me two dozen roses, 1 for each year and he said to give the extras to sylvia for taking care of us for the next four months.

on sunday, our italian professor barbara (who is here until wednesday) decided we should go to this nice restaurant down in the port. she had called ahead so our meal would have a fixed price- 30 euro per person. this was the biggest meal I’ve ever eaten! it included red and white wine, water, bread, antipasto (foccaccia al formaggio and farinata di ceci, which was a really good bread and cheese type dish), primo (trofie al pesto and testaroli al pomodoro, two different types of pasta), secondo (the main dish: l’orata al forno con le potate, a baked fish with potatoes), dolce (semifreddo, fluffy ice cream that is made with cake), and espresso. it was delicious! i couldn’t eat it all. it was definately an amazing birthday dinner i’ll never forget!!