After our usual breakfast of caffe latte, we lazed about a bit then went to Nico and Federica's house for la grigliata, the barbecue.
A few friends arrived shortly after us: two couples, each with a little girl under two years old, plus another friend. Maia and Solanne entertained the smaller girls, so well in fact that their parents joked and asked if the girls were looking for babysitting gigs.
We ate well again: chilled risotto and salumi, then a mixed grill of pork chops and sausages with green salad, followed by coffee (of course) and a kind of thin cheesecake made with crushed biscotti, ricotta cheese and blueberry topping.
It was also a cultural experience for us, being around couples more or less our age: the women prepared everything and the men didn't even feign to help, even during clearing. The dads did help with the babies, but weren't quite as hands on as our friends at home tend to be. And when my cousin told them that Derek and I had taken each other's last names, they were somewhat speechless and didn't know what to make of it (here everyone keeps their own name and the children
take their father's name, though a newly minted law now allows children to take their mother's name).
We returned to my aunt's house somewhat tired from a full afternoon of speaking to so many people in Italian. At least at my aunt's there are fewer people, and my dear Neopolitan aunt prefers to speak slowly and to have others also speak slowly - thank goodness, since that's the only speed my Italian goes!
We had a quiet dinner with zia Lina and Federico. Then my aunt showed off all the new channels she now gets with the decoder a friend installed today. Federico found the "Boing" channel - all cartoons, all the time. The girls had no trouble following along with the
Italian versions of Bugs Bunny and their favourite, Scooby Doo.
By 9 pm, I decided they had had enough tv, so we turned it off and got the girls ready for bed. Federico left to go out with some friends and we stayed up another twenty minutes or so with my aunt, then she left us and went upstairs.
I imagine my aunt and perhaps cousins think we are rather boring: we go to bed early, begging off going out (we were invited by the neighbours this evening) because the girls need to go to bed. My aunt explained to the neighbours, somewhat at a loss, that the girls don't sleep in the afternoon so of course they're tired in the evening. Here kids have a little rest in the afternoon, for an hour or so, and are up until all hours in the night. People also find it strange that we don't let our kids drink cola or much sugary treats at all.
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