Nerito Part 2

 OK, I’m finally getting to part two from Nerito.  As you can see, I am falling a little behind because we have a very busy schedule. We actually are in Florence right at the moment, we arrived here yesterday and it’s raining this afternoon. We just had lunch and we came 

 back to our place for a little downtime so I’m going try to do a little catching up.

 Back to Nerito…

It’s lunchtime and uncle Gino and Memmo have arranged for us to have lunch at a little restaurant just right outside of Nerito. We drive up in our two cars and park right where the chickens are roaming. I’m thinking I hope we don’t have chicken. As we enter the beautiful restaurant our table for 10 is already set up. I think every restaurant we have been in so far has had beautiful table settings, white tablecloths on top of another beautiful tablecloth, beautiful silverware and they always use cloth napkins. they always have a water glass and wine glass set at your table setting because you always drink wine in Italy.

I think we’re all finally getting the hang of this ordering process. You order an appetizer, then you order your first course, which is usually a pasta, then you order your second course, which is usually your meat and potatoes and salad and then your third course is your dessert. I know it sounds like a lot of food and believe me it is. This is why it takes so long to eat a meal in Italy.

As we sit down at the table, uncle Gino and Mimmo and Alfredo get the waiters attention and they’re all talking in Italian we really don’t know what they’re saying of course and then they sit down. 

They bring out the menus and we’re all kind of looking at each other because they’re so large and we are all trying to decide what to have. Then we begin to order some of us had the gnocchi and some of us had the spaghetti with the small meatballs. You would not believe how small these meatballs are. Mark Mazzetta you would love them. Then out comes  the pitchers of Wine for the table. Yes, I said pitchers not bottles or a glass. Kylie and Alfredo had beer.

Our food has arrived and we begin eating. I can’t even explain how delicious everything was, but as we’re sitting at the table, Janet, my sister decides to cut for her spaghetti. She is sitting next to uncle Gino, oh she’s in trouble. Uncle Geno looks at her shakes his head and said no, and shakes his finger at her and shows her how to properly eat the spaghetti. Honestly I can’t believe she decided to cut her spaghetti. as we are all finishing our big bowl of pasta here comes a large platter of all different kinds of cooked meat with potatoes. I see Lial‘s face and I have to say to him “close your mouth Lial”, we couldn’t believe we were having more food. And then guess what another platter of meat with potatoes, and a huge platter of salad. There were sausages, lamb, and pork belly. So we did the best we could, and we did eat some of the meat but boy, can those Italian men eat! I’m not sure, but I think they brought out another pitcher of Wine after we had already emptied two! 

So much talking going on around the table, English, Italian, English, more Italian and so much laughter and fun. It was very obvious that they loved having us there and all of us loved being there.

OK now onward to the third course dessert! What is everybody think? Do you think we ate dessert or not ? Of course we ate dessert. We didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. It was a special tiramisu that was made specifically in that area and was not made anywhere else in Italy.  Sorry, no picture of the dessert, Kylie and Mimo were out having a cigarette. 

Here’s just a little sidenote about when we were eating all of a sudden there were these girls eating next to us and they got super excited about some guy sitting at a table across from us so they went over. Talk to him got the photo taken. Then the next thing you know, somebody else comes over, wants to have their photo taken with this guy. And then the next thing you know here comes the chef I think the manager of the restaurant, the waiter everybody having their picture taken with this guy so we’re thinking this guy might be somebody Special here in Italy so of course Kylie got on her phone. You can’t get anything past that girl and she found out who this guy was. His name was Enrique Papi. And he’s some sort of television host or something here in Italy. 

Back to Nerito we go. We had promised Gemma we come back and visit her. More touring of Nerito around the municipal building and then up a hill to Gemma’s home, where we were greeted by her and her husband. 

She told us a story about here home. They use to keep the animals down below her home. They had horses, donkeys and goats. Now that area is used for storage. 

As we entered the home it was very small and quaint with a lot of little antiques. But I guess what surprised us the most were the beautiful marble steps leading up to her kitchen. So old and beautiful. She and here husband invited us to sit at the kitchen table. She brought out this beautiful crostina with plum marmalade. The plums were from the trees in Nerito. Her sister Adele had told her how much we loved the one we had during our dinner at Carolina’s home. 

By then it was time to head back to Rome before it was dark. This is the hard part. Saying goodbye to everyone. There were three people missing from my last visit and I always hate to think about when my next visit comes who will still be here. Many hugs and kisses happening all around, I still get very emotional writing about our goodbye.❤️🇮🇹

Back in the car as we go for our trip back to Rome. Memo, Maura, Alexis and myself in one car because it’s the smaller car and the rest of the gang in the other car. It was a very tiring day and a trip will never forget.

Next stop the Vatican!