Sunday: Dinner at Blandina's

When we returned from the mountains and our visit to Valle Vaccarro, we were dropped off at our hotel and were told they would come back in about an hour to get us for dinner. We all met in mine, Joyce's and Annette's room to decide what we were all going to wear, and what we were going to do about the gifts we had brought them. Aunt Evelyn had bought some scarves to give as gifts, but now she wasn't sure if she wanted to give them because they had given us scarves, but then we placed everything on my bed and separated them into piles and found that with what everyone brought and with the beautiful afghan that Annette had continuously worked on and finally finished, we had a great assortment of "gifts from America" to give to them. We weren't sure how we were going to distribute them, but Gary said "Don't worry about it - I'll wing it", and we packed everything into bags and went downstairs to meet them and walked over to Blandina's.

We arrived at Blandina's and we all went into the same room where we had lunch on Friday afternoon. Lunch is their big meal of the day, and since we had already had a big lunch at the trattoria, dinner was to be a much lighter meal. (Note: This is the FIRST meal that for some reason I didn't take pictures of the food or write any notes about what food was served, and I can't remember even ONE thing! - Debbie told me she remebered having stuffed red peppers with tuna, but if anyone else remembers anything, please add it to the comment post at the end of this section). This was also a much less formal meal, and instead of all of us sitting around the dining room table, we all just sat anywhere and there was food on the coffee tables and on the dining room table. It was all very relaxing and very enjoyable. Gigi and Angela were there too, which we were very happy about. We looked at pictures - some were in photo albums and some were on the walls or in framed photos. We ate, and me, Gary and Danny were very touched because they remembered that Danny liked a certain Italian beer that he had tried the day before, and Gary had mentioned that he wasn't able to get any decafeinated Diet Coke while he was in Italy, and they knew I liked the Limoncello that I tried at the trattoria earlier that day, so somehow while we were at the hotel getting ready they managed to have the beer and pop at the dinner table, and Rossella presented me with a bottle of Limoncello. They started to take Blandina back to her room, but Gary realized they were doing that and asked if she could come back in because we had some presents for her. So they brought her back in, and Gary stood up in front of everybody and asked Angela if she would interpret for him. She did a great job! Gary first thanked everybody for showing us such a great time while we were there, then he said we brought a few things from America for them. He started digging in his bag that we had filled with the presents and pulled out some of them. Blandina, seeing all of this, turned to Luigi and asked - "Who is that Santa?" It was really funny! Santa had pretty scarves and scented soaps in pretty gift boxes for the girls, and a Niagara Falls calendar for Rossella's husband's office, a picture book of New York for Blandina, a carton of cigarettes for Pierre-Luigi, a hooded Buffalo Bills sweatshirt for Francesco, and a crystal water goblet with an etched Buffalo carved on it for Blandina. Santa also gave Francesco an "I Love NY" piggy bank, and we stuck some money in it to start his savings to visit America. Debbie thought of that and it really was a hit! But the real highlight of the day was the afghan that Annette had made for Blandina - she was truly overwhelmed by the generosity, especially when she was told that Annette had started it on the plane and finished it at the hotel! It was really a special gift, and you could tell she was really touched. Luigi also liked his "Baby Joe Mesi" gifts - he had told us in an email that he was a boxing fan and was really happy with the autographed glove and magazines with Joe's articles in them - but Carla had better ideas what to do with the glove.

Then Gary had all the rest of the gifts in three different bags - they were mostly products made in America such as maple syrup and P.B. & Jelly - and Gary went around the room one-by-one asking everyone to pick a number bag and he'd pull something out of that bag for them. It worked great for a while, and everyone was enjoying it, but then towards the end he started cheating a little... Francesco had already picked the Welch's Grape Jelly so Gary wanted him to get the Peanut butter to go with it... so when Francesco picked bag #2, Gary would say - Oh, you wanted something from bag #3, and he'd pull out the peanut butter. It was funny, but this way everyone was able to get a few things from America and it really worked out good! I was just relieved to see everything being given away because I could finally get rid of one of my suitcases!!!

Shortly after all of that, I was sitting near Blandina, and suddenly she reached down and grabbed my arm. I was really surprised because she really wasn't very mobile, and mostly sat very still in her chair just observing everything. Francesco was standing next to her and she started talking very rapidly in Italian. I couldn't understand her, but I had a good idea what she was saying - a few months before we left for Italy I had bought myself a bracelet. It was a gold bracelet with real Italian lira attached to it like a charm bracelet. I knew that many Italians, mostly the older ones, really missed the lira and did not like the Euors, and the lira coins were very beautiful. Francesco started translating and said that Blandina noticed my bracelet and says that she misses the lira and dreams of it every night when she goes to bed and she is very happy to see them again. She was still holding my hand trying to look at each of the coins, and I tried to take the bracelet off but couldn't get it off - Joyce was next to me and I asked her to take it off of me, so she did. I then took it and put it on Blandina's wrist. She started talking rapidly in Italian again, and Francesco said that she was saying, no - she can't take it, it is too much! I told him to tell her that I would be very happy if she took it, and I wanted her to have it. She thanked me over and over again in Italian, and Luigi took our photo. After that, everyone started making speeches. Rossella got up and said how happy they all were to finally meet their family from America and her English had gotten even better than when we first got there - she did really well! Then Danny got up and thanked everyone and invited them all to America, and they all said, "We'll come, we'll come!" Then Luigi got up and said that he wanted to thank me for starting the communication and he felt that he and I had a special bond because we had been emailing for so long - and he thanked Annette for all her work with the geneology. It was all very, very nice and everyone was happy and laughing.

It was starting to get late and we could tell Blandina was getting tired, and we had to leave early the next morning, so we got ready to leave. It was hard saying goodbye but we all had plans for them to meet us at Gabriella's villa in Velletri, South of Rome, on Friday - our last day in Italy. We would be traveling by train from Florence, and they would be driving from Teramo. They walked us back to the hotel, and we all said good-bye. It was sad to leave, but we were excited and happy to have finally met our Italian family and we not only had new family, we also made new friends!!!

That was the end of our adventures in Teramo - well, not exactly... there was still the next morning when we were getting ready to leave the hotel to drive to Orvieto, an ancient walled city in Umbria, when we found out that we got a ticket when we parked the two rental cars in front of the hotel to load our luggage - but that was promptly taken care of by Gary's new friend from the hotel who liked us ever since Gary told him we were part of the "De Federicis" family! He found the policeman for us and we didn't have to pay the ticket. But then, he informed us that the section of the A-24 that we needed to take to get out of town and head towards Florence was closed down, and we would have to detour. No problem... he was going to show us the way. He hopped into his little Italian car and he was off and running before we even backed out of our parking spots! The chase that followed was like something out of the movies and I'm still not sure how we came out of it alive as we followed him at unknown speeds up the mountains, around curves, passing cars on one-lane roads as we were going around hairpin bends - and all on the wrong side of the road!!! It was crazy!!! But we lived to tell about it!

It was sad to leave Teramo, but I have proof that we'll be back. There's an old Italian custom - if you throw a coin into the Trevi fountain, it is said that you will come back to Italy. I have posted a photo on this blog called "7 Coins in the Fountain" - and all I can say is "Arrevederci, we'll be back!"

COMING SOON: A Visit to Gabriella's Villa in Velletri