Saturday-May 28th

Most of the API students, and a few others on Saturday night at the Duomo party.

Courtney, Me, Megan, Sallie, Catie, and Claudio at the party. 

Catie, Me and Patrizio at the Caffe del Duomo on Saturday night.

Manuela was gone at the market today, Oleania had school, and the others were at work, so I met up with some other students today.  I tried to make my coffee the way Manuela showed me the day before, heating the milk on the stove, and using their espresso machine, but it was gross.  The typical breakfast that they eat every day is some form of coffee, usually cappuccino, yogurt, biscotti (yep, cookies for breakfast!), and maybe some fruit or granola.  After trying my own coffee, I went to the Caffe del Duomo, a "bar" aka coffeeshop, where I got a realy one.  The people that work there are already getting to know all of the American students, since that is the hangout during the daytime and nighttime.  I went to the tabacchi shop to get stamps or "francobolle" and some postcards. I went back to the house, and Guisseppe, who is the husband of Ilaria (the older sister) picked me up and took me to lunch at his house.  Their house was very modern, and was in the historic district which is next to the town hall, or comune.  (Which I thought was fun once I found out that his dad is the mayor!)  We had lunch, spent some time there, and then they taught me how to play a few card games.  I taught them how to play spoons (which they thought was very fun!).  Their cards are different though, so it was really a new challenge.  I met up with some others and went for a long walk through the countryside, which was just beautiful.  The whole town is talking about this party that is at the Caffe del Duomo tonight so that will be fun!

We went to a place called Pizza Rotanda for dinner where you can buy pizza by the slice.  They literally just have about 10 different pizzas sitting out, and you tell them how much of each you want and they cut you a chunk with scissors, and you pay by weight.  It was neat.  After dinner, we went back to the other students apartment to get ready for the night, and went to the festa.  A local celebrity who is from one of Italy's popular talk shows was making an appearance so the whole town was there.