Private Tour

Saturday morning started a little earlier than a Saturday should, but it was fine!  We had arranged to meet my student, C., at the Duomo around 4.  We first requested 11, and she reminded us that she would be in schools!  Oops, we forgot about the Italians going to school on Saturdays!

So, our morning consisted of breakfast, and getting ready to go out for a walk.  I wanted to walk a different way today and learn how some of these streets connect.  So, we headed out and walked for a while! We stopped at my fruit/veggie guy just to grab a clementine each; the sweet lady was so excited to see me, and I, her!  The guy gave us the clementines for free!  So sweet! I think it was good for me to see how things are closer than I even thought they were!  It was nice to see what was actually walkable and such.  The Italians that I have met here would NOT think that these things are walkable, but I do!  I showed Nick where the "Blockbuster" was, but is now something different, but still a movie store.  We found the really tall modern building here in Cosenza that I can see from just about everywhere.  It does not look like anything the Italians would approve of, but I guess someone did.

I took him in a cafe that Lilla took me to for good gelato, but we were not hungry, so we just peeked in.  We walked for a while!  Then we came across my path to school.  So, I stopped in the shoe store that Rosina told me about the other day, and THEN we found a bookstore that I had seen a sign for, but did not see the actual store until today!  I was SO excited to find this small book that is a collection of Italian Children's fables.  It is also by Nick's favorite Italian author.  He felt so bad about not remembering that this existed.  Apparently the author, Italo Calvino, went around Italy collecting children's fables in the dialects.  His life was spent translating them, as well as writing other books and such.  So, I had FINALLY found my collection of uniquely Italian children's stories!  I was so giddy with excitement!!

By this time, it was nearing lunch time.  We had been walking for a while.  We decided that we would stop at the grocery store to get some more turkey and mozzarella, then at the bread place for some bread, and then at the fruit/veggie guy to get some more tomatoes.  After we had collected our "ingredients" we headed to the apartment to eat!  The lunch was SO good!  We had sliced tomatoes, fresh turkey, fresh mozzarella, fresh whole wheat bread, and olive oil. YUMMY!! We just ate and enjoyed talking for a while!  We sat around talking, listening to music, and relaxing until it was time to go meet C. at the Duomo.  I was wrong, THIS was the day that we chatted with April on skype for a bit!!  Yay for my love!

Then we started walking!  I stopped and looked at a few coats, but did not find anything.  We were on Italian time getting to the Duomo to meet C.  When we arrived there was some sort of children's rehearsal going on inside the church.  We text her to let her know we were there.  She met us outside, and we walked to a bus stop to meet two other students from the class, S. and.....ughh I cannot think of the other sweet girl's name right this minute.  Anyway, I was so excited that all 3 of them were there!  S. lives in a smaller village outside of Cosenza, so this was her first time to see the Cosenza Duomo.  I will not lie, I was pretty excited for a private tour!  We got to see so much of the Duomo that the average person does not get to see!  She explained some of the paintings and such, but then she took us to the bell tower!  We got to climb to the very top, not something normally done!  Like Nick said, "this is once in a lifetime!"  I am hoping to make it twice because I am going to see if she can take me, my momma, and Barbara!  Nick reminded me that I would have to be the translator...uh oh, no pressure there!  :/  I was so excited for the view of Cosenza we got...the bell in the church is from like 1020 or something CRAZY like that!  We were in one hallway looking at where they are preparing for the Live Nativity.  This lady was yelling at Carmen telling her that we were not supposed to be in there, and Carmen started arguing back about how we had come all the way from America to see this!  After a little back and forth about us needing to see this and how it would only take us a few minutes, we saw what she wanted us to see, and then we left.  As we were preparing to leave, they were starting Mass.  We saw so much, and it was so beautiful.  I'll now let the pictures do the talking.

Mary in the middle; 6 Apostles on each side

Gorgeous view

The Castel lit up at night 

Amazing view

Nick and me near the top!

Friend of students, C., S, & ___ with me at the top!

The REALLY OLD bell

LOVE IT!!

When our tour was over, we walked up to where the theatre is, and there was a mercatino.  There was not really anything we wanted to buy or anything, but I did like that the theatre had lights on it!  The Italian girls did not like it, but I love Christmas lights.  S. and my other student left to go catch the bus to get home.  We all kissed and parted ways!  They tried to get us into the theatre, but there was a show going on!  C. argued with the guys!  I did not have the heart to tell her that we had seen it before.  They started telling the guys working there that we traveled 16 hours to see it, etc. etc.  I felt really bad that they were trying so hard, and were so upset when they would not let us in!  Then, this bus came by that C. got on and then motioned for us to get on.  Apparently this is the "Santa bus".  It has Christmas lights inside, and decals on the outside.  It went for a short loop, and it was really fun to see C. interact with the bus driver.  We got a good laugh out of all of this!!  It was...umm...something you cannot find in the United States!

Rione (small narrow street in Historical center)

Teatro Rendano

After our Christmas bus ride, C. walked us back towards the church, and then she went to meet the Christmas bus driver.  Nick and I started making our way back towards the apartment because we were supposed to meet Rosina's sons at my apartment.  Rosina had invited us to her home for dinner.  We took some more pictures of lights in the historical center,

and took pictures with the lights over the parking lot.  I LOVE the thing of lights hanging over the parking lot...it seems so magical!  

Also on the way home, I FINALLY found a coat I liked.  However, it was expensive (which I eventually accepted the price), but the black one was my favorite and they did not have it in my size!!  They had this other one, but I REALLY wanted the black one!  I also hate how in Italian stores they smother you and do not let you have a minute alone to think about things.  It makes me so anxious and makes me NOT want to buy anything from them!  I could not take the pressure, so I just left.  I thought about it more..and will go back tomorrow to make sure that I do not want the one that was not black!  

We met them downstairs just after 8 o'clock, and they drove us to her home.  She had gathered about 10 other people.  Her husband was sooooo sweet, and I just loved him.  She had some nieces and nephews there; one girl is an actress in soap operas here in Italy!  Everyone was soooo very sweet and welcoming.  Rosina showed me around at all of the cool pictures.  They poured this spritzer and had different kinds of nuts for an appetizer.  It was the first time I'd ever had an actual hazelnut.  Rosina pulled me away to look at more art.  She has an awesome art collection!!  Her son, friend Angela, and some others came and sat down with Nick and I to talk.  Angela speaks English really well, and her mom is from Canada.  We talked to them some in English and some in Italian.  It was fun to just sit and talk and get to know them.  Then it was time for dinner.  The first course was a pasta with chickpeas on it!  It was REALLY good actually!  She said it is a piatto povero, or a poor dish...poor man's dish!  It was yummy though!  The second course was SPEZZATINO!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! It was a little different than Signora Gabriella's in Florence, but it was SO good!  We also had these amazing potatoes with it!  Then we had some of the local traditional food of "broccoli" (which was actually spinach) and sausages.  I did not like it!!  The wine was amazing...the company was good...there was a lot of laughing...a lot of joking around!  It was just a lot of fun!  It was so sweet of her to set this dinner up for us!  After we finished the main courses, Rosina and her husband sent us all out of the room to set up dessert.  We went in the tv room and played this Italian trivia game! Most of it was hard for me to follow, but I got some questions and answers.  It was fun nonetheless.  When they came to get us for dessert we were in for a surprise... A LOT of sweets and liquores to try!  We had a few small chocolates, but we ended up taking some susumelli (dialect treat) home with us.  They talked Nick into trying this Rum that was 80 proof, but still REALLY strong.  I tried a vodka e melone thing, and also the pistacchio one.  It was all really good!  We just sat around talking some more and enjoying the company!  Close to midnight, we decided to head out!  Her sons drove us home!  I was so grateful that she organized this dinner for us!  It was so thoughtful and sweet!  The food was amazing, and we even took leftovers home.  I have a ton of chickpeas and some spezzatino to eat later.  The people here are so warm and welcoming.  I love my people here!!