Day 105: Sunday, May 1, 2011

Me in front of Lake Como!

Today I woke up incredibly annoyed by the sound of my alarm clock.  Was it really going off already??  I had just gotten home a few hours before, and it was already time to get out of bed, put a smile on my face, take the train to Lake Como, and spend the day with my (distant) relatives.  Naturally, the time we allotted to getting from my house to the train station was not enough and we ended up sprinting to the platform.  But we made it, and all was well :)  It was a pretty a ride into the town of Lake Como, where my cousin Letizia was waiting for our arrival.  Being the adorably sweet girl she is, she dedicated her entire day to my family and I!  First she showed us around the charming town of Lake Como.  It was complete with it's own little Duomo, outdoor markets, picturesque elementary schools, and beautiful views of the gorgeous Lake Como.  We walked around for about an hour as she pointed out little details about the town and showed us the most scenic places to take a picture.  

The town of Lake Como

Momma in front of Camporini's grave

We were on a bit of a time crunch.  After she showed us some of the city, we got in her car and drove back to the town of Chivelo, Italy, where she was born and raised.  On the way, we stopped at the cemetery where Camporini relatives are buried.  It was a beautiful graveyard; I had never seen so many fresh flowers and bouquets in my life!  It was like every single person's loved ones came each day to tend to their grave.  It looked more like a tropical garden than a graveyard!

After our pitstop, we continued on our way to their house.  Letizia was the epitome of an Italian driver.  When we pointed out that she was going the wrong way on a one-way road, she was completely unconcerned, and I think she may have even sped up?  When we got to the house, the entire family was waiting outside to greet us.  It was a very warm welcome, with lots of hugs and kisses and smiles.  I had been to their house once before, and they were just as proud of their modest abode as they were four years ago!  It is a very modern home, with lots of concrete and and open space, and it is a beautiful home.  They have done very well for themselves! 

The Frangi family!

When we first got inside, they gave us a quick tour, then it was meal time!  It was clear Elise had been working all day on this meal, she was so sweet!  We sat down at a table set with fine dining as Marco popped open a 100E bottle of Champagne.  Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy it because I was still at the point where the smell of alcohol made me nauseous, but everyone else said it was delicious!  As we made ourselves comfortable, Elise hurried to the kitchen and began bringing out dish...after dish...after dish.  There really was an incredible amount of food, some of which I liked, and some of which I wasn't the keen on trying.  It definitely was a typical Italian meal, all five courses and two hours of it!  Everyone speak English except for Marco, which made me feel really bad for him sometimes!!  There he is having us in his house and giving up his entire Sunday, and we couldn't exchange a single word with each other.  Which is definitely half my fault seeing as I have lived here for so long and still don't really know Italian.  They definitely yelled at me, and it was embarrassing.  It's not my fault if every time I tried to speak people just spoke back to me in English!!  Jeeeeeeeze. 

After lunch, we all hoped in two cars and made our way to Carla's mountain house.  We took the scenic route, obviously, and it really was beautiful.  We drove all along the side of Lake Como and through the mountains (which wasn't ideal for my hangover) but it was very, very pretty.  We stopped a few times along the way whenever a Kodak moment arose.  

 When we got to Carla's, she was ecstatic to see us.  She also doesn't speak a lick of English, so the language barrier was almost funny sometimes.  Luckily, Letizia and Chiara were excellent translators.  We all sat down and ate about 10 different flavor of gelato; Matteo, their (and maybe our's, very far down the line) cousin was also there.  He was as cute as a button :)  Afterwards we walked around her little street for a bit; it was obvious she was so excited to show us her home.  Afterwards, we drove back to the --- house so we could catch the train home.  Naturally, there was some sort of transportation strike going on after 6pm in Milan, so we were stranded.  Chiara ended up having to drive us all the way back!  


It was a lovely little day that we had with our family.  They are all the sweetest people you could ever meet, and we all had a great time getting to know them a little better!