Dinner and plans for a rinfresco

Friday, April 14

With a dinner tonight with Loriano, Gabriella and their son Pietro, we have now visited with nearly every relative we know on the Spadoni side of the family. Raffaello is the only one we have missed, but we think we will see him before we go, for we have invited him to a rinfresco, the Italian version of an open house, at Casolare dei Fiori April 27. The idea of a rinfresco is that we can invite Spadoni relatives that we have not met as well as those we have met to come to our agriturismo during the time that Randy, Lela, Micah and Suzye will be visiting. The beauty of an open house is that people can drop in for a short or long time, and we will not be on the spot to speak Italian for two hours with just one family. Guests can meet our family but there will also be other Italians there to talk to. We also plan to invite Seghieris that we have met and a few people from San Salvatore who have been friendly and helpful, such as our butcher, Luigi, and his wife, as well as their son, Matteo, who runs the little local general store.

The featured food will be dolci tipici americani--apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread, magic cookie bars, cherry cream cheese pie, brownies and apple salad. Lucy has already e-mailed a shopping list to Suzye to bring ingredients that we can't find here, such as graham crackers, condensed sweetened milk, finely ground brown sugar, brownie mix and shortening. Luca and Roberta have given us permission to use the oven in their kitchen to supplement the little oven in our apartment.

We have a great time catching up with Loriano's family, whom we have not seen in ten years. As always, we encourage them to come visit us in America, but they seem very content with their daily routines here. Pietro, who is 33 and single, says he may come when the time is right. Well, we love it here too, so we can't blame them for wanting to stay home.