Bringing Italy Home

Other than how tired I was on Wednesday morning, one of the worst parts of the morning was waking up and realising I wasn't with everyone. I had gotten so used to waking up, saying morning to Meryn, seeing Anna when she poked her head around the door to wake us up and seeing the boys later than planned either in the basement or waiting for us outside. I'm obviously used to living with them all in Uni anyway but it was so weird to not see them. I even began to miss the constant conversations about poo or the stress of trying to wake the boys up.

I wasn't completely ready to give Italy up though. I'm not exactly sure I will ever want to give up some of the things I've gained from the trip. Learning Italian is one thing. Becoming more adventurous with food is another. Also, despite my many outbursts about how Italian's seem to despise sleep (it's either that or generations of coffee drinkers has led to them needing half the normal amount of sleep) I really really hope I can keep getting up early in the morning without much difficulty. It felt great when I got up and had the entire day in front of me, rather than just an afternoon.

One thing I loved and have already done since being home is morning cappuccino and biscuits. Every morning that it was possible, Anna, Meryn and I would sit around the dinner table, sipping the cappuccino's Anna had made and snacking on the best biscuits in the entire world (they will have their own blog post, don't panic). Thanks to my own adorable little coffee maker I found in the market, I've been able to start the last three days with a cappuccino. Mum has joined me and it's felt good to keep that going. It's not quite the same as being in Italy but it's close enough!

I brought some Italian cooking skills home with me as well. I bought handmade pasta in Alberobello and Anna kindly wrote down instructions for making tomato pasta sauce, Italian style. Wednesday evening, with Anthony's help, I successfully cooked/made a two course meal for me, Mum, Lottie and Anthony.

The first course was the handmade pasta (amazing!) and the tomato sauce I'd made. We had tiger-bread as well. The four of us sat at the table for what may have been the first time in years. If tables could faint, I'm pretty sure ours would have. For desert we have strawberries with lemon. If you've never tried that I highly recommend it. Perfect way to make strawberries taste like sweets!

I was surprised to find the whole meal was a success (no one had food poisoning, nothing caught fire...) and it was great to sit down with everyone after missing them all. We even got to toast to Lottie having a successful Welsh speaking exam.

Perhaps being back from Italy won't be so bad after all...