Italy: Part 4

Easter Sunday celebrations made up the fifth day of our Italy holiday. Us girls managed to sleep in till 1 in the afternoon and woke up to the news that Ainsley had hoovered the downstairs flat. I'm not sure what surprised us more, the fact we had slept right in until the afternoon or the fact that Ainsley had actually hoovered. Meryn's face when we were told was brilliant.

The majority of our day was going to be spent in the basement flat, eating lots of delicious food. I know, I know, how difficult! 5 courses of well cooked Italian food! The horror, the horror!

Just before our death-by-good-food, Anna's family exchanged Easter Eggs. Their Easter Egg tradition is a lot different to mine (I'd say ours but I have no idea how other families exchange Easter Eggs). In my family, you have a big Easter Egg off your parents and then medium to small Easter Eggs off your grandparents, aunties, uncles and a few friends. Anna's family exchange one hollow Easter Egg and in the middle of the Easter Egg is a present. How sweet is that? Anna told me that you could have anything put in the middle of the Easter Egg or you can buy them with gifts in already. They then break  the Egg up in to pieces and share it with everyone else.

Her parents were so lovely, they gave little Easter Eggs to each of us as well (I wasn't comfortable with sharing my chocolate because I'm too selfish so I opened mine later that evening). They had tiny little bracelets inside of them with either a ribbon or a ladybird (I had this one) charm and we all rushed to put them on. It kind of felt like we were either in a weird little gang or were wearing some cute grown-up version of friendship bracelets (to me at least!)

Some of the weird props we were given for the photo.

Then came the food. Oh the food. If heaven exists, the food will be Italian. It's just so good! The starters consisted of a variety of fish, bread, eggs and salami. This was followed by pasta in tomato sauce (yum) then some kind of meat in tomato sauce (yum yum) and then lamb with potatoes (oh my goodness, YUM). I have no idea how we all managed to keep eating. I think our stomachs became bottomless pits because when the desert was brought out, most of us had a little cup of ice cream. It's safe to say that after that, we were all completely stuffed.

McPake getting a massage from Gigi

Our lunch didn't just involve good food though, it involved weird food as well. Anna's cousin actually ate a lamb's head. It was the weirdest thing on a plate I've ever seen. McPake and Ainsley both tried the tongue, the brain and Ainsley tried the cheek as well. I wish I had a photo of their faces as they tried the food because trust me, there aren't words in the English language to describe the changes their face expression went through.

We had some after dinner entertainment in the form of Filippo (Anna's cousin) dressing up as King  Filippo of Filipponia. This involved a long speech all about his new kingdom (unfortunately Anna was too far away for a translation) and also Anna's Mum in a ginger wig curtseying to him. We all had a photo with him (some of us were handed the most random props possible for this) and poor McPake ended up being Filippo's footstool. I'd love to share the photos here but we've been asked to keep them offline. You'll just have to use the power of imagination instead! ;)

After we had helped clear away, Anna's cousins drove us in to Trani, a city about 15 minutes south of Barletta. We walked along the sea front and found a modern looking restaurant to have coffees in. It was here that we managed to shock the Italians (that's right!) by saying we were thinking of ordering more food.

Yep, you read that right. More food. We were still hungry!

The faces of crazy people who apparently lost the ability to feel hunger somewhere over France.

Despite their shock, Anna's cousins decided we would drive to Canosa di Puglia to visit Filippo's favourite restaurant. They cooked Naples-style pizza and everyone was eager for us to try some. Although it wasn't as good as the pizza we had in the Irish bar (I don't think anything will ever compare), it was still delicious. Most of us managed to finish our food as well. Remember I mentioned we had bottomless stomachs? Yeah, well, even we were surprised.

We also had little balls of battered fish which were out of this world. I haven't eaten fish in 14 years yet I could not get enough of them. I was so sad when they ran out, my pizza only just managed to cheer me up.

Of course, no gathering of Anna's family and us could be complete without a viewing of the Harlem Shake and other McPake videos. McPake and Ainsley even taught their handshake to Filippo and his friend. It was a weird moment where they accidentally created a gang that involved two Italian men, one of whom was a police officer. The language barrier gave the evening a what-the-hell-is-going-on quality that just had us laughing at the strangeness of it all.

The day after Easter Sunday (known as Pasquetta in Italy) was spent driving to towns south of Barletta; sunshine, deserts and a dip in the sea will be left for another post since I don't want to squish it in here.

Having an Anna's-history tour of Barletta on Tuesday!

After visiting the castle on our seventh day, we spent our time just hanging out in Anna's apartment. Meryn and I looked through some old photo albums, while the boys sat around and talked. McPake and I attempted to stand up while back to back (with our arms linked) and we actually managed it. I'm not sure why we did that, or why it was an accomplishment, but it did make us laugh.

After dinner we all started to get ready to go out to the karaoke club. I think that, like me, everyone was a bit apprehensive about the karaoke club. None of us could sing or if we could (turns out McPake has a hidden talent!) we weren't very confident about it. I also know that I have a voice that could rival the penguin off Happy Feet's so I was not overjoyed to be going.

Despite our misgivings, it turned out to be such a great night! We did have to sing but since no one could understand what we were singing it was a lot less frightening than it could have been! Our set list (haha!) included: Total Eclipse of the Heart, Torn, Hey Jude; McPake and Ainsley sang something by Bob Marley, Don't You Forget About Me and We Are The Champions and Meryn, McPake and I graced everyone with a performance of Poker Face. For people who either can't sing or didn't want to sing, we definitely did a lot of it. The big surprise was when McPake sang a Beatles song on his own. I was looking around to find the singer before I realised it was him. He can sing!! Who knew?!

Other than the songs that we sang, all of the songs played were Italian (duh). We attempted to sing along to these using the screen (without the microphone this time) and it was hilarious more often than it was successful. We danced to the annoying song that Anna hates as well, which was brilliant!

Three Sex on the Beaches may have helped me with the confidence. I'm not sure how to prove it but I'm 100% sure that cocktails are stronger in Italy. As much as I loved the drink, at one point I remember telling Meryn that my mouth was on fire. Not the best thing in the world but you know!

The DJ that was there that night (Anna didn't care for him) was in love with us. He couldn't get enough of the fact that we were "English" and kept getting us to sing the songs. He also held a sign in front of me while I was singing that said "very beautiful" in Italian slang. Flattering but a bit weird. He was very adamant that we return on the Thursday of that week because he'd have more English songs for us. It would have been sweet if he wasn't so creepy.

The night ended in the most spectacular way ever. The dance floor cleared slightly as five or six different couples all started to salsa dance. It was incredible. The moves! The guys! The music! We didn't film any of it and I think that will remain my life's biggest regret. If I could go back and watch that dancing again, I would. It was amazing.

Our eighth day in Italy began with the three of us girls dancing to a mixture of old songs. From Spice Girls to Elvis Presley, we were dancing around the bedroom probably looking like complete fools. Our embarrassment when Anna's mum walked in and caught us quickly turned to joy when she started to dance along to Soulja Boy and the Beach Boys as well.

We had a lunch of cold pasta pie, I completely failed at eating a kiwi and then the five us walked to the train station to catch the train to Trani.

Hidden inside the park was a children's play area. The swings alone were enough to make us want to go play so the three of raced each other over to them.

A super cool rock clock and calendar in the park!

We played on the swings, I sat on a tree and McPake got angry and shouted at one of those rocking things they have in parks until we spotted one of the park's security guards walking over to us. We instantly tried to act like normal, young adults - looking out at the view, walking around, not playing on children's rides. So basically the complete opposite of what we are actually like... He stayed around a little bit before walking off again but it was clear that play time was over (you can tell I'm talking about almost 20 year olds... right?).

As we were leaving the park, the heavens opened and it began absolutely tipping it down with rain. We ran aimlessly around trying to find shelter before ducking in to a cute little bakery shop. We bought snacks to keep us entertained and I ended up with a pint can of coke (I'd never seen one before!) Once the rain stopped, we walked through Trani, taking in all of the buildings and shops and little fish stalls that had stingrays and squid.

We got the train back to Barletta only to find that the rain had followed us. As we walked back to Anna's apartment, the one thing I had truly feared happened. Somehow, McPake and I lost everyone and we ended up alone. This was something that could only end badly.

After almost being killed by an umbrella and becoming so nervous he shouted "CIAO!" in a stranger's face (see? Badly.), McPake managed to catch sight of Anna and Meryn through all the rain and umbrellas. We caught up with them to discover that Ainsley and Samuel were lost together somewhere as well. Luckily they had walked in the right direction and we all found each other before we made it back to the flat.

A long shower was needed to warm up after all the rain. It felt great to finally be warm and dry. I celebrated by being coerced into playing Just Dance with Dominica. I have to say, my dance skills may not be the best (they're abysmal) but I think I can still pull it off (I don't think I've ever looked less cool). We danced to Call Me Maybe, I forced Meryn to take my place for Cotton Eyed Joe and then the three of us attempted the Ketchup Song. The last one ended up with just me doing the worst interpretation of what was on the screen ever.

Our dinner that night deserves a mention. We had burgers topped with cheese and covered in tomato sauce. It was without a doubt one of the best meals of the trip. I think every single one of us had seconds. I wish I knew how to make it, I'd be eating it all day long if I could. There was one disastrous moment when I accidentally dropped a piece of burger (and sauce) and the white table cloth. Completely freaking out, I asked if there was any cilit bang. For some reason, everyone thought this was hilarious and were too busy laughing at me to worry about the stain. It was then brought up daily for the rest of the trip. And a few times since we've been back in Italy. Ah, nothing like kind friends, right?

Our day ended by the five of us FaceTiming Tom who was also in Italy to visit his Granddad. It was so sweet, all of us being there (kind of!) Such a great end to the day!