SECOND FESTA

Christmas Day at 12 noon and it was off to Linda and Gino's, where the same company as a few hours before reassembled, along with even more friends. Daughter of the house Chiara always comes up with original table decorations and this year she used black and white photographs of everyone as place cards. Above you see mine. The food images show: individual vegetable pies as antipasti; lasagne; sausage; chicken with stuffing; rabbit [I like this idea of garnishing it with pomegranate seeds]; pork and turkey. There were accompaniments of potato purée, roast potatoes, prunes in Calvados and garden salads. Oh, and I was the purveyor of homemade cranberry sauce! After all that meat, I don't know how we found room for the panettone at the end, but somehow, we did! Then came the toasts - to the food! "Brindiamo agli antipasti!" ["Let's toast the antipasti!"] cried one guest, so we all did. "Brindiamo alla pasta!" cried another and we followed suit. And on it went, till each dish on the menu had been duly celebrated. Even the cranberry sauce was toasted, I am glad to say.

When Gino drove me home, at around 5pm, there was a whole group of men standing at the gate. At first I thought there must be something wrong in the apartment block and started to panic for Simi, but then saw that it was only the neighbourhood men who had come outside for a smoke and an afternoon gossip. Reader, I was embraced by every one of them!