A TOWN PICNIC

Once we knew the dates for our grandson's visit, we scrambled to make reservations for our travels. We knew that the longer we waited, the more crowded the typical tourist spots would be. We booked our visit to Venice and northern Italy for just a few days after Nicholas arrived, knowing that it wouldn't take him long to adjust to the time difference. When we realized that we'd miss the town picnic, we were really disappointed, but sometimes you just have to make the tough choices.

After we were back in San Venanzo, Armando and Guilda mentioned something about the picnic. We said we thought it had been held on June 2, but they told that due to the bad weather, it had been rescheduled.

We'd been contacted by Jill, someone who'd found our blog and was interested in seeing out house, so we suggested that she and her friends come by early, look at the house, then go to the picnic with us. They happily agreed.

The day of the picnic was a perfect one, and in the morning all the Ferrari's stopped by.  We weren't in a big hurry to get to the picnic grounds, going under the usual rule that Italians have a very relaxed sense of time. What we didn't take into account was the fact that no matter what they're late for, Italians are NEVER, I mean NEVER late for lunch! Lunch is at 1 o'clock no matter what, meaning that when we arrived, fashionalby late at 1:20, lunch was well under way and all the tables were taken.

We found a large rock to sit on and grabbed the last few plates of antipasti while everyone else was starting on the pasta course. Because there was only one large pot to cook the pasta in, multiple batches had to be cooked, so we had plenty of time to get started, to find some bottles of water and fill our glasses with homemade wine.

Not surprisingly, the men do the grillling and the women do the pasta. The men do lend a hand in lifting the perfectly cooked pasta out of the boiling water, then help with mixing it with the sauce. This is definitely a case where too many cooks do NOT spoil the pot!  After the pasta there were grilled meat and sausages, then plenty of homemade desserts.

Nicholas tried to catch some tadpoles, and I wish we'd brought his sandals so he could have just stood in the creek. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be as many kids at this year's picnic, or at least not as many around Nicholas's age.

We didn't stay as long as we might have if there had been some other boys his age, but it was still a pleasant day and a wonderful meal. Jill, her mom and her friend said they had a great time, and thanked us for inviting them.

We left before the karaoke music began, and I have a feeling we might have missed the most fun of the day!