Busy Sunday in the Restaurant

Sunday is the busiest restaurant day of the week. Today, there were 30 people for lunch (that is less than normal). They all came at 1 p.m. with prior reservations, and there were 5 tables of guests.

Autumn and I helped prepare the antipasti (appetizer) plates today! It was so cool. Barb lays all 30 plates out on the kitchen table and we add each type of food, one by one, in a decorative manner. Once the guests arrive, they are seated & we bring them all their own antipasti plate. Everyone eats the same thing, which makes our lives a LOT easier! For the main meals (pasta & meat), we bring out one giant serving plate to the table and everyone serves themselves. It is much easier that way because we don't have to bring out individual plates.

Once everyone is finished eating, we must clean up the dining room, bring all of the dirty dishes into the kitchen, and load them into the dishwasher. Their dishwasher is very small & washes the dishes VERY quickly (only 2 minutes!). We then dry each dish by hand and put them back into the cabinets.

I really love being in the kitchen with everyone. They're always laughing, letting us try their delicious food & having fun.


"Military Men"

Every Sunday, Joe, Alessandro and a few other guys play war. Basically, they all dress up in camo outfits, trek into the woods with their fake guns, and play something similar to paint-ball. Joe told us that Italy is the only country (that he knows of) where you can't play paintball! Supposedly, they don't like the paint marks on the trees or something... so instead, they use tiny, plastic balls as "bullets." After lunch today, Joe let us try out his gun. We only shot at a wall & into the field, but it was still cool!


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I finished the night with my italian book in "la prima sala" (the first dining room), just studying and writing down useful words/phrases. Autumn and I are going to quiz each other and practice a little before bed tonight. I understand a lot of the italian I am hearing, and surprisingly have been able to communicate what I want to say (for the most part), but I want to be better! I want to speak more fluently and more easily! So, to the books & the barn we go! ;-)

A domani!