Christmas in Calabria

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you all are having the most blessed, fun, and delicious holidays with your families back at home! I'm in Castrovillari, in the region of Calabria, in Italy, right now spending Christmas with Azzurra's family. Currently I'm sitting in front of the fireplace of her grandparent's house, a few towns over, where we just had the biggest lunch ever. The food here...I can't describe it. I've never had anything like it. I've eaten more in just the last four days than I have in my whole life. But I have that sort of 'get it while you can' mentality. For Christmas lunch, we just ate 3 types of Calabrese sausage for antipasti, with tuna, salmon, and this really yummy eggplant thing. Then for our first course we experienced Italian 'crepes' which were basically manicotti but even more amazing. And for the second course, we had lamb, chicken with potatoes, and beef with egg in the middle. Ahhhh...I'm sooooo fuuuuulllll. But oh my God was it delicious.

To backtrack a bit...here's some pics from the first two days:

Silvia, Azzurra, and me being silly

Federica and me on our first night out all together

I cannot even begin to explain what an amazing experience it has been so far. Azzurra's family, and especially her mom, have been the most welcoming, accommodating people I've ever met! They have taken me in as one of their own and have made me feel quite at home. Azzurra's little sister, Silvia, is sooo cute and she's completely infatuated with me...I wish you could get a load of it. She honestly sometimes just sits down, stares at me while I'm doing something, and goes ''WoooooW.'' It's hilarious.

Silvia and me on her birthday

Castrovillari is a relatively small town with a population of just 25,000 but it's really cute as well. It, and all the towns nearby, are situated in the countryside, which is spectacular. Everyone knows everyone, everything is friendly and familiar, and everything is fresh!

Christmas is completely different here. Their big thing is Christmas Eve. We had a huge dinner at Azzurra's house last night, where we ate only fish...but tons of it! There was shrimp, bacilau(sp?), calamari, and many other things of which I don't know the name! After, we ate birthday cake for Silvia's birthday. The whole night (and always) I was quite the spectacle. All we seem to do is compare Italy with California. It's so interesting to hear the comparisons and the things they wish to know about where we live. Azzurra's dad actually asked me last night if we have bread in California...what is that about?!

Alessandro came over before dinner to meet the grandparents, hehe

Everyone at Christmas Eve dinner

Mama and me after eating the delicious dinner she made

One of my favorite pictures ever!
Nonna and me

Then we awaited midnight, for the moment when Jesus was born, and everyone hugged each other and opened gifts. It was really neat. Afterwards, Alessandro picked up Azzurra and me and we went to the end of Christmas vigil mass, and then we just met up with our other friends from Bologna and hung out in the center of town. It's as if I'm at home in Bologna here in Castrovillari because everyone I live with there, lives here!

Practically all of us from Bologna, in Castrovillari!

Ok now I must go...I'll add pictures when I get back to Bologna...and I'll write as soon as I can. Buon Natale a tutti! I wish I could spend a second Christmas there, with all of you. Bacci!