Ahh...! Return to Italy!

Our 2014 trip to Italy was full of anticipation, as it always is.

There is nothing like that delicious familiarity that resonates with the soul as you touch Italian soil again.

Even the hopelessly inefficient passport control process, with hundreds of foreign passengers impatiently looking for the fastest moving queue has a familiar, “Ah, I am back” feel to it.  I have come to accept that there is usually one immigration guy who is nonchalantly stamping passports without even looking at them, while the rest are laboriously researching the life history of each person and taking an age to process each exasperated traveller.  The existence of a queue of several hundred grumpy tourists is of no concern to anyone in Italian immigration!  Furthermore, the ‘non EU’ passport holders look longingly across to several booths with no queues at all right next door – they look after their own!

Ah yes, Italian culture with all its quirky frustrations and yet somehow a charm that is like no other.

In fact, waiting in queues is such a part of life in Italy that there is a much higher prevalence of technology to try and bring some sense of fairness to the experience.  The first thing you must do is obtain a ‘number’.  At the rental car company, at first we did not see the machine, but there was a computer system where you register and get given a number.  Up above the desk was the number of the current person by agent serving.  Finally our number came up, so we eagerly started the process only to have another traveler, obviously well versed in the process to supplant us.  We learnt that a ‘business’ booking number trumps a ‘personal’ booking! Ah well, ‘va bene’ as they say….

With some trepidation, we leave Rome Fiumicino Airport after the 13 hour flight and a serious dose of jet lag, to be pleasantly surprised with the ease of navigating the roads from Rome to our destination for the night.  A piece of cake. Our destination was the small town just outside of Rome called ‘Frascati’ and we had chosen it because it was where Kathy and her family used to stay in years gone by in Italy.  The highlight was finding the hotel where Kathy’s family used to stay and the stories of her mum cooking a chicken on a gas burner in the room and setting fire to the curtains and other great childhood memories came vividly to life.
However, this year, we arrived in Italy on 14th August.

The next day is ‘Ferragusto’, which is the one day in Italy where virtually EVERYONE takes a holiday.  It is generally one of the hottest days of the year and pretty much everything is shut (except in tourist spots).  So, we stocked up on food at a supermarket in Frascati and headed for our little village to find that the festival of the ‘Ruzzola’ was in full swing.  This ancient festival dates back to the time when locals used specially prepared cheese rounds to compete as to who could roll one to the top of the village up the main street with the least number of flings of the ruzzola.  A bit like golf really!  The process starts with a round for children to ensure that this ancient tradition is kept alive.  Then the ladies compete the next day in teams (Ambrose style for those who are golfers) and then the serious men’s event on Ferragosto itself.  This is intensely serious competition with the entire village turning out to watch and others coming from surrounding villages to compete.  It all finishes with a huge communal dinner in the piazza with traditional Abruzzese food including a lavish helping of ‘Arrosticini’ (see this month’s recipe).  Live music is playing and to top it off, it was Kathy’s birthday and a special tribute to her was played especially once the locals knew it was her birthday.  It felt so good to be welcomed back so warmly into our friends in Prezza.