A Weekend in the Roman Countryside

I had no idea what to expect when I got off the train in Frascati, Italy, after a four-hour long train ride from Perugia. But I don’t think I ever could have imagined how warm and hospitable my cousin Alessandra and her family were this weekend, or how comfortable and “at home” I would feel, for probably the first time since I arrived in Italy. This weekend would have to be summed up as one of my favorite experiences since beginning this study abroad journey.

Some background information: Alessandra’s father, Pasquale, is a first cousin of my 96-year-old great grandmother (Grammy) Palma. I had met Alessandra in person for just a few minutes during my high school Italy trip, when she and her family stopped by the hotel I was staying at outside of Rome and brought me biscotti. Since then my Aunt Dianne has been keeping in touch with her through e-mail, and when she found out I was studying in Italy this semester, she immediately offered to host me for a weekend at her house. It was so wonderful coming to this foreign country and knowing that I had family here, however distantly related we might be! In a world where everything and everyone is unfamiliar, where you’re essentially on your own and starting from scratch for four months, knowing that there’s someone out there who you have a connection to and who is ready to take you under their wing is so comforting.

Alessandra greeted me with a big hug at the Frascati train station Friday night, and then we drove about 15 minutes to the town where lives, called Grottaferrata. Both it and Frascati are beautiful little towns just outside of Rome, suburbs of Rome we might say in America. But with a location way up in the hills, surrounded by palm trees (even in winter!) and the remains of decadent country villas, and with a bird’s eye view of all of Rome, I found it a much more tranquil, vacation-like setting than any typical American suburb. Alessandra even commented on that to me—that because so many people come to her town and to Rome while on vacation, people who live there fall into a year-round holiday state of mind just from being in that kind of environment. And things are a lot different here than in Milan, where she grew up—she told me the driving is much crazier (I witnessed this!), people come into work around 10 or 11 a.m. and stay until late, as opposed to working a strict 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule, and overall the attitude around Rome is a lot more flexible and laid back than in Milan.

So after a short car ride, Alessandra and I made it to the country villa where and her family live. She explained that when she and her husband Marco bought the house three years ago, it wasn’t even really a house. It was more like the foundation of a house, just scraps of a building with nothing really holding it together. But since Marco works in construction and carpentry, they were able to build up the house into what it is today, which is absolutely beautiful! Now it’s a three-story “villa,” with a big yard and a view of the cliff-side town Rocca di Pappa. There were so many unique little details in the house—a wood-burning fireplace that sent heat circulating around the house, the narrow, twisting staircase and the bookshelf built underneath it, and a gorgeous kitchen with very modern appliances and countertops but with a big kitchen table and perfectly, purposely mismatched chairs giving it a rustic, lived-in feel. Tucked away off a bumpy dirt road, their house felt like this little Italian haven, and it was exactly the kind of retreat I needed after my rough week of being sick!

Marco and Alessandra’s two kids, Michelangelo (5) and Matilde (15 months) were there to greet me when I arrived, and even though communication was a bit difficult, since they don’t speak English (scratch that, Matilde doesn’t speak anything at all yet! Lol) I was able to try my hand at some impromptu Italian conversation, and very much able to enjoy their company despite language barriers! Alessandra speaks better English than anyone I’ve met in Perugia so far—better, even, than my professors who teach English-language classes like history and film—so I was able to cheat and use her as a translator for much of the weekend. But having someone who could perfectly understand my English AND the Italian language made me feel much more comfortable!

After bringing my bag up to the third floor and my comfy, homey room for the weekend, I walked downstairs to find a full authentic Italian dinner waiting for me. Alessandra had promised me a “real” Italian dinner, and she and Marco did not disappoint. There was handmade pasta with a delicious, homemade red sauce. Then we had mozzarella di bufala, which Alessandra and Marco told me is the best I will find anywhere in the world. They buy it at a particular store that gets shipments three times a day, and they’ve never tasted any other mozzarella di bufala that compares. Let me just say that it was DELICIOUS! The cheese soaked up the flavor of the milk and had just the right texture and ahhh…just thinking about it makes me crave some right now! But then I also tasted at dinner that night my other new addiction—ricotta with honey on top. Seems like a crazy combination, right? Well whoever came up with it was a genius. This particular honey wasn’t the usual syrupy, smooth kind I’m used to putting in tea, but rather a gritty, lighter colored honey (miele, in Italian), and it in combination with the flavor of the sliced ricotta was to die for. I’m going to try to imitate it here in Perugia, or at home, but I don’t think it will ever be exactly the same. There was also a plentiful amount of crusty Italian bread, wine, and fruit for dessert. Though people often think of Italian food as being heavy and overdone, what I’ve learned is that the real stuff is much more pure and simple than American food. The food you eat for dinner comes straight from a local source, and you know what the ingredients are…rather than eating a muddled mix of artificial preservatives and factory-produced flavors. And dessert is often fruit! Alessandra and I had a lively discussion about what perceptions Italians have about the way Americans eat, and I tried to explain that not everyone eats McDonalds five times a week. Italians (including my roommate, Daniela) have this idea that American food is hamburgers and hot dogs and french fries, and that’s basically all we eat. They get this idea from American TV shows, like Super Nanny, that are imported into Italy and show the extreme of American culture. But we’re not all like that, I tried to explain!

On Saturday, the weather being the usual clouds and drizzly mix, it seemed to make more sense to stay in the Frascati area rather than walk around Rome, as much as I wanted to re-visit places like the Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona. I am hoping to take a day or weekend trip to see those sights some other weekend before I leave! But seeing this area outside of Rome from an insider’s perspective was a really unique and unforgettable experience. First stop of the day was a visit to the hotel where Alessandra works, called Villa Grazioli. Dating back to somewhere around the 1600s, it’s this ornately decorated mansion with frescoed walls and ceilings. Alessandra helps coordinate events and public relations for the hotel, and they host companies like Chanel for conferences! She even told me that three years ago they filmed a Bachelor set there. Of course I appreciated that! It was so much fun getting an insider’s tour of the building, and Michelangelo tagged along and was so cute, wanting to show off the place where his mom works!

Afterwards we all got lunch at a typical “Fraschetteria,” a very authentic, informal eatery that specializes in “porchetta,” which is, you guessed it, a type of pork. We ordered a huge appetizers plate that came with a bunch of different kinds of meat, cheese, olives, vegetables and beans, etc. and it was delicious! Then Alessandra encouraged me to order a pasta dish, so I got some kind of fettucini with a special typical Roman sauce. I don’t remember what was in the sauce, but it was very good…I only wish I knew how to eat pasta like an Italian! I felt like an idiot trying to twirl the long strands of spaghetti with my fork and spoon, and it wasn’t the most dainty eating experience!

That afternoon Alessandra and I walked around Frascati, which reminded me in some ways of a flatter version of Perugia, though a bit smaller and more vacation-like. Lots of cute shops and restaurants, and a really beautiful central piazza with a typical Italian duomo. Later we walked through Grottaferrata, what Alessandra described as a more family-oriented town than Frascati. It too had lots of cute shops, restaurants and cobblestoned streets. We also visited the town’s abbey, one of the main points of interest in the area. It was built in 1004, and it’s still in use today as a monastery!

Later we stopped for about a half hour at a birthday party Michelangelo was attending, and it was really funny and interesting for me to see a typical Italian kid’s birthday celebration. It was also strange being surrounded by only Italian speakers, but strange in a good way! And thankfully I had Alessandra there to help me navigate the scary language waters.

Sunday we spent most of the day at the house, since I had to catch the train from Frascati in the afternoon. I also started feeling a bit of a stomach ache, which lingered into today but will hopefully go away soon! I can’t be sick again! So most of that day I spent playing outside with the kids, going grocery shopping with Alessandra and then laying down, trying to recuperate for my train ride! I was truly sad to say goodbye to Alessandra and her family when it was time for me to go—having this weekend with family, sleeping in an actual house rather than my apartment, and feeling taken care of for one weekend was so refreshing! And I feel so, so thankful to have family here in Italy who are so happy to have me stay with them!

I’ve already written my usual novel-sized entry, so I’m going to end now. But I wanted to mention that I did go to the old-fashioned Italian movie theater and saw il Concerto on Thursday, and despite it being without subtitles, I understood most of the movie and would highly, highly recommend it, if it’s ever out in English! This Wednesday I’m going to the theater to see an opera or play of some kind in Perugia…then Friday I’m off to Barcelona to see Melissa, and then to London to visit Erica! I want to post pictures now, but the internet is being slow, so I promise to post them later! Ciao ciao!