The Country House

We were here for one week before we left the base.  This is one reason why I don’t want to live in Little America.  I fear it would be too easy to spend three years on the base and not get to really live in Italy.  Don’t get me wrong, I am quite nervous to live in town and not be able to communicate with the butcher.  I imagine I will end up bring home half a pig because I didn’t understand what was being said.  Or that I will end up eating parts of animals that I don’t want to eat.  That’s half the fun right?

Our first meal off the base was to a local restaurant called The Country House.  This is another easy transition because the restaurant caters to the Americans.  The restaurant has an American name! They have a shuttle that will come and pick you up outside of the main gate, the menus are in English, and the waiters are fluent in both languages.  For our first restaurant experience, we were going with 8 other people from Matt’s class in Rhode Island who are also going through the orientation at the same time.  We had our truck by this time so we drove with another couple instead of catching the shuttle.  We drove through a very cute town with beautiful Christmas lights and lots of little shops and restaurants.  And we drove through a very narrow street of apartments.  We had the big American car on the tiny little street…gave me the feeling “fat man in a little coat.”

 Prior to moving here, many people mentioned that Italians love babies.  This is a very true statement.  When we walked into the restaurant and sat down, the waiter immediately came up to the baby. He started to reach for the baby to pick her up but the other waitress stopped him and said something in Italian to him.  I thought it was so funny.  Usually when I am holding the baby, people will ooh and ahh.  When Matt holds the baby, typically only women ooh and ahh the baby.  But Italian men will ooh and ahh the baby while Matt is holding her and invade the personal space bubble.  The baby LOVES it.  She oohs and ahhs right back. She gets the giant toothless grin with drool running down her face.  Especially if the person is speaking Italian.  I think she thinks Italian is like music.  She has the same response to someone speaking Italian as she does when I sing to her.

When we told people we were moving to Italy, everyone was jealous about the food we would be able to eat.  I didn’t have the heart to tell people that I am not the world’s biggest Italian food fan.  I enjoy pizza periodically and pasta is easy to cook.  When it’s my turn to pick a restaurant, it is very rarely Italian.  Although there is one Italian restaurant in Pawleys’ Island that I love, mainly because of the house salad and one in Coronado, again mainly because of the salad dressing.  So when people raved about the food, I smiled and said something appropriate in response.  I knew there would be good food, since pizza was created in Napoli, but I wasn’t overly excited about it.  I was actually worried that eating that much pasta will not help me get my baby weight off.   

BUT, now I have seen the light..or the tomato!  I had gnoochi, which a friend described as “cheessy balls of greatness” with Napoli sauce (marinara, but the worlds’ greatest marinara).  I seriously wanted to drink the marinara sauce.  I think my mom might fall over in shock to hear that her favorite child, at least her favorite child who currently lives overseas, who always asked for pasta with no sauce couldn’t get enough sauce.  I wanted to only eat half of my meal so I could bring it home and eat it again the next day but I am pretty certain that “take away” is not a common thing in Italy and might be frowned upon. Also frowned upon is cutting the noodles or using a spoon to twirl.  The proper way is to twirl on your fork a small amount that can fit in your mouth.  Another thing that is different with dining in a restaurant is the coperto fee.  This is a per person charge to use the table usually 1-1.5 euro.  As for tipping, 10% is considered a good tip.  I understand why traditional Italian meals last for many hours, the food is amazing so you must eat it all but its rude to take it away so you must just sit there until you finish your dinner (flashback to meals as a child but not quite as happy!).