Due (TWO)

Matt and I had our second anniversary in February.  Our first anniversary we spent on a plane to Costa Rica and had “Snack Bar” food for dinner.  Our second anniversary, Matt was on a plane to Germany and the baby and I had Ramen for dinner!  But when he got back from Germany we went out on a real date to celebrate.  Our friends Mike and Gina watched the baby and we went to a restaurant called La Granzeola.  This was our first date since the baby was born.

Anniversary Uno in Costa Rica!

After getting all dolled up, prepping the baby, and dropping her off, we set out to find our destination!  We had the address of the restaurant entered in the GPS.  As we followed the directions, we discussed how this was our first date since the baby was born.  And of course we discussed the baby and our new home.  TomTom said “You have reached your destination” and we said, “umm…”  We were in some one’s driveway that wrapped around and definitely was not a restaurant.  The lights were off and it was not inviting.  So we got our phones out and googled the coordinates and of course they were pointing us in the same direction.  We were both disappointed and frustrated because we were so excited to have a date and a nice steak dinner.  Instead we were sitting in a strange driveway.  Neither of us wanted to deal with finding another restaurant.  Finally we called the restaurant.  Calling restaurants is always a challenge because we don’t speak Italian, they usually don’t speak English and you can’t mime on the phone. Matt was able to determine that they were in fact open and that we should be able to see the sign from the street.  Leaving the GPS, we drove a little further up the road and guess what we found!! The restaurant did have a sign that was visible from the street!  So we parked on the side of the road, took everything of value out of the car (big purse!), got the umbrella, and walked arm in arm to the restaurant.  Then we saw the parking lot.  Oops.

The restaurant was prepared for dinner with all the tables set and fires built (not started).  We were the only people there.  The menu was all in Italian and the wait staff did not speak English.  Through some miming, some google translate, and some guessing we ordered our dinner.  We got two pasta dishes for our first plate.  Matt ordered ravoli and I ordered a pasta with funghi (mushroom pasta!).  YUM!!!

For dinner, we decided to split a steak.  Since we both got a first plate, we figured sharing a steak would be fine.  And the steak came with a salad (lettuce on a plate with a lemon wedge) and french fries (yummers!). 

When we ordered the steak, I didn’t think about the temperature issue.  How do you tell some one in Italian that you want your steak prepared medium rare?  The word he used had sanguine in it so which I could figure out was blood.  So we attempted to explain we wanted medium rare and unfortunately this was not easy.

When we got our steak the first time it looked like this!!

The waiter brought the piece of meat for us to approve. When we got our steak, it was BLOOD red.  My mom would have loved it but it was a little too rare for me.  So we were thinking about sending the steak back and asking for it to be cooked a little longer when we realized the plate was sizzling.  The steak cooked 50% of the time on a hot skillet in front of us.  And it was delicious!  We ate about half of the steak and fries.  We asked to take the rest away (the bone especially for Lucy) and we both ate it for lunch the next day!!!  Be sure when you order a steak in Italy to pay attention to the size, I kilo (2.2 pounds, written in very small print) will be enough for multiple people!!



The steak fed Matt and I twice and Lucy once!



After our wonderful, leisurely dinner where neither of us had to walk the baby or defend our plates from her, we were ready to go get her!  It was a wonderful second anniversary.  Now, in what country will we celebrate the third one?!!