Monday, May 21, 2012

Pietragrande

     May 17, 2012 Last night Alfredo and I planned for them to pick me up after he got out of school. I was going to their house today, so that he could help me attempt something with my iphone. We tried three times to download the software and for some reason we could not get it to work with my phone. After I took a little nap and then found out that for the third time the downloads were not working we decided to go out for a ride in the car. They ended up taking me to Pietragrande which is a large rock in the middle of the ocean. This is a rock that my Zio Silvio and my dad would dive off of several times when they were younger and my dad was here in the coast guard. I still have not been able to go swimming in the ocean because the water is still cold and the weather is still not hot enough. I will be lucky if I am able to go before I leave. The ocean is so beautiful here that if I were to ever win the lottery I know just the house I would be buying and it would be here in Italy overlooking the ocean...gorgeous!! I saw it 6 years ago and it is still there now waiting for me. The water is a clear turqoise in the shallow part and then a royal dark blue when it drops off into the deep part of the ocean. I remember from six years ago when you walk out into the ocean you can walk out probably a 1/4 of a mile and still be in the shallow part of the water. The other amazing thing is that when you go under the water you can see everything around you clearly for probably 100 yards...it is amazing! The bottom of the ocean here is all sand, and you can even find star fish on the bottom when you are snorkling in the shallow water.
I am praying that the weather gets hot before we leave because there is a little cave my cousin and I went to six years ago, but you have to go swim out into the ocean and around a rock to get to it. Here they say you don't have to worry about sharks because they are far out in the ocean, but what we do have to watch out for are the jellyfish which they call medusa here. Silvia and I took off our shoes and got our feet wet. We even climbed on a large rock. Alfredo thought he was being funny throwing rocks at us while we were trying to climb up the rock and he actually pegged me on the side of the head with one. I told Silvia I was going to get him, so I hid behind the rock and Silvia called him over to where we were. When he came near us I started kicking the cold water at him to get him wet.
     Later this evening after we got back from Pietra Grande I went with my Zia Giovanna to my cousin Massimiliano's resteraunt. I went there to help with whatever he needed help with, but I also felt like I was in the way, so I just waited around until they gave me something to do. Of course I had to wear an apron and then put on one of those fancy little Betty Crocker caps. At first he had me go answer the door.   Ther resteraunt is upstairs and downstair and since the kitchen is upstairs they have to lock the door, and then when a customer rings the bell someone will go down to answer it. He sent me down there to get the door for the first customer. Massi told me what to say and luckily I didn't have to say much because the customer was on his phone. After a little while they had me in the kitchen cutting potatoes for frennch fries. They don't use cutting boards here, so I had to cut the potatoes by hand. Probably for every five potatoes my aunt cut I would finish with one. Next they had me cutting strawberries. I told my aunt by the time I was done cutting all these fruits and vegetables I'll probably need to go to the hospital to get stitches for cutting my hand...luckily that was not on the agenda tonight. I left the resteraunt with my Zio Gaetano around 9pm because we were getting up early in the morning to go to Soverato (a gorgeous city on the beach) for the mercatino, and they don't close the resteraunt here until 1am-4am. My Zia Giovanna and Zia Rita, along with my cousin Ivan, they all help Massi out with his resteraunt. When I was leaving I told my Zia Rita that I am going to tell Veruska (her daughter) that we are leaving at 8:30am instead of 9am since she is always late, this way everyone could play along and we would be able to leave on time. We'll see if it worked tomorrow morning.

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