Mmm, mmm, good

Just came back downstairs from another great lunch at my landlord's apartment that they had to twist my arm oh-so-hard to get me up to. I think he kind of likes it when I come up, because it keeps him from having to be the only guy putting up with all those women. Without me, he would have been on his own with his wife, mother, mother-in-law, and two daughters. The youngest daughter was complaining about having an 11 p.m. curfew. The oldest daughter apparently had done some shopping for her parents and brought out the receipt to try and collect from them (sound familiar?), but they kept refusing to pay. Then when she wasn't looking, her grandmother stole the receipt from the table and gave it to her father to hide. It was pretty funny. Maybe you had to be there. Then as we were finishing up, my landlord's sister-in-law's family showed up and it reminded me of a gathering of the Colchester Rileys--you know, where there are eight different conversations going on at once across the same table, and everyone's trying to talk over each other, except this was about three times louder. Very entertaining. And then since today and tomorrow are the Italian elections, my landlord broke out an envelope full of ballots and handed them out like candy. (Don't ask me; apparently they get the ballots at home and then bring them in to the polling stations. At least, that's what I think I got out of the questioning.) And of course, more lively discussion ensued, mostly along the lines of, "Berlusconi is a crook!" and "Berlusconi is the best thing to happen to Italy since sliced pane!" (Not that I've ever seen sliced pane here, but you know what I mean.)

Also, my landlord's wife said that, so long as we pay for the ingredients, she would like to cook up a giant traditional Italian lunch or dinner for me and fifteen of my closest friends. Guess I'd better find fourteen more friends....