Lasagne and Chocolate Salami

The school has a sort of unofficial connection with a tiny evangelical church in the city, with several teachers attending each year, so a few of us went to the service on Sunday. It's in Italian, but a returning teacher translated for us, and we sang several songs I recognized, so I could just sing in English when I got lost following the Italian words. Other songs were new, and we also sang Amazing Grace in English. They were so welcoming and accepting of our translation murmur, and after the service, we were immediately invited to dinner on Tuesday night with one of the families.

After a brief tour of not how to get there, we ended up back in our neighborhood and on the way to Nicoletta and Elio's apartment. It was lovely to visit a real home that a family lives in, rather than our just-moved-in, not-quite-home-yet apartments. The conversation was enjoyable (both Nicoletta and Elio speak fabulous English and are absolutely hilarious, and their two-year-old son was just adorable, if a bit shy) and the food was delicious! Nicoletta told us that she decided that because we just got here, we should have real Italian, and she delivered. We started with sun-dried tomatoes, an olive and cheese dip with bagel chips, and Prosecco, then she served us each an enormous piece of her homemade lasagne. This was followed by an eggplant parmesan-type dish. After a bit of a wait to digest, she brought out chocolate salami, which was a brownie batter/chocolate pudding/mousse dessert with crushed up cookies mixed in. Nicoletta kept apologizing because it hadn't set properly, but I loved it just as it was, all chocolate-y and creamy, with crunchy bits... yum. After that, it was time for grappa. Grappa is an after-dinner liquor that we have now encountered in a few different versions. I chose green apple, which I liked best of the flavors I've tried so far. Considering everything we ate and the breaks for conversation between courses, it's no wonder it was midnight before we got home!