Cappo D'anno

Buon Anno Nuovo!

After the usual pre-New Year's Eve shifting, moving, negotiating, haggling and bargaining, Paul and I decided to take-up an offer from one of his Venetian friends (Marco) to hang-out with his crew in Trieste. Trieste is a pretty coastal town near the border of Slovenia along the north-east coast of Italy and was formally a part of Austria until WW1. Vodaphone was first to notify us of our proximity to Slovenia by incorporating us into their Slovenian network.....so welcoming!

We went a day earlier than the rest of the crew to do some sight-seeing, taking-in Miramar Castle, Roman ruins and a quaint afternoon tea in one of the oldest cafes in the town operating since the early 1800's, "Cafe degli Specchi" (cafe of the mirrors).

We then met up with Marco and his friends....two of whom live in Trieste - Marta and her partner Lorenzo. After witnessing a nasty scooter accident in the street (I wanted to offer assistance but realised that communicating first aid needs through mime would not have been useful), we spent a few hours in Marta's apartment before heading off into the mountains to a restaurant specialising in "food from the forest".....i.e. deer, snails, frogs, goats etc. My italian was under a lot of pressure but luckily one of Marco's friends, Daniele could communicate at my level....his main topics of conversation seemed to revolve around when we would be eating, how much, when sweets would be served and when we would sleep.....my kind of Italian.

So I tried some frog legs....tasted like chicken. Trieds some snails....tasted like garlic butter... chicken. Ahhhh but all the food was truly amazing! I think about 8 courses in total. One of Marco's friends was very convincing in lying to me that we would then all have to do a second round of all 8 courses as it is a New Year's Eve tradition. I was freaking out.

From there, things got interesting. After welcoming in the new year with champagne and double the usual amount of kisses, everyone disappeared outside. Now I'm all for firework displays, and call me wuss if you will, but the idea of drunk unsupervised people randomly letting off explosions in a carpark makes me a little uneasy. The display was of course spectacular (after I stopped screaming, laughing and running around the carpark looking for cover......hmmnn. Pick the tourist).

Then, the cultural experience got even better. Next stage, drunken dancing and singing to popular Italian songs, English pop songs circa 1989, ABBA, and Eurotrash (categories by no means mutually exclusive). We were all mesmerised by one man in particular....imagine what Bono would have looked like in the 1980's but as a 40 year old wearing a lemon yellow waistcoat and doing drunk semi-provactive dancing. He looked a bit like a mattador with no bull - but you get the idea.

After "Il Mattador" initiated a few trains through the restaurant and kitchen, enter stereotypical ridiculously 'hot' and sassy Italian woman. I might blush if I describe in too much detail what she looked like....but let's just say she was wearing a dress that I'm pretty sure was meant to be a jumper. Then the music went too classy and instrumental and she along with everyone else left the dancefloor. When ABBA was cranked again, they all returned and "Il Mattador" decided to impress a new female entrant with his quasi Cossack dancing......but managed to impress himself more on the tiles when he subsequently put a hole in the floor. Ahhh it was brilliant.

So after much laughter, some Grappa (had to try it but probably won't again) and a debate with Daniele as to whether one of the Italian pop songs uses the same melody as "Let's get Physical" (I think I offended him), my first Italian New Year's Eve was over....and definitely one to be remembered.