Driving [with] Ms. Daisy

Tonight I went out to dinner with Maria Luisa, her son Mario, his wife and son.  To get there we had to drive, just Maria Luisa and me... cue appropriate theme music.  Picture Betty White peering over the steering wheel of some 1980's clunker and that's basically what happened.  The car was in a tight spot, no more than a a foot on either side, and pulling out went exactly as you might think with an old lady driving stick.  Hand over hand dry turn for 10 seconds (no power steering), lurch forward, hand over hand dry turn the other direction, lurch backwards.  Rinse and repeat until desired outcome is achieved.

The drive there (all 7 minutes) was nothing but hysterical.  I'm glad it was night and she was focused on the road because I could barely contain myself.  She would zip down streets, only to crawl through intersections or roundabouts, never quite figured out the lights and blinkers, and even turned the wrong way down a one way street.  We found a parking spot right outside the restaurant, and it took her 4 minutes to park, which made no sense because she has a tiny car and this was the biggest parking spot I had ever seen in Rome.  It could have easily fit two Italian cars or an American sedan. 

Dinner was awkward for a bit.  I was tired so my Italian was lacking and only Mario spoke English, very little at that.  It took me almost half an hour to figure out who they were.  I had ravioli in nut sauce again.  (I didn't know it was nut sauce until after I ate it, I only knew that I liked it), and then grilled shrimp (with heads, tails, and legs) and the tiny octopus.  No joke... a tiny, purple, grilled octopus, tentacles and all.  (Mom and Dad I never want to hear about never finishing my vegetables again)  If I didn't need to make a good first impression I totally would have made it sing and dance.

Mario's son, Giulo, joined us very late for dinner; we were almost ready for dessert.  His English wasn't great, but he was able to help me out in conversation with everyone else when I had a sentence to complex for me to say in Italian.  He was extremely friendly, gave me his name and number, and he told me he DJ's at a club in Rome, and when he performs he will put me on "the list." It was overall a great night, experiencing food, learning more about the Italian language, and drinking wine of course.