Mia Familia!

The focaccia tastes better in Italy, and on that note, so does the espresso, the briosh (yeah thats right frenchie!) and the pasta, and I can vouch for all of these after countless trials over the past few days. We jumped off the train, stoked to be back in Rimini and hopefully in some familiar surroundings from what we remembered from 15 years ago. Apparently we didnt remember much though, or the place has changed a hell of a lot since then. As we walked out the doors of the train station, we remembered that we couldnt speak the language, had no idea who we were looking for to come pick us up and as our train was 40 minutes late into the station, we weren't even sure if anyone was still here. 5 mins of standing like dumbfounded tourists later, Lynda miraculously recognised zia Bruna, shouted her name and it was hugs all round! I still dont have the hang of the italian 2-kisses hello and managed to slip in a sneaky headbutt. Also there to greet us and to translate was our uncle Cesare and his girlfriend Anja. Cesare, I clearly recalled I had met and had a cigar with at our Aunt's wedding 12 years back on his tour of Australia- Yep I was 12 at the time.

From the traino we picked our way through the crazy one-laned roads with 2 lanes of traffic, with another all too familiar lack of indication and complete disregard for any road signs, road markings and even pedestrians' lives. A short time later we arrived at the house of Ines, our great Aunt and had another chance at a round of headbuts and kisses as we were introduced to more family there- uncles and Aunt Paolo, Rafaella and Giorgio. As we chatted in the lounge, Ines dissapeared to the kitchen and before we knew it, we had infront of us a big bowl of home made cheese tortellini in a lemon-zest broth that was unlike anything I'd ever had before. Once we had finished that, I blinked and a dozen plates of food from the region appeared on the table: Pollo, Cornelio, Pida, Stracchino, Salsicce, garlic potate, Vedura... Of course, in Italian fashion we discovered, the main course is always preceeded by a pasta entree, and followed by a round of deserts- in this case fruit, Panetone and cakes, then a round of coffees, and all through the meal local vino! By the time we rolled out of the house with Paolo, we were stuffed, knew twice as much italian as when we walked in the door and had an absolute blast the whole time. Any doubts or concerns we had about meeting the family were gone, and now we were kicking ourselves for not allowing a whole week to explore this region. It was bizzarre listening to the conversation. Although we could only answer in simple sentences, if someone told us a story, we were able to understand it pretty well. eg: Ines telling of a mother that abandoned her kids during WW2 and she took them under her wing.

At Paolo's house not far away in the hibernating tourist village that is Rimini, we were led up some stairs and into a small, well decorated old town house. We assumed it was Paolo's main residence and felt bad because we had pushed him out of his home for the night we were staying with them- not so. After we had dropped our bags and been shown around the 1912 renovated villa, with its fresco ceilings with antique fixtures along side a brand new dream kitchen I was drooling over, Paolo took us to meet his family in the main house out the back of his block! It was an art-deco newly renovated 2-storey place, open plan living-kitchen-lounge and looked awesome, decorated with huge paintings by Paolo, and funnily enough painted the same colours Lynda painted her place! In there lived his family of wife Rafaella and their 3 kids, Alice, Illaria and her twin brother Allesandro. After a brief limb-numbingly cold but great tour of the town and its piazzas, duomo and markets from the Artist, now school teacher Paolo, the city put on a nice fireworks display to welcome us and we headed back to Paolo's for an apertifo drink and chat with the kids- all our age, while Rafaella whipped up an awesome entree of Stracchino e Rucola and a run of incredible home made pizzas with seriously, the biggest rolling pin I have EVER seen- it was about 1.6m long!- Siciliana, Tuscano, Al Funghi... Come the end, it was topped with a digestivo of home made Limoncello that I scored the recipe to, and a few more beers. Great night, and so much fun.

It was great staying here- good company, all the family spoke english so well it made us embarassed at our pathetic grasp of Italian, so they helped teach us- especially Alice who was often called on to translate. We drew alot of Parallels between their family and ours- the same amount of kids, same age range, each one into music and playing an instrument, pretty switched on and with their own style. We said goodnight after getting together a list of Italian punk/rock bands that we have to download and leaving a list of our own Aussie produce, including some living end after we found Allesandro has picked up a double bass recently. feeling more than a little guilty we made them stay up till the small hours when they all had Uni the next morning. We promised to send them vegiemite too- Im kind of glad we will be out of swinging range when they try it though! By the time we were about to retire, we discovered we had a predator in the room: Stoopi the cat. We soon found out why he was named so, when he managed to open a cupboard, get out a blanket in his teeth 3 times the length of him and drag it around the villa we were in...

The next day after Paolo put on an incredible breakfast of fresh espressos, brioche and bumbuliza (?), Cesare came to pick us up and we shot over to his place in the nearby country town of San Savino. Wow. He lives in a newly built apartment block, with marble and granite lined walls and staircases, on the top floor surrounded by balconies and with a more than impressive view on the main balcony. Standing next to the outdoor wood fired oven you overlook nothing but the rolling hills and pastures of San Savino, scattered with historic farm houses and framed by the mountains of the Republic of San Marino- A country within a Country. Getting from the front door to the balcony is an issue though- once you get past the never ending high voltage battery that is pepe the dog, theres the ferocius long neck turtles gaurding the back door, tAhe warden rabbit on the front balcony and for reinforcements, the basement dwelling hamster family and all the fish! After dropping our bags, we said a quick G'day to Cesare's folks Maria and Agisto, who have moved out of their old place that I managed to remember from 15 years back, and had moved into an apartment a little further up that same main road. Cesare also whipped out his pics from his tour of Aus all those years ago and the gold came up: a little kid dressed to kill, chuffing on a fat cuban cigar. haha. It was funny to see how similar My grandad's brother looked to him, and reminded me of the bloke. The family was great- very friendly and always with a huge smile on their faces. After a chat and another espresso, we hit the road for a "quick" lunch Cesare whipped up at his of Gnocchi Gorgonzola, another espresso, and we were off to get Anja and hit the mountains at San Marino.

San Marino is a scam- Nothing more. Its a castle atop a hill- the hill you cant even see because its in the clouds, so no one will invade because they cant even see it. To keep the scam relative to modern times, they have also declared themselves a Republic, which makes them their own country inside a country- they participate in international sports games, olympics, etc, and have their own government system. They also run at a loss, and are consistenly propped up by the not so happy big brother, Italy. They are kept afloat because it is a major port and tourism region that Italy relies on economically. Once in the Republic, there were two changes- snow and ice magically appeared all over the place, the first signs of a population of 4WDs in europe appeared and we started driving up some crazy hill that just didnt end until we had gone up into the cloouds, above them, through layers of mist, and back into higher ice and snow clouds! When I looked at our car outdoor thermometer and it said -4 degrees, I didnt refuse Cesare when he offered me a scarf and gloves. We trekked off to check out the 4-star "Hotel Cesare"- place Cesare is the Maitre De at, currently under 3 months of renovations and then set off in search of hot totties! After my ears got to a numbing equilibrium with the falling ice, we had a win! What was a novelty before of me being completely covered in falling ice, I forgot to brush off and turned into a melting ice block inside the mountain top restaurant as I got stuck into my Vin Brulee and the others into the italian variation of Caldo Punch- something that resembled a mandarin stuck inside a steam machine running on vodka. This stuff would chase a flu out of the country if you let it.

Back down the mountain, we headed to the converted Barn/Granary/Cellar that adjoined Cesare's old house, which had now been turned into a rustic style Restaurant and sat down as the owner brought around plate after plate of local food. It started big, and ended just as big: the region's traditional Stracchino e Rucola pizza entree, Fettucine Bolognese (exactly like Nonna's), Tortellini with asparagus and walnuts as second entree, A plate of Grilled Salsicce, myale kebabs, lamb chops and chicken, Grilled Melanzana, Zucchini, Pommodoro, Verdura... After that we were well and truly stuffed, so you can imagine the surprise when it was followed by a huge plate of tarts, cakes and sweets, then the kicker: the Apertivo. A familiar bottle of yellow liquid: Limoncello! Thats cool- we have developed a taste for this stuff now, but then the one sitting next to it made me shake in my DCs, aka: snow boots. Grappa. I dont think I have gone near it since the fire extinguisher on a flaming christmas hat episode in Karratha with our Croatian counterparts. I think the worst thing after the Del Bianco family shot was the immediate recollection of how powder-type fire extinguishers taste. Following dinner, our taxi (Cesare) arrived and shuttled us back home to see the remainder of the petting zoo that we had missed earlier that day and to try and tire pepe. No luck on that one, but he sure wore us four out.

Offered another espresso this morning by Cesare, I needed it like an albino needs melalin after that grappa, and it did the trick sweetly, followed by a sample of Anja's cake that we promised to ttry before we left, and it was well worth it- Red wine, allspice and chocolate- An unusual mix, but damn fine! After some final goodbyes this morning with Ines, Agisto, Maria and Anja we were dropped at the traino in Rimini to start the 6-hour adventure to the airport in Venezia for our leg to Amsterdam. Its sad seeing this place go and we are both regretting not spending extrra time here- we are both glad that it is at the end of our journey though as it will definately stand clear in our mind. I dont think we have come across so many friendly people so far on our journey, and they have all blown us away with their hospitality, friendliness and generousity. It has also been good seeing the roots of the famiily and having a laugh at some of the things that seem to run through the family- A similar creative streak, the inability to focus on one task at a time, similar facial features, sketchy eyes, an interest in helping and teaching and OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS! We were there for maybe 10 minutes at dinner last night reciting all the del biancos that we know that have october birthdays. As a final send off for us this morning, when we got to Ines's house, she had sorted for us a packed lunch: The local specialty pide bread, prosciutto, a pint of beer for me, a bottle of water for lyn, some fruit... We tried to say no and almost drew tears- It was funny seeing the same traits of our grandparents in Aus so far away from home it would have made us home sick if we di