Today was the commencement of our driving adventures through Italy - picking up our new Citroen C3 which will be taking us all the way down to Palermo, Sicilia - right back up through Milano and onto Paris. Instinctively walking to the right side of the car was a bit of an embarrassing start - although luckily it was about the only stuff up to date (touch wood).
For our last day in Italy with Mackie and Tommy our BnB hosts really turned it on for us and showed us the best of Rome. After a visit to Villa Adriano we went for a drive to Colonna where Luca’s parents own a Salumeria (deli) - Sofia and Lilino were lovely and, in true Italian style, proceeded to force feed us the best Mozzarella di Bufala and Prosciutto we’ve had before. One after the other more meats and cheeses came out and the fuller we got the more forcefully we were instructed “siete giovani, dovete magiare!” (you’re young, you have to eat!). A very cute moment was when Sofia (who didn’t speak any English) asked what we call Mortadella in Australia, and was amazed that we use the same word. “Look at me - I’m speaking English… Mortadella” and had a chuckle.
After that we went for a drive to Luca’s auntie’s house to have a look at the views of Rome which were, despite the heavy haze, quite spectacular - not a bad spot to live! We also had a lovely visit with her chatting about her grand-daughters and sons - one of which was only talking that morning about how he wanted to go to Australia to work as an architect - what a coincidence!