'Working Holiday': The weather outside is frightful.

So for the last few days there has been a snow storm in Rome. Anyone who knows me knows that I loath snow. Coming from the west coast, we rarely have to deal with this fluffy, white, wet, cold, inconvenience. As a child, we would go up north to visit my mom's family over Christmas. The family would try to take me to do things like sledding, and I would be frozen and unprepared in my gum boots, and generally miserable. My loathing continued through my childhood as my father pushed me into winter sports. As soon as I was old enough I refused to continue. I thought that living in south Italy would save me from this, my most hated of weathers, but unfortunately this year we've already had 2 big storms. Italy, much like Vancouver, is unprepared for this kind of weather. Everything closes, stores, restaurants, monuments (marble is too slippery.) The internet stops working, the cable stops working, and the only thing left to do is spoon the space heater and watch movies on the lap top. Since we had a couple of Top Deck groups come through, we both had to work. Gino and I had to stay at the campsite because our driveway is really steep and he doesn't have snow tires. He also has the world's most impractical car for the snow because it's really wide and low to the ground. It's kind of fun for a couple days, but I'm definitely glad to be home, in my own bed, with my beloved space heater, and Gino cooking me dinner. :) (tonight we had artichoke quiche, burrata, fresh artichokes)

Gino on the way to our bungalow.

Campsite covered in snow.

We had a couple of masquerade parties for the groups that came through. Nice change from the usual toga parties since it was waaay too cold for that. To give some perspective on how crazy people get in the bar last night there was literally a girl passed out in the bathroom last night. She was on the floor of one of the stalls with her face dangerously close to the toilet bowl scrubber. I found her after the bar was closed and she must have been there for about 2 hours. She was alright, but she blacked out from not eating dinner and then drinking one of the 1.5 liter buckets.

There's also some rugby games going on, England versus Italy, so we're have some Brits staying in the campsite as well. Two of the were very entertaining, and generally nice guys. There were 6 others who were complete idiots. They came into the bar so drunk, proceeded to drink more, knock things over, make a mess from spilling beer and one even fell asleep in a chair in the restaurant. After the bar closed, one guy was standing outside in the snow, in a t-shirt, and couldn't remember how to get back to his camper. He had fallen down and was bleeding from the face and bruised. One of the bar staff had to walk him back to his caravan. This is how people die. This is my life. Usually at the toga parties girls get so drunk that they end up flashing EVERYTHING to the entire bar. Guys end up in their underwear. The more I watch people drink the less it makes me want too.

Enough of my ranting and on to the good stuff. We went for lunch at our favorite fish place in Fiumicino. I have no idea how Gino and his friends found this place. It's a hole in the wall but the food in amazing and fresh. Since I've known him we've been there probably about 6 times together. It was actually one of our first dates. He asked me if I had ever tried ostrich, and although I thought it was kind of weird from a fish restaurant I decided to go for it. Turns out he meant oysters. ESL problems.

Usually when we go for lunch there are about 6 courses. To start there is a buffet of vegetables and various fish that have been drenched in olive oil and are prepared in different ways. Following this we usually get calamari and fried anchovies. Following this are muscles, and oysters. Then there's maybe a pasta course, maybe more muscles. Then for the main we usually have a plate of mixed grilled fish and a few sides like fries, salad, spinach and broccoli. This time we switched it up a little. We had two types of pasta instead of a main. This is usually accompanied by tanto vino bianco and finished with limoncello, lemon sorbet, espresso and the other day we had to die for panna cotta (which is my weakness and the fastest way to my heart.)