scenic view of the old wall in Irsina vecchio
We arrived in Gravina at 1:20...right on time...can't say the same about Francesco. He was 25 minutes late picking us up! We got to his parents house as lunch awaited us. Shelly had already experienced the NYE dinner, but Irsina comes pretty close in comparison. The food is, of course, always better in Irsina since everything is so fresh. So we had lunch, all talked for a bit, took a nap (since we had only gotten 4 hours of sleep and didn't sleep on the bus), woke up in time for dinner, played cards with Fra and his mom and met up with friends in town later that night. Do you see why going to Irsina is living "la dolce vita???" We stayed in town until 2:30, then went back to the "taverna" or tavern, at the Caggiano's to play cards. Francesco and his friends taught us how to play a game called, Morto, that they play with Napolitano cards. This was the first game that I've played with Napolitano cards that i've truly grasped the concept of. We stayed up until 5:30am playing games.
playing cards in the taverna
Tuesday, we slept until 1:30pm i.e. lunch time. We then had plans to go to my friend, Luca's house for a coffee, before he left to return to Turin. Fra couldn't come because he had to go to Matera with his dad, so after coffee, I had the opportunity to take Shelly all around Irsina. We took some beautiful pictures around Irsina Vecchio and she got to experience the true beauty of this small town.
When we returned home, Francesco told us that he had to go to an appointment at the church with his friends at 7pm and invited us to come. We had no idea what to expect and I don't think he did either! We show up to this classroom where there is a circle of about 15-20 people sitting, including the priest. We had to go around the room and say our name, age, and where we live. I explained to Shelly what she should say and when it got time for her turn, the priest asked us why we were there, since we clearly don't speak much Italian. Francesco told him that we were his friends and he brought us there. The priest talked for about 1.5 hours about Jesus in our everyday life and how it's important to take 10 minutes of silence each day to reflect on God in our lives. This is the concept that I gathered from the talk and after consulting Fra, he told me that I had understood well!! I'm continuing to improve my Italian daily. He asked 2 of the people what their impressions were of the class and neither of them answered. Who was the 3rd person he asked? ME! I did my best to state what I thought and Francesco helped me out a lot too. He then asked Shelly what she thought and all she understood was what I had told her. We laughed that we were the first ones to answer and yet we were the only non-Italians!
Alessandro, Domenico, Shelly, me, Debora, Francesco and Angela at Cafe Elite
That night, we, again, met up with our friends in town and stayed out until about 2:30 before we went back to the tavern to play more games. We played quite a few games of Morto and I was the big winner. Domenico, Giacomo and Francesco then wanted to play Poker, so I agreed to play with them with Shelly watched. I was the big winner at the end of the night winning 12 euros!! I don't think the boys were so happy that I beat them in all the games. We left the house at 6:30am to go to the bakery to get focaccia for breakfast, followed by a trip to the bar to have a cappuccino and for Shelly to get her cornetto she was craving. We got home around 7:15am, but Shelly and I were not tired at all after the cappuccino, so we stayed up until 8:30am talking...what a fun night!!!
Domenico, Me, Francesco, Giacomo (breakfast before bed)
Wednesday was our last day there and because we had stayed up until 8:30, clearly we were not getting up before lunch time at 1:30pm. Our friends wanted to meet us in town for a coffee before we left...it's so nice for me to now feel at home everytime i'm there and for people to continue to be so friendly and welcoming towards me and this time, towards Shelly too. Domenico, Alessandro and Francesco all drove us to the bus stop as I once again, said "see you later" to my dear Irsina.
Domenico, me, Alessandro and Francesco at the bus stop
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