This was a last minute invitation that was communicated to us by Gary from Emmanuelle. His mother was making her famous cinghiale or wild boar. We were invited to join the famiglia. What fun we had!

They were such a nice family, so inclusive. There was Antoinette, the mother of Emmanuelle. Her husband, Lucio, Emanuelle and Barbara, his wife and their two boys who did not join us at the table. And of course Susan and Gary. We started with American hot dogs! they were on actual hot dog buns. They had cut the dogs in half long ways and then in half the other way. They had mustard and catsup too!. It was because it was July 4th and they knew we celebrated. They thought we would want turkey! Ha! I guess because of Thanksgiving they think all of our celebrations involve Turkey. Susan had told her no, just at Thanksgiving but for July 4th we had hotdogs and hamburgers. Hence the hot dogs! I got a nice flatbread with proscuitto. It was great. Then the main event, the cinghiale. It had been marinated and stewed until it fell apart. Lovely dish with a tomato base. Also there was a spinach and beet green vegetable dish. After that we had a nice green salad with cold green beans. Finally for dessert we had watermelon! It was perfect and light. There was much wine and the patriarch of the family brought out his home made sweet liquor. It was based on hawthorns (but I don’t know how – as far as I know hawthorns don’t have fruit) and it was very sweet, pretty potent, and very good. I had a small glass.

Well it was all just such fun. Susan and Gary said now WE are famiglia and all will be right with the world.

We walked over to the Piazza where the world cup was on and there were lots of people watching. Luther had his cigar with some grappa. Emmanuelle and Barbara came over to see their friends.