Sorry I haven't written in ages! I've been quite busy lately what with celebrating New Year's, exploring Roma and meeting my host sister who just arrived home from Finland! So I'll write about Capodanno (New Year's) now, then post pictures and a brief summary from Roma in a different post.
The day of New Year's was pretty calm. I went out with my sister for a drive, hung out with friends later, then returned home to get ready for the night. My family and I were going to attend a party at a friend's house. It's typical for Italians to spend the first part of the night with their family at a dinner party and after the clock strikes midnight to go out with their friends. So at about 10 p.m., we arrived at the house where the party was taking place. It was out in the country and absolutely beautiful. Upon arrival, I saw a few friends of mine among the fifty or so people who were there. Music was playing, everybody was socializing and the food started to arrive in the catering vans. Chaos of trying to collect money and get all the food inside without becoming too wet from the pouring rain consumed about the next twenty minutes. Then we all said buon appetito and proceeded to shove our faces full of food. We ate and ate and ate and drank and ate some more. Then we all moved upstairs to start dancing. All the older people were singing karaoke and the moms were trying to teach us dance moves. It was absolutely crazy and quite possibly the best New Year's I have ever had. When the time came to start the countdown to midnight, we all got a glass of champagne and fidgeted with anticipation . Once the clock struck, everybody wished each other auguri along with a kiss on each cheek. And I do mean that everybody greeted everybody. It took about ten minutes until everyone was satisfied and sure that they had kissed everyone else. My friend and I escaped soon afterwards and walked to her house which was nearby. We prepared some things for people coming over later, and at about 1:30 our friends arrived. We all just hung out, talking and listening to music. It was overall a pretty calm night, with the exception of a few people who had drunk a bit too much. They were hyper and crazy until they passed out face first on the couch. The rest of us stayed up late, playing card games and cooking pasta at around 5:30 a.m. At about seven in the morning, we went to bed and slept for not quite two hours, then headed home.
It was a great night and by far the best New Year's that I have ever celebrated. The Italians sure know how to throw fantastic parties, and they take "go big or go home" literally. Next year I'm going to try to incorporate some Italian traditions into my American New Year's celebration just because it was such a lovely time :)
~Alison
