Visitors Galore!!

It's been a super crazy few weeks here with the anticipation of our visitors arriving! Last weekend, D's parents, sister and her fiancé all came to visit us to celebrate my father-in-law's 50th Birthday. We had such a blast. Since D had two-a-day practices, I was solely in charge of the group activities. First, we went sightseeing around Venice and took a gondola ride that was beautiful (regardless of our candy-crush-addicted-gondolier who couldn't seem to put his phone away). Total atmosphere-kill, dude. The next day we went into Treviso, a nearby city that is really beautiful to shop and walk around in. On Sunday morning, we woke up and drove an hour and a half into Bologna where D was having an away game. We went early to be able to check out the city center before the game and I was pleasantly surprised by what a cool town it was. Whenever we travel around Italy, we always ask ourselves if we would like to live in that place, and my first impressions of Bologna were that I could definitely enjoy living there.  Luckily, we left early to head the 10 miles to the arena because it ended up taking us over 2 hours to get there!!! It was absolutely insane traffic and any well wishes and thoughts I had about Bologna were thrown out the window with my sanity.

This must have been during the gondolier's 30 second gaming hiatus

First night! Celebrating Virgis' 50th

With my Sister-in-Law

The arena in Bologna was really cool and a great atmosphere to play in. Unfortunately, we somehow got seated in front of the biggest idiot of all 11,000 humans in attendance and it took every fiber of my being to not turn around and punch him in the face. Amid forty solid minutes of him (purposely) screaming in my ear and throwing his hand in my face, I found composure in closing my eyes and imagining the next day's headlines reading "crazy american basketball wife goes to jail for hitting opposing team's fan" and after a quick pro/con balance, I decided to keep my hands to myself. We were down most of the game but ended up coming back and winning at the end and a simple smile to my friend behind me at the buzzer couldn't have felt any sweeter.

Not Pictured: Huge Idiot Behind Me

We had such an amazing time celebrating my father-in-laws birthday with their first trip to Italy and were super excited to surprise him with a car waiting for him back home. Overall we had a great visit together and I'm always amazed at how we can seem to communicate just fine in spite of our difficult language barrier. 

Now I'm anxiously awaiting my two best friends who arrive on Saturday for a week of sight seeing & debauchery!!! I'm so excited that they'll be here to celebrate Thanksgiving with me because it's usually a pretty bittersweet occasion over here. We have a big group of large, hungry basketball players to cook for so I hope they're ready to throw down in the kitchen. I'm sure my next blog post will be filled with hilarious & inappropriate anecdotes, so I'll be sure to keep tabs on them all.

Wishing everyone a happy & gracious Thanksgiving holiday filled with great food and quality time with family and friends (I know I'll be missing mine).  

Life Lately

Artsy Photo Cred to D for this one

I keep catching myself slipping on my blog and I realize I need to be more on top of my shit over here. Let's look at what's been happening lately.

• D's team is now 3-1, woot woot! There only loss was to Armani Jeans Milan a team who's name I'm severely jealous of, as their President is Giorgio himself (who also sits front row at each game).
• I've started back up taking my Lithuanian lessons and although in the past I've constantly chastised D for not coming from a country with an easier, more common language (i.e. France, Spain, Mexico), I'm now super grateful for it. I'm proud to say I'm now successfully at the point where I can make fun of numerous people in D's native tongue and I rarely have to worry about anyone else understanding. It reminds me of the time my best friend and I learned "Jibberish" in Middle School and felt like such badasses telling each other secrets in front of our parents.
• WHAT IS UP WITH ITALIAN BUSINESSES BEING CLOSED AT ALL TIMES? I do not understand this. Restaurants are often closed Mondays, occasionally Sundays and Tuesdays and often in the middle of the day as well. Sure, the idea of a several hour siesta period in the middle of the day is enticing, however it gets super old when you find yourself unable to find an open restaurant for a late lunch. This shit wouldn't fly in America. Some call it greedy, we call it capitalism, but no matter what you call it, you are damn right in America you can find somewhere to eat at 2 pm. On a positive note, I know for a fact Italian businesses would not force their employees to be working on Thanksgiving (if they celebrated it), something that truly makes me sick in America. 
• Deividas convinced me we had a rosemary bush in our front yard and that I didn't need to purchase any at the store for the chicken I was going to roast. Note to self: Even if it looks like rosemary, smells (kind of) like rosemary, it IS NOT necessarily Rosemary. The result was several Christmas Tree Stuffed Cornish Hens. Last time I EVER take foliage advice from D. 
• In the states, I often think the more homeless you look in the gym, the better. You're not getting cred in the weight room with curled hair and a matching lululemon two piece. Guess it's different here in Italy, as I've been getting some unkind attention while wearing my oversized Tupac tee by girls looking like they're about to model the Yoga Line in the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. Swear to God I even saw a belly chain making an appearance on the Stairmaster last week.

  

  Clearly it sucks living here

• I completely understand why Americans so often get a bad rap as tourists over here. Last night, D and I drove just over an hour away, to Verona, for dinner. We had the unfortunate displeasure of sitting next to perhaps the most obnoxious American tourist I have ever encountered. He was in his mid 30's, I'm guessing, and was traveling with his girlfriend, parents, and another older couple. Not sure if he had read the most Rick Steves' Travel Guides of all his co-travelers, or if he actually had some sort of knowledge of  Italy (highly unlikely after listening to him for an hour), but he had clearly nominated himself to be the HMF (head mother fucker for those of you who don't know my mom's self-given nickname) of the trip. He spoke zero Italian but felt the need to order for everyone in the group (although the menu was in English), and he made a short speech whenever a plate was delivered to the table. "Now here we have some meats on the left, cheeses on the right, and an assortment of vegetables in the middle". Unless I missed Ray Charles seated at his table, his commentary could not have been less warranted, or informative. After praising himself for ordering two liters of "WATER NATURAL-AY" at a time, as his group was most likely very dehydrated from their day of site-seeing and he would rather them not have to wait after quickly finishing the first one, it was then time for a fun edition of Family Feud! The category, you ask? He challenged his fellow travelers " to name the elements of making a perfect potato salad" and they took turns yelling out which factor they believed to be most influential in the dish's success (he had watched a show about the science behind potato salad making and was over the moon when no one guessed the vinegar as the difference maker). Honestly, you can't make this shit up and I was embarrassed to even be from the same planet as this man. YOU'RE RUINING IT FOR US NORMAL AMERICANS, SIR.

  

  Verona, Italy. Home to Romeo & Juliet and the most obnoxious Midwestern Tourist on the planet.

• We had the most fabulous anniversary dinner at the Amal Grande Hotel where Amal Alamuddin just married some male actor (still can't get enough of that headline). After getting lost several times, we found ourselves outside of a large fenced in garden with a bell to ring. The gates opened and we walked into this empty palace with tuxedoed employees everywhere. We were lead upstairs to an incredible (and empty) dining room and spent the dinner being waited on by a staff of 10. It was honestly something out of a movie and a night I'll never forget. 

  

  Literally out of a dream.

  
  
  
• We found the most amazing hole-in-the-wall restaurant not far from our house. I 100% judge a restaurant at first impression, by their patrons and I knew right away this one was promising. Seated next to us was a table of badass Jack-Nicholson-esque Italian men with thick frame glasses, crushing bottles of Chianti and playing cards. Immediately I knew we had nailed it. We had the most incredible Seabass Ravioli & Gnocchi Bolognese. At the end of the meal, the owner was passing around a mason jar full of truffles that he had just gotten in, of everyone to smell. My plan is to frequent this place and eventually offer to wash dishes in return for an internship.

  

  Had to get a picture of this crew... Seriously I wanted them to invite me to eat with them so badly.

  

  And I will never be the same after this. Pretty sure there's crack in the sauce.

• We had a free couple hours last week and I forced D to drive me up to Prosecco Road, where most of the Prosecco vineyards are. It was such a pretty drive and I can't wait to go back and do some tastings.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Deividas family is visiting us a week from Thursday and I am SO excited! They have never been to Italy and I can't wait to finally have some visitors!

Well, I'm afraid that's all I've got for now. As always, thanks for reading!