Giovanni the Pig Chef

Telling the watermelon who is boss!
Yay American flag hamburger buns!




Oh 4th of July. What to say beyond it is purely American? You can also say that it is a seed spittin’, hamburger grillin’, firework watchin’, song singin’ heck of a good time!!! (Thanks to Claire, who wrote that while I was hanging up laundry!) :).
Side note: There is a fine art to putting clothes on the line…I have not mastered it, but getting there.

Truthfully, I don’t even know where to start. Just as July 2nd is a day I’ll never forget, this is a 4th of July I’ll never forget. Leading up to the big day, part of me was excited, the other part was dreading it. Would I miss everyone, how homesick would I get? Would our plans actually be fun? I was constantly thinking of my family in Valley, NE and the crazy activities I was missing. I absolutely love my family, the loudness, the random chatter, the games, picking water fights with my brothers (even though I know I will lose…every single time!). I love that there are fifty changes to a plan of getting one thing done, I love the exploding insane fireworks, building sandcastles, playing volleyball, water skiing, surely there was beer and wine, Grandma’s beef brisket, midnight boat rides, and of course the annual trip to the steakhouse in LeShara where we all sing at the top of our lungs way off key. It was hard to not think of Maddie ruining the sandcastles, and of everyone laughing and having a great time.

My response to myself? I can always go next year, how often do you get to celebrate an American holiday in Italy?! The day started off decent enough, we went for a ride and well, the details are hardly important. Claire and I had made big plans. We were going to grill at the garden at Ferraia with Angelo and his friend Giovanni and Vittorio and two of his friends – Serena and (I forgot!). We took showers and right before we headed to the bus station I got a very surprise letter from a friend at home! Thank you Annie! It put an extra smile on my face. I read the letter a couple of times (it was fantastic!) and then we headed to the bus station to go get groceries. Vittorio ended up giving us a ride to a different store with “foreign/exotic” foods.

There is a funny thing about shopping for an American barbeque in Italy – Italians are not American. Duh. I love pasta, don’t get me wrong, it is by far the main part of my diet. However sometimes you just crave a big juicy burger, some potato chips, baked beans and corn on the cob. Our menu was to include (yes I am going to list it out): cheeseburgers (with ketchup and mayo), potato chips, watermelon, corn on the cob, and baked beans. Unfortunately, as stated, being in Italy, we were missing a few key ingredients: cheddar cheese, barbeque sauce, and actual corn on the cob (we had to buy canned). We were two ladies on a mission: If the barbeque sauce wasn’t with the beans, then maybe it was with the bread? Or the baking stuff? Well, if it is not there, then they must keep the barbeque sauce with the ice cream. Fail. Claire bought a Frisbee (blue!) and we were ready to celebrate America’s independence in Italy…almost…we needed to get hamburger buns! I can’t quite explain the excitement we both had when the wrapper had an American flag on it…yay USA!

At the barbeque, Vittorio brought wine and chicken (which he cooked with bricks) and Giovanni brought baby wild boar. Our 4th of July was turning into quite the mixed cultural celebration! Claire taught me to make hamburger patties and I cut my very first huge watermelon…without slicing off a finger thank you very much! My patties were…interesting looking, but boy did they taste good!! Claire taught me that Worstershire (sp?) sauce is a great burger dresser upper when grilling. As she grilled and I sliced watermelon, Serena and ?? taught us more Italian, they were so much fun! They kept calling our barbeque “an American party.” It was fantastic that everyone was genuinely interested in trying our food. I hope we did it justice!

The overall atmosphere of the evening was pleasant, relaxed and full of happy chatter. I did think back to NE, but as I looked around me, smiled at Claire, and ate boar all I could find was contentment. How cool it was to be sitting at the magical garden with a full moon, lightning bugs, candles and great company. I ate way too much! Watermelon is just addicting.

I think the icing on the cake of the night, the moment that really made the day 4th of July was when I did something I never thought I would do…ever. Serena and ?? were asking us about the traditions of 4th of July. We told them about fireworks, baseball games, barbeques and of course the music and songs. They wanted us to sing one. HA! If you know me, you know that I have absolutely ZERO musical talent – no sense of a beat or tune. I rarely sing in my car and definitely don’t sing solo with an audience. Its actually a rather unpleasant sound to hear me sing…my siblings used to tell me I was going to break the windows, . That’s okay. I looked at Claire…I was definitely going to need more wine to fulfill that request. As separate conversations took place again I looked at Claire. Could we remember any of the words? Or rather, could I? Together, thinking no one was listening we started hashing out the Star Spangled Banner. Claire led me along and as I sang I stopped caring how off key I was. Memories of baseball games, family, and fireworks flashed through my head as we smiled at each other through each line. As we sang the last line “…for the laaaaaaaand of the freeeeeeeeeeee and the hoooooooooooome of the braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave!” I could hear crowds going wild, the first fireworks shooting off, and the off pitch singers around me...well, in my imagination. Different, but better here in Tuscany...at the end of our song, was seeing a smiling, knowing, understanding Claire, 3 audience members smiling and clapping...they actually enjoyed - LOVED our singing!, a rising full moon, and having an American sense of pride and joy in my heart. It was beautiful and perfect.

Close to the end of our million dollar performance, we walked out from the gazebo, and just sat and looked at the sky...my thoughts again drifted to family in Valley, NE, where they were probably busy carving in the sand and eating their own American barbeque burgers (and of course enjoying baked beans for me, :)). Here I was under the Tuscan moon, celebrating the independence of my country on my own (ish), worlds away...what an experience!

Of course you all know that I, in the midst of a beautiful night, can not go a whole day without some form of ridiculousness. And, it would not be 4th of July without some good solid jokes, silliness and laughter with new and old friends. So along with joking about the location of the barbeque sauce, (which we clearly were not going to find by the time we were pondering if it could be with the laundry detergent), we found a title for our new friend Giovanni (age 20), as indicated by the title of this blog. After we cleaned up, Angelo and Giovanni gave us a ride home. Amidst broken English/Italian chatter he asked if we liked his boar. Yes we did, it was moist, tender, and dark meat...yum! He replied with “because I am pig chef.” I couldn’t contain my laughter...Giovanni the pig chef. All four of us laughed for a couple minutes before the conversation moved on. He challenged Claire to a soccer match…very cool. Fortunately Claire has a sense of sanity and common sense that I sometimes lack in my searches for adventure. The time at this point was about oh, nearly midnight, and the boys offered to teach us to drive the motorcycle right then! On second thought, it is probably a good thing she wouldn’t allow that to happen – I’m not injury prone at all, honest! We got home and promptly slept, it’s been a busy couple of days!

Lessons of the holiday:
- The Star Spangled Banner is the absolute perfect 4th of July song that enhances American pride in your heart
- Barbeque sauce has never sounded so good (and is not kept with laundry detergent)
- Celebrating your country's independence in a foreign country is a completely unexplainable experience!