There are lots and lots and Lots of figurines in Italy. Instead of Christmas trees, many families collect doll-house-type materials. Detailed old-fashioned homes, miniature people, animals, foods, and of course nativity scenes. So all of this figurine stuff is everywhere.
Though I appreciate the craftsmanship, it's not really my cup of tea. One popular figurine is a little dude with a half-mask over his eyes and a big nose. Sometimes he rides a chili pepper, which is for good luck. To ensure good fortune, you're not supposed to buy one for yourself. Given that it was Antonio and Adriana who explained this tradition to us, Kim and I are now both owners of little red ceramic chili peppers with masked men riding them.
Today's lunch was Neopolitan pizza. According to Antonio, the best pizza in Naples is Michele's pizza. (Pronounced mee-keh-leh.) We walked there and took a number. After waiting 30 minutes or so, Antonio checked to see how far down the line we were. They were on number 1. We were number 81. Che peccato! So we went to the place across the street instead. "Good, but not best in Naples." I'll say it - pretty darn good pizza. Big, filling, fresh, and delicious. And of course when we left there were presents - little pizza keychains.
Tonight after dinner we watched "A River Runs Through It" in Italian. So good! Much like one Traci Lynn Rucker, Adriana fell asleep a time or two. Yeah yeah, it's kinda long. But before the movie, again there were presents! For each of us, a new umbrella and a silver candle-holder.
Presents aside, I have to tell you - we saw something really cool this morning. We're lucky with our hosts for many reasons, but one is their interests. Adriana is a teacher, so she's often telling us about the history of something, it's significance, or helping us with our grammar. Antonio is retired and loves history and museums. Both are fonts of information and it's fantastic to tour with them. First thing this morning (after our clementini and caffe latte, of course), we visited a church in Napoli that used to be a monastery. As far as I know, it's only open for tourism now; no more church service. So we walked in, toured the different rooms, saw the old, medieval sculptures and paintings... typical Italian history. Then we walked downstairs, into a cavernous underground area. And here we saw a revealed marketplace from the days of Roman rule. There were shops, bakeries, restaurants, and the time's equivalent of a dry cleaner's. But wait - there's more! In some sections, you can look down and see stones and walls from the time of Grecian rule. In the land of Naples, you just build over what once was. So in one building, we saw original ancient Grecian architecture, covered in original ancient Roman architecture, covered in original medieval architecture. All pre-dating our country, obviously. Wow.
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