Happy 236 Birthday, America!

In celebration of America's 236th day of birth, we took to the sea.  Somehow, that made sense.  Plus, it was one work day off in the middle of the week.  This seemed like the easiest plan. 



After the massive success of boating when my sister was visiting, it seemed only logical to give it a go again.  On our first boat trip, we were advised that a trip to Ischia would be too far for us on one tank of gas.  Well this time, we went for it!  And it was awesome!  As we pulled up to this island, covered in brightly colored houses, castles and vineyards, I felt the air escape from my lungs.  Holy crap, we live in Italy.  I have these revelations every once in a while, reminding myself that life has changed so much and that I should totally take advantage of each of those moments.  Something about staring at a castle which is older than the country where I'm from can just help to put things into perspective.

Floating around the bay, we relished in some creature comforts (read: juice box wine).  They have juice box wine in the US, I know.  But there's something about 1,50 Euro wine that doesn't suck that also makes me appreciate Italy.  When I took my sister to Ipercoop, our equivalent to Kroger, Food Lion, Ralph's or whatever you call a grocery store in the rest of the US, she couldn't get over the funny wine choices.  I find that it still makes me smile as I'm plopping a few boxes into my cart.  "Don't mind if I do...."  And while I'm on the subject of grocery stores, let me also touch on one other revelation: some food that I've always thought of as very American is also very European. Hot dogs, I'm looking at you. Hot dogs, or wurstle as they are called here, are HUGE! Like crazy huge. Like, there are multiple chilled display cases of them at Ipercoop. Oh, that isn't the type you like? No worries, here's 197 other varieties that you can browse. Beer flavored, cheese infused, 2 packs, 12 packs, 48 packs. How many friends do you have coming over because for sure, you can get 12 hot dogs a person if it comes to that. No buns, that's another story. Secondly, watermelon. While lemonade may not be all the rage, huge hunks of watermelon sold out of the back of 3 wheeled trucks definitely is. The problem is this: try to mentally calculate the cost in Euro and the metric system. If you can do that in your head, you are a better person than I. I take that back, you're just a better mathematician. Wouldn't want to sell myself short.

So, alas, no fireworks for us on the 4th of July.  And yet, even with all of the awesomeness of boating and juice box wine and extremely old castles, there was something about a Wonder Bread sandwich with baloney that just made me smile and think fondly of the good old U S of A.  We're heading back there in September where I fully intend to spend hours lazily wandering the aisles of Target, eating Thai food and sipping Yuengling.  Until then, from all of us on this side of the pond, hold down the fort, America.  We love you all and miss you so much.

Baci a tutti! (Kisses to all y'all!)
Lynne