Christmas in Viterbo

Christmas Eve dinner with the family of Anna's two daughters. Dinner started with homemade Gnocchi with a scampi cream sauce. As is tradition for Italians, a fish main course (tuna), deep fried vegetables and fresh garbanzo beans.

Then came dessert. This was essentially a lasagna, but instead of tomato sauce and cheese, it was baked with ground up hazelnuts and chocolate. I had leftovers for Christmas morning breakfast.

I got gloves and a scarf from Anna. I gave her a DVD player, which brought the technology in her house from the 1980's (VCR) into the 1990's. The Internet will never happen.

Christmas Eve dinner was only the first of two feasts. Here is Anna roasting potatoes and lamb for Christmas day lunch.

Christmas day lunch started with homemade tortellini soup, roasted lamb and potatoes, salad and dessert.

On Christmas Eve, my friends the Giuliano's had a Christmas present of their own as their first son (third child) Luciano "The Prince" Giuliano was born. Here he is with his grandmother Rita.

Antonio Di Natale

My favorite Italian soccer player is Antonio di Natale, the attaccante or cannoniere for the Serie A team, Udinese. For some reason, because di Natale (which translates of "of Christmas") is the type of player that runs hard and is small and quick. They say, we can't choose who we fall in love with, we just do. In soccer, you can't know why you like a certain player, you just do. And di Natale is my guy. Because of him, my Italian team, is Udinese. Udine, the city of 100,000 up in the northeastern corner of Italy, right near Slovenia, is a strange pick for a person from central Italy. For you MLB fans, it's like being from Chicago and having your favorite team be Tampa Bay. This past weekend, Udinese was in Rome to play one of the two Roma teams, Lazio. For Italian soccer, it was a "goal fest", with Lazio coming out on top 3-2. Lazio, tied with Roma, for my second Italian team, is having an awesome season, and are in second place for the "scudetto." So, I sat in the Lazio section, secretly rooting for Udinese. At least I didn't wear Udinese colors.

Antonio di Natale, taken with my new camera with 12X zoom!