My Adventures with Charlie

Yesterday evening proved to be quite the adventure for a small group of us. Rick and his wife Penny invited a few people over for wine and cheese after classes were over, so that they could start to get to know people better. Afterwards we met some more friends at a pizzeria called Charlie's Pizzeria. I've heard really good things about this particular pizza place, but hadn't been yet. Unlike a lot of the "grab-and-go" pizzerias in town, this was a sit down restaurant and you can order more than just pizza. (Although pizza is the norm). I ordered a tortelloni with ricotta and it was ...amazing! And as a group we also ordered some Tiramisu, which was also ...AMAZING!

After 5 bottles of wine (vini), we were the last of the crowd at around midnight. The servers/waiters/cooks/chefs that worked at the restaurant were all sitting and eating their own dinner. So we decided to invade their space and make some new friends. So we pulled up some chairs at their table and started a conversation. (There were 5 of them, only one spoke a small amount of English). However, it was crazy how we could still communicate fairly well, although at times they would laugh and I'm pretty sure they were laughing at us. But to be fair, there were times that we were laughing at them. So it turns out that the main man, Charlie himself, was infact the owner, and he ran the pizzeria with his brother and his son (Wiliam). (So.., we got in good with Charlie). After leaving, we walked home in the same direction as Wiliam (by the way, who is very young and still in highschool). And he knew only a few select words in English, but he talked A LOT. He told us lots of stories, which we.. kind of understood? :S But we did learn some interesting facts from Wiliam:

Orvieto has a lot of marjiuna.
They are communist.
He loves Katie Holmes.
His dad hates when he smokes.
There were some people arrested in Rome, Perugia, AND Orvieto after 9/11 because of their connections with Al Qida (spelling?) and terrorism.
He thinks that Bush = bad, and that Obama = JFK. :S
He threw up a lot of New Years Eve in the street.

I laugh now as I write this, because all of these random "stories and facts" were told to us by mostly signing and strange noises. (ex: a puking noise and action for throwing up, a gun and "bang bang" with the Obama, He grabbed his heart and pretended to pass out when he mentioned Katie Holmes.)

Nonetheless, it was nice to make some new friends even though we can't understand a word they are saying.