Growing up in an Italian household is nothing but a great experience. I can honestly say I love being Italian because I am so close with my family, and I couldn’t imagine my life without any of them. There is so much culture, history, and food that makes being Italian so special. Here's what I am most proud of:
1. Dimmi un bacio!
Since I have over 10 first cousins and too many aunts and uncles to count on both hands, it takes approximately two hours to kiss everyone hello. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but it takes quite some time to make sure you kiss everyone. With this, there is always a chance you might get spit on or have someone yelling in your ear while standing two feet away from them, because everyone knows Italians are not the quietest people; but through the spitting and possibly getting elbowed through all the hand gestures, it’s just love hitting you right in the face. Literally.
2. Mangia, Mangia, Mangia!
At the dinner table, you are sitting elbow to elbow next to all of your cousins or relatives, and it’s probably the closest you’ve ever been to them (aside from all the kissing). Nonna is sitting across the table, but a couple seats down from you so she can keep one of her many eyes on you, making sure there isn’t one piece of food left on your plate or else she will try and put more food on your plate when your pants are ready to bust open. Once all the food is gently placed on the table, and a short prayer is said, everyone says “Buon’ appetito” and then the feast begins! Bowls of pasta circle around the table, and it seems as if the plates are bottomless because the meal seems to never end. Of course, there is always something to talk about, so through the chewing and screaming across the table, there might be a piece of something on your plate that wasn’t there before that may or may not have just been in someone else’s mouth. But we’re all family here, right?
3. Bastonare!
I'm sure everyone with an Italian friend has heard a story about being chased around the house with a wooden spoon. I can say I have had an experience like this on multiple occasions. The designated wooden spoon is taken out when mom and/or dad have no patience left. Usually, it would start off by being yelled at, and then being warned that the wooden spoon would come out. As a child, it was pretty frightening, I’m not going to lie, but as a teenager, it was entertaining because it would wind up as a wild goose chase around the house to see who would give in first. Weaving in and out of every room in the house would usually result in me slipping or tripping and then trying to get up fast enough so that mom or dad wouldn’t be close enough to go in for the swing. In between all of this, there was laughter, which makes mom and dad get more upset, but they would be laughing in the midst of the ruckus too.
4. Salsa di Pomodoro Fatto in Casa
Every year, my family and I make our own sauce; the process consists of sweat, and occasional tears. The day before the making of the sauce, we order the tomatoes. Seems simple, right? Wrong. This is such a process because the man we order our tomatoes from is a four-foot-three Italian man who looks like he may shrivel up and blow away with the wind at any moment. He speaks only some English and drives a truck older than time itself. Once we order all our tomatoes from the tomato man, we have to open all twenty crates and lay each tomato out on blankets, picking out any rotten or cracked ones. We pick our pounds of fresh basil, chop about 15 onions, and add them into the huge pots we only have room to store in the attic, with the garlic and other seasonings called for. After the sauce is cooked for quite some time, it goes through a processor that separates the tomato skin from the sauce. Then the sauce is put back into the pots to be cooked even more. After making over two hundred tomatoes into sauce, it's time to jar! This is the last step, and it is when everyone is at their most cranky after such a long and sweaty process. We put two pieces of basil into each jar of sauce and then box the jars. The jars must stay covered in blankets so they stay hot and do not break the seal. Then, that night, we make a dish of pasta and try out our fresh sauce!
These are only a few cultural aspects that my family goes through, and I can say that I love every moment of being with my family. Through all the extremely loud talking, and occasional spitting, there is love included in all things that every Italian does, out of the kindness of their hearts, making every second even more special.
