Today was Giorgio’s birthday. Being American Mormons, we decided to make him cookies. We made thumbprint cookies, but instead of filling them with jam, we filled them with, yes, you guessed it. Nutella! On Carla’s birthday last month, we inadvertently crashed her party when we stopped by with cookies on our way down for our nightly walk. So today we took Giorgio’s cookies at lunchtime.
It appears that we successfully pulled off a social encounter in Italy! Carla told me that Giorgio was very touched, and that he had asked her to invite us to his party in the evening! She is making what she describes as a “very unhealthy” chocolate cake for him.
We took some of the leftover cookies to Gianfranco and told him the Mayor would be talking with him, and that we had sent people to Manila and San Francisco to personally see to it that the faxes were answered.
We also took some cookies to Beatrice, who is always giving us delicious produce along with the milk, and will never accept payment (except for tomatoes and zucchini). Upon receiving the cookies, she immediately gifted us with a large (beautiful!) porcino mushroom. We had it for lunch in a chicken cream sauce on buttermilk crepes, and it was delicious. We should make her cookies again. We can never quite catch up with Beatrice’s generosity.