The Last Supper

With the end of the world rapidly approaching, some of my classmates decided to organize one last get-together, appropriately titled "L'ultima cena".  We established at the beginning of December that a class dinner would exist, but left the less important details-- such as where and when-- until last week.  After a couple of changes, we decided to set it for Tuesday at a classmate's house.  Saturday during a substitute's class we determined who would bring what-- and since it's legal here, we had written on the whiteboard who would be bringing the beer!

Tuesday rolled around and we all found various modes of getting down to the appointed location, which was outsides of Todi, a full (gasp!) fifteen-minute drive.  Without much ado, we confirmed the fact that this was a dinner get-together-- and, yes, the Italians know how to cook.  We had several courses, all of which were cooked by my wonderful classmates.

First of all was the antipasto, an assortment of bruschetta, prosciutto, salami, and bread with various delicious spreads.  A toast of beer and wine, followed shortly afterwards by bucatini all'amatriciana, a delicious pasta dish with bacon and red pepper flakes.  Next we had pork chops, cooked on the open grill by another classmate with rosemary and olive oil, accompanied by homemade flatbread.  Then sausages-- and let me tell you, Italian sausage is fabulous!  Finally, for those who still had room, dessert: three types of cake plus cookies.

The meal was punctuated with short breaks while the kitchen elves cleared the dishes away between courses and the rest of us got up and played fusball, took photos, or grouped around the guitar and bongo and had a little music group.  And served more beer.

After dinner, more of the same for those of us who didn't feel like playing the drinking game that a classmate brought.  We had a lot of fun just hanging out together-- we don't have a lot of free time at school!  By about twelve, we were all tired, and some a bit tipsy, so we brought the evening to a close.

A fun cultural note to a fun evening: the next day at school our teacher asked about how the party had gone, and we had a great time recounting all of the details to her-- what we ate, who went, who drank how much-- one person even showed her a copy of the drinking game!  Again, different mindset since it's legal here!

Eleanor

PS I will remind you that while drinking is legal at our age, driving is not.  We needed parents to drive us home.