Relaxing weekend with Matteo

I just settled in bed after a weekend spent outside of Milan at Matteo's house. Towards the end of last week, I was getting anxious to see him because the week was extremely busy with work, grading, field trips, meetings, and painting at the end. Friday night, I just really wanted to escape the city and see the one person in this country that always makes me happy.

I took a taxi to the train station, a luxury I have only used a handful of times in the city, due to my heavy bags and the cold temperature softly spitting snow flurries in the air. The train was warm while my curly hair, still damp from the shower, was tucked neatly inside my black cap. I looked at my reflection in the train window to make sure a few curls fell out of the cap, applying red lipstick to complete a 20's look that I feels captures romanticism on trains. haha. In reality, I was incredibly rushed while packing my bags, and the train window was pertinent to fix up my disheveled look before seeing Matteo. I calmly read the paper while waiting my stop. As the train slowed at the station, I saw him standing in his red coat waiting for me outside the train. I stumbled out of the train with a purely giddy feeling arising in my stomach, smacking my bags down on the platform. He walked toward me with his stagger and with a smile pasted on his face. I had arrived.

We spent a really nice weekend together, and Friday night we ate dinner with his parents before their departure for Genova the next morning--their usual weekend residence. Afterwards, Matteo fell asleep while watching a movie. I said..."Matteo, you are sleeping!" He responded: "No, dear, I was looking at you." It obviously wasn't true as his eyes were closed and he was nearly snoring at the end of his sentence.

Saturday, we spent a nice day together--it was relaxing; we took a walk, we ate lunch at his sister's house, and we went to an Italian version of IKEA to pick up a few things that I have needed for my apartment. His sister and brother-in-law are very nice people, and they have an adorable baby who just learned to walk around Christmastime. I really enjoyed the time spent at their house, and it is nice that she and Matteo have such a nice rapport. He absolutely loves his nephew, and it is cute seeing him interacting with the baby.

At night, we went out to dinner with his friend Giacomo and his girlfriend, Valentina, in a nearby town at a restaurant on a hill. It was a really cute place with a grey stone interior and a hearth. We all ate appetizers, first and second courses, dessert, coffee, grappa, and 2 bottles of wine. It was a really nice dinner, and we all had a good time talking. Coincidentally, Matteo's cousin ended up at the restaurant that night so I was introduced to more of the family. Afterwards, we went to a discoteca dance club in a city close by, and we all had a fun time. There was a live band that sang covers of mostly American, English, and Italian pop songs, and I thought that they were great entertainers. The vocalists were very talented, and I swear some of their covers were almost better than the real songs. For instance, the woman vocalist sang Beyonce in a way I've heard few people replicate. However, despite the fun dancing (which was much needed after the long week), the high point of the night for me was when the group invited a man on stage to sing. He was older and bald, and I did not expect the Pavarati notes and scales to escape from his mouth when he started singing some of the most famous Italian operatic ballads. It was awesome, and I was emotionally enraptured during the few songs he belted out amongst the crowd. It was so powerful, and I am completely seduced by the passionate deluge of opera--how cool! It was just so strange seeing something like that inside a dance club.

Today was also very relaxed--the most significant thing to recount is that Matteo fixed lunch, and later we hung out in his bedroom while he read to me from one of his favorite books--a book about America written by an Italian journalist. This is not the first time that he has read to me--I find it relaxing, and he takes time to explain if there is something I don't understand. It was very difficult for me to say goodbye to him when he dropped me off at my apartment in Milan this evening.

Another week ahead.