Felice Anniversario!

Today is our wedding anniversary! We got married in 1983 at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the corner of Mulberry and Mott in New York City’s Little Italy. (Not a bad place, even by Italian standards; it was New York's cathedral until St. Patrick's on Fifth Avenue was built in 1878.) Who would have known that three children and 33 years later, we’d be celebrating in Rome...

In the wedding picture: Tim (my brother), Ger (my sister), Duncan (high school friend of Brad's), Lu (my sister), Brad and me, Merle (my friend from law school who hosted us in Sag Harbor), Curtis (Brad's brother), Jon (friend from our New York law firm), Sharon (my roommate first year of law school), and Vinnie (another friend from the NY firm). 

The weather forecast on our anniversary was for rain but we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and had breakfast on the terrace to celebrate. (I think I saw only one mosquito.)

Then we welcomed Cobra, a friend from our Dante Alighieri Italian class, and her wife, Susan, who are traveling through Rome after a trip to Sorrento and Salerno, including a family history trip for Cobra to a small town near Salerno. With the help of a guide, they found records for her grandparents and great-grandparents and saw the street where they lived.

Selfie in the study at home (me and Brad with Susan and Cobra)

For appetizer, Brad laid out lovely teardrop-shaped grapes and “suppli”—a Roman street food of tomato and pepper flavored rice balls that are breaded and fried with a little piece of mozzarella in the center. He bought them at a little place nearby, Supplizio. 

We took a tour of the house and garden and terrace and then headed to lunch at nearby Taverna Guilia, specializing in Ligurian dishes.

Susan recalled visiting Cinque Terre, which is in Liguria, and the fresh anchovies she’d had there. So we ordered a plate of them, dressed in lemon and parsley, for (second) appetizer. Delicious (wish I had taken a photo)! So nice to have visitors; it makes us realize how much we miss everyone back home!

Tonight to celebrate our anniversary, we went to a fancy restaurant over near the Spanish Steps, called Life. The food was interesting and it was fun to talk to the young English couple next to us who were on a first weekend away from young children (London is only a 2 hour flight). 

Then Brad gave me this lovely diamond band! 

Ti amo, caro! Happy anniversary.