Saturday, January 1, 2011

Buon Anno

We hosted a small gathering for New Year's Eve at our house and found the way our Italian neighbors ring in the New Year to be one of the scariest experiences possible. Think war zone with incoming rocket fire as you dash through clouds of smoke obscuring your way.

Firecrackers started early on in the day. Our friends came over for a late dinner, and we then retired to the Glass House on the roof for dessert and digestivos. This included using a sword to open our bottles of prosecco after our friend, K., assured us she had watched how to do this on "the internets." She was successful, and there is video to prove it. Ironically, I was concerned about flying corks. Ironic because of what happened at midnight. First, came the amazing fireworks. They were everywhere. On the beach in front of us, on a cape that we can see from the roof, in the yard beside us. They were beautiful. Then the neighbors came out. In the apartment behind us, they started lighting bottle rockets off their balconies. Fireworks were landing in our yard, on the roof where we were standing, hitting the tops of our palm trees. Then neighbors all around started lighting off fireworks, flares, really anything that they could set afire and and send into the sky. I kept rushing through the smoke to go downstairs and check on the dogs - Crazy Dog and his BFF, who had come for the evening. The dogs were, understandably, quivering messes. I was much the same once the fireworks began hitting our roof. Yet we all emerged unscathed and in agreement that this was one of the greatest New Year's ever.

I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year's.

No comments:

Post a Comment