This will be an article about how an Italian family sheltered a lonely boy from Belarus for Christmas holidays. Here come Christmas holidays. All foreign Erasmus students go home. The last classes at the university are cancelled, students who study in other cities return to.Warm meetings between old friends take place. The city is decorated with bright garlands. No snow. “Jesus” also went home to sunbathe in Spain. Christmas in Western Europe is a family holiday. It is also usual for Christmas to exchange gifts. I'm not used to this, because in Belarus we usually exchange gifts for the New Year. And so on one of those Christmas evenings, soaked with Christmas atmosphere, I accidentally met my friend Rachele. I first met her during my first week as an EVS volunteer. Rachele invited me to spend Christmas Eve with her and her family at her grandmother’s house. At first I couldn’t even believe her words, but it was real. I was going to celebrate Christmas with an Italian family! It was Christmas Eve. Relatives gathered around the table, and Grandmother sat at the head of the table. What surprised me was that the gifts were already lying under the tree and that each guest had several gifts prepared. We are completely different. There is a funny tradition. Supposedly Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas secretly brings presents under the tree. Mostly only for children. But of course everyone knows that adults have prepared gifts, but for children it should be a secret, and they should not see who put the gift under the Christmas tree. A rich table was laid. The first dish was risotto with seafood. We ate chatted, joked, and watched the Christmas program on television. Further on, various baked fish and vegetables appeared on the table. I especially liked the sword fish. After such a dense meal, I ate two lemons to help the stomach digest this abundance of food. But it was not the end. We played Tombola and waited for the onset of midnight. The grandmother was already resting, but what was my surprise when, after 12 at night, the grandmother got up and made hot chocolate. Mandatory tradition to eat a piece of panettone (Italian cake) and exchange gifts. My New Year's gift was a jar of shells and an invitation to a family dinner on December 26th. Adoption continues =) The next day, together with the Rachele family, we went to dinner with their relatives. I could not imagine how large Italian families were. There were about 30 people at the table. An abundance of food, I first tried polenta. The tradition of exchanging gifts continued today. The next day we went on a trip to the city of Craco, abandoned after earthquakes and numerous landslides. Craco is a province of Basilicata. And since we were in the Basilicata, it was necessary to visit the cultural capital of Europe 2019 - the City of Matera. Matera is famous for its “Sassi di Matera”. Now the Matera is lined with monumental statues of Salvador Dali. In the old town there was a museum with a brochure in Russian, to which I was very happy. In the same place I tried literally the tits of the nuns. This is the name of the popular dessert in this region. Tits nuns elastic outside and tender inside. We celebrated New Year in the countryside in the company of Italian youth. I like the Italian tradition of common dinners when everyone brings a dish from home. I cooked a traditional New Year's salad with crab sticks. A traditional Italian dish at the New Year's table is lentils and zampone. It is believed that whoever tastes this dish will have a lot of money next year. What surprised me was that the President’s address was shown at 9 pm, and not like in Belarus in the last 5 minutes of the year. As my Italian friends explained, no one will simply look at this late appeal. We celebrated the New Year with Italian music of the 80s, and I recognized many of the melodies that our musicians borrowed. Funny fact. Champagne in Italian is called “Spumante”. Italians and French every year argue about which drink in the world they drank more - French champagne or Italian spumante. And in the province of Puglia, when they clink glasses say, “Brindisi!” That's all. Good luck in the new year. I am grateful to the family Rachele for a great time.
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