Uncle Tony

Before I left the office I had discussed my travel plans with a co-worker and discovered her father's family is from Martina Franca, a city located in Puglia.  Uncle Tony was in Seattle for her wedding and so I was able to meet him and her father before I left.  Her uncle extended an invitation to meet when I was in the area and even invited me to stay with he and his wife.  I contacted him yesterday morning and arranged to meet. 

Tony and Kizela Basile are two of the nicest people in the world.  Tony is a retired taxi driver and Kizela used to work in accountability (I believe she meant accounting).  They took me to their home, gave me a tour pointing out which bedroom could have been mine and made me promise that when I came back I would stay with them.  They invited me to lunch and asked if I'd prefer fish or meat.  I went with fish not knowing that we would drive about 20 miles away to Taranto to their favorite restaurant, Restaurante Gesu Cristo (Jesus Christ), no kidding.  In Kizela's words, the food is very clean.

Lunch lasted at least two hours and consisted of about six courses.  I thought when I said fish I'd order a nice fillet off the menu.  There was no menu and the food kept coming: octopus, squid in tomato sauce, mussels, mussels seasoned with breadcrumbs and herbs, clams in linguine, a whole fish baked in salt and shrimp.  It was all delicious.  After lunch we drove back to Martina with Tony and Kizela singing along with a cd of Napolese music about weddings and red and white watermelon.  Red watermelon means a happy marriage; white watermelon, not so good.  We stopped for cookies and then back to their house.  Tony volunteers at the local university so we were going to meet up with him later.

Kizela took me into town and showed me around the sites.  She stopped to ask a woman about a museum she wanted me to see but was closed.  Turns out the woman was hosting a foreign exchange student from Seattle and wanted me to meet her later that afternoon.  We then met the woman's husband who was a captain or something with the police, they took me for a drink.  They talked.  Kizela then bought me a beautiful little ceramic dish.  We stopped by a dress shop where she knew the owner.  They talked.  The woman showed up with the foreign exchange student.  They talked.  We talked.  We all went to see Tony, met the head of the university.  We all talked.  Finally made it back to my car about 8:00 p.m. but what a special day.  In spite of the challenges with conversation I got to meet two lovely people and had a small glimpse into an average couple's Italian life.

Thanks Tony and Kizela.  Grazie mille!