L'avventura di Maria DeGrazia (Noi siamo Lucani!): Day 24: Andiamo a casa (and outtakes)

24 gennaio 2010

Its Sunday and time to go home. No problem making that 7:30am plane, I'm ready to return to reality. However, I did get lost in the Paris airport, just for one final adventure. I barely made the plane… hey, what happened security-wise while I was living my dream? In Paris I had to go through 4 security checks, and one was a full on search of my bags, making me empty everything (apparently there are new rules… even electronic cables have to come out of the bag and onto the tray. ) When I said, sorry I didn't know, these rules are different. I was told, "you are in Paris, Madame"… Hmm.

Here are some trivia questions I'll tell you some of the answers but the others are super top secret and we are sworn to secrecy.

1)      What REALLY important thing did Pliney the Elder discover? Well, according to Gianni, who told this to our guide at Pompei, Pliney discovered the properties of Hops (and their use in brewing). Pliney also did a few other things, including trying to rescue people from the volcano in Pompei

2)      Did you know that the children on John DeGrazia are only ¼ Italian? Margarita says that is because it takes 4 Italians to equal one of us. She couldn't get over how short they were...especially in Calvello.. and skinny too (but we know they climb lots of stairs all day long) We figured that out when we had to take the world's smallest elevator which is supposed to hold 4 people, but only one of us plus bags could fit.

3)      Did you know that they invented plumbing in Pompei? Apparently they still haven't got it right (or at least it isn't sized to American standards)... TMI

4) How many beers did Gianni the brewmaster try in Italy? (I can only think of one, honestly), but he liked the vino rosso, limoncello and amaro… he hated grappa though…. We warned him)

5) Does anyone see the image of a saint or other heavenly body in this picture? If not, can you even guess what this is?

6) Is it illegal to pass when there is a double white line? Apparently not.

7) What do you do when the light in the elevator goes out? (When Nonna and I were lost in the museum... and no one coming to the rescue..we went back to the elevator and rang the alarm. ). As it turns out, if you don't immediately push a button, the lights go off to save electricity.

8) How do you know you're lost? (when the dogs and the sheep start to recognize you)

(this particular dog was more concerned with catching some rays than watching his sheep down the hill)

9) When three middle age siblings go on a road trip, they regress in age and it reminded us of the long long road trips in our Volkswagon and later the Ford Stationwagon. Nitpicking and bickering, but fortunately no biting or kicking. However, Margarita, (aka Margaret, Maggs, Margie) decided that if Giovanni can change his name to Gianni, she wanted to change her name too (she didn't like Margarita). She wanted the. the name she wanted to be called at about age 3. I'll give you a hint: C_ _ _I... We used to sing a song to her when she was little and we are on car trips "get along home C---i, C---i." When brother Gianni and I attempted to Italianize the name, she gave up.