Tornati dall'Italia - matrimonio di Chiara

Again a long time has passed since I last posted here.. this time I was in Italy! It's been a very nice period, although very short (only ten days including the trip, which was quite long).

So we went to Italy mainly to attend my friend Chiara's wedding. It was Lucas's first time at an Italian wedding, and he enjoyed it! He was surprised by the length of the ceremony, although, in my opinion, it wasn't very long. Usually Catholic wedding ceremonies include a Mass (unless you specifically require a shortened version), and there are many songs and prayers, and so they last about one hour. Chiara's was about 1 hour 15 min, and it was co-celebrated by 6 priests, since both her and her husband have been very involved in the Church, and have many friends who became priests. The number of priests also surprised Lucas :)

In America le cerimonie per i matrimoni sono molto piu' brevi. Quella del fratello di Lucas, per esempio, e' durata solo 20 minuti. Immagino che questo sia il motivo per cui Lucas e' rimasto tanto stupito.. :)

Here are Chiara and Davide in a funny pose coming out from the church.

After the ceremony, there was a long, long, lunch, which lasted from 2 to 6.30 pm. The food was very good (a lot of fresh appetizers, risotto with mushrooms, tagliolini, pork with potatoes) and the cake was wonderful:

After the lunch, Lucas and I went for a short walk.. to prepare ourselves for the dinner! Chiara had organized also a dinner for the rest of the people who couldn't fit in the lunch room (total people: 250 :) ). I really enjoyed this second part. It was not traditional - the long lunch is, instead -. It was outside, in a garden, and we were all standing, or sitting on some chair scattered around. There was music and who wanted food could go grab food from some stands around. I met a lot of my friends there, and I thought I really liked this informal part of the party. I decided if I ever get married I'll have something like this second part, rather than the traditional long lunch :)

Here we are, Lucas and I, dressed up for the ceremony:
I put more pictures from the wedding on my picture website, as usual.