|
roman holiday
italy at your back door
We have two terrific
friends who've always wanted to travel to Italy so for Christmas last
year, we gave them the closest thing to it that we could afford. Our plan
was to convert our backyard into a European courtyard garden and serve a
traditional Italian dinner al fresco. Bringing Italy to them, so to speak.
Of course, since Christmas
is in December and December is, um, cold and rainy it was kind of a
rain check (hee) for a dinner when it was warm enough to do so. Well,
August rolled around and all the pieces
were finally in place for us to turn our backyard into the Amicizia*
Trattoria (Amicizia=friendship in Italian), where, for one
night at least, we would transport them across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean
to a private table on the back patio of a wonderful little eatery that
only the locals know about.
First, of course, the
all-important invitation to set the mood and ratchet up the
anticipation...
...and then we tackled the
menu...
Amizicia
Trattoria Menu
...and put up a sign...
...and then we had some
serious decorating to do. Here's where we started:
One of the reasons
we designed our back patio the way we did
was to allow us some versatility when events like this. We like to be able
to use things we already have -- decorations from around the house, pieces
of furniture, candles, fabric...whatever -- to turn our spaces into
a sidewalk cafe in Paris, or
a marketplace in Istanbul, or a restaurant
patio in Rome. We love the challenge of repurposing things for another
use, going "shopping" through the house and looking at things we look at
every day with a different eye. I think we were probably set decorators in
a previous life.
The wine barrels you see
we've had for a couple of years, courtesy of a local winery that was happy
to have us take them off their hands. We've been planning to convert them
to rain barrels, but obviously hadn't gotten around to it yet. They went a
long way toward establishing the setting. The terra cotta pots were ones
we've accumulated over the years, and I
spent about $30 on a bunch of annuals on sale to fill them. We used some
wine crates we had in the basement -- one of the perks of a husband who
works in the food industry, and they make great storage bins for everything
from CDs to cat toys -- and put a few empty wine bottles we had to
"merchandise" them. The same goes for that small table and chair, which
were castoffs from Crema, along with the set of Illi espresso cups and
saucers Sal scored for free. That big chef carving was a gift from Sal's
brother a few years ago -- we've never been able to figure out exactly
what it's for, but it's very cool and one of our favorite things in the
kitchen. The other things -- the baskets, the bits of fabric to soften
things up, the cool tapestry pillow Sal got at a garage sale when he was a
teenager (no, I don't know why) -- are all proof that it sometimes pays to
be unreformed pack rats. And of course candles make anything look more
glamorous than it is and god knows I've got the biggest stash of candles
of various types, colors, and sizes this side of the Yankee Candle
Company.
It turned out better than
even we expected. And as with our other
entertaining ventures, the real magic
happened after dark, when the whole thing was lit solely by the strings of
lights (although taking pictures of it then is impossible). But the most
important component of all to making this event a true success was the
good company and laughter of dear friends sharing a magnificent meal.
08.19.06 |
