November 13th, Our first day in Buja!

Today was our first day in Buja. After arriving late last night and having pizza at Al Fungo, we all settled right into our rooms and quickly fell asleep. All the girls are rooming together, dorm style with bunk beds, and same for the guys. We're all extremely grateful that Dr. Victoria Stewart and her husband John are letting us stay in their villa in Buja.

This morning we all woke up at different times since we had the opportunity to sleep in. We all sat in the living room/breakfast room area downstairs in the villa. Franco, Victoria's cousin who lives in Buja, came to meet us all before he took us out to a festi

val in Gemano. Franco is the sweetest person and it seems as though he runs the world, he knows everybody. Franco doesn't speak any English so Victoria had to translate everything he was saying for us. Franco took us to an agricultural festival in Gemano, a small town near Buja. The festival was amazing! Because it was an agricultural festival there were lots of farmers who were selling things like mozzarella c

heese, parmesan cheese, prosciutto, jam, bread, honey, wool slippers and scarves, and fresh fruit.

We wandered around Gemona for awhile stopping at different stands and trying different foods before we headed to the basillica of Gemona. The church had been damaged by an earthquake on May 6, 1976. The basillica has been reconstructed as close to its past form as possible. The church is beautiful. When we ended our tour around the church and Gemona we walked all the back down to where we had parked the vans. That night we were going to a horse farm, also a stop on the agricultural tour, to have dinner.

After getting a little dressed up, all 21 of us headed to the horse farm. It was a chilly night and we were all ready for food. The first course we had was a meat and cheese plate, just cheese for the vegetarians. The second course, probably the best meal I had in Italy, was pumpkin gnocchi with smoked mozzarella cheese. Everyone devoured their's. The next course, the main course, was pork ribs and beans with a bunch of sides and sauces that included ratatouille, cabbage, mushrooms, potatoes, and zucchini. It was delicious. Then for dessert we had a pear and chocolate strudel and some Italian style coffee. The meal was amazing, and we were all ridiculously full after. So we headed back to the villa, climbed into our inviting beds, and went to bed.