I've finally got the blog up and (hopefully) running.
New Year's Eve was pretty low key. We had dinner at the usual 9 o'clock and then Giorgio and I watched part of The Help until we realized we only had 2 minutes left to get ready for the clock strike.
He opened a bottle of Brachetto d'Acqua (sparkling red wine), and poured four glasses. His father woke up from the couch, downed his glass and went directly to bed with not a word to the 3 of us gathered in the kitchen. We broke out the leftover panettone and pan d'oro left over from Christmas and listened to the firecrackers exploding in the streets around us. 
After it was safe to go out, we took a stroll into the Centro Storico (Historic Center) with the acidic smell of explosives tinting the air. The pizzeria was closed already but we walked by the trattoria and Giorgio recognized some friends of his that work there enjoying a meal at the end of their shift and we walked in to offer, "Auguri" (wishes). Before we knew it we had been forced to sit and a glass of grappa and a plate of just-jiggly-enough panna cotta with a hefty drizzle of chocolate sauce thrust into our hands. A little while later as we stood to go as they finished straightening up for the night, Giuseppina insisted we all have a limoncello before we left. We couldn't call it a night without stopping by and checking out the scene at the local bar, BBeP. They had were just starting to clean up after hosting a private party for the night. We hung around to chat while they worked and they gave us a free beer--German, of course.
And then we finally called it a night at 2:45.
