the longest post in the history of frankfurtpig - and the last one

miei cari, today you are going to read the longest post in the history of frankfurtpig. Why? Because 1) a lot happened in the last 2 months 2) I was a lazy bastard and I didn't write anything 3)Gaborno tells me that I could do better 4) I didn't have internet for the last 3 weeks 5) most of you know it already but I have moved to Belgium, so this is actually going to be the last post of frankfurtpig. Feeling sad? You shouldn't, since you can follow the adventures of your favorite Italian on bruxellespig.blogspot.com :)

So let's get started

I moved to Belgium
As a lot, if not all, of you already know, I moved to Belgium as of the beginning of the month. This is something that I wanted to do for a long time, it took significantly longer than I had expected but overall everything OK. I am sad to leave the people in Germany, it will be hard without you guys. Which means that you need to visit often! By the way, I was very surprised that you guys didn't figure out that there was already another blog, the bruxellespig one, for some months. Kudos to Paritosh not only for finding but for becoming a supporter:) So you can start reading that one as well, even though there is not too much apart from random ranting (soooo strange, considering the high standard of literature that you are used to from here...).

Why buy a car if you can get a Dobló?
This is actually a post that I wrote more than 1 month back and then never published (OK, the move was a bit hectic, but what the hell...) So I got invited to Toscana for new year's eve. I take little Jean Jacques, 12 bottles of prosecco, 1 full sopressa (which is sort of a salame but muuuuuch better) and start driving. It was interesting because it had snowed quite a bit so I was driving with my little sardine's tin of a car on the roads and you could see this nice thick layer of ice of the edges of the street. Interesting. Anyway, in one way or another I arrive in Toscana, in the Chianti region and I meet with my friends. Then we had to go buy some food and one of the guys proposes to get his rental car, which, ladies and gentlemen, is a Dobló!Basically this is a car that is usually owned by electricians, plumbers, wine makers, whatever. And he could rent it. Fantastic. So the Dobló became the theme of the evening, and dutifully so, since it managed to take us to Siena for midnight - but more of it later. Anyway, before we left for the night in the town I think we managed to scare the Belgian/German neighbours: we arrived there completely drunk to offer them a bottle of prosecco, with yours truly as head of the delegation, holding a bottle of prosecco on one hand and 1 wooden spoon with lentils crusts all over it to knight them. Well, so we decide that we need to go and celebrate midnight in the square of Siena, not that we cared too much but we got to know that Antonello Venditti was signing there and there was no chance to restrain Nicola from wanting to see him. And if you wonder who Antonello Venditti is, I can tell you that if you don't know him it simply better for you so you shouldn't care (and if you are unlucky enough to know who he is, then for sure you will appreciate this - e se nasce una bambina poi la chiameremo RRRoooooommaaaaa). So off we go in the Dobló, with Marco(s) driving - and being christened Mr Dobló - and us singing. We arrive in Siena, we try to get to the main square where Venditti is singing, obviously we can't manage to get there because it was full of people singing the junk so we decide to be nice, we start kissing people right and left and since we have way too much panettone for our group we start throwing it on the crowd: people tend to react when you throw things on them, but then they understood that it's only panettone and they were fine with it (or at least I don't remember that they told us anything, not that I would remember stuff anyway, but so is life). Then Venditti stopped singing (aó!), took his leather jacket and his red piano off the stage and people started throwing fireworks in the square - and all a sudden I understood how a soldier in Kabul must feel every day. So we just stayed there on the side, drinking our magnum of Bellavista (aó!) and then decided to go into this fantastic place called Barone Rosso (or something similar), where you would bump into 23 people every time you tried to move a finger, and we stayed there dancing a bit. Then we decided that we are old farts, wanted to go back to the dobló and go home when we found this other bar with dj, we stormed inside, stayed there dancing with the people looking at us, then suddenly left, got into the dobló. went home and had our nice pane, salame and gorgonzola as midnight snack (more than midnight it was like 4-5 in the morning, but whatever). And then all to bed to collapse.
So, lessons learnt:
1. Toscana is a really nice place, and you should go to Siena because the square is fantastic
2. people from Toscana are really nice because they didn't crack our ass open when we started throwing panettone at them
3. prosecco is pretty good
4. GET YOURSELF A DOBLÓ!!!

What is the theme of this year's Herr Der Baum?
But it is Herr Der Umzugsbaum, natuerlich!! And if you want to see pictures of my beloved flat mate, you can go on Facebook (where else) and become a fan of Herr Der Baum. By the way, I am also very happy to announce that 1) Herr Der Baum now has his own bedroom so he doesn't need to have his privacy invaded by all sort of people 2) Herr Der Baum will continue his tradition of Herr Der Baum's bday parties every December, so you should feel honored if you will get invited (now that I have a bigger house we can fill even more people!!). I will not bother you with stories about the Herr Der Baums party of 2008, you can look at Gaborno's pictures (and for those of you who have a strong stomach, also to Colin's ones, he posted them without tagging because we looked completely ridiculous). But I was told that it was a good party, people finished all the risotto and the stew and overall we finished nearly 3 liters of gin (most of it drunk by me and Gaborno while cooking and stewing Gaborno's hand and at the end with the commonwealth committee while playing drinking games).

Who has the greatest friends (especially the ones with best taste)?
ME!!!! So I made a goodbye party before leaving Frankfurt and guess what? I got F A N T A S T I C presents. First of all, not only all of them came, but also our Blanquita, pregnant of 9 months (to the point where I was a bit scared that she would give birth right during the party) showed up. Then they gave me this book of recipes that they wrote: this was simply fantastic (and Gaborno, you should actually bring me the original one, still waiting...). Basically this is a book in which each one of them (or nearly) wrote something typical from their country, including great pictures. So now I know how to make a schnitzel, how to make knoedel, how to make a lot of other stuff (tastyyyyyyyyy). And then they gave me a full bag with loads and loads of Rosenthal things - since they know that I don't really like Rosenthal, oh no I don't... So I loved my presents, took them with me here in Belgium and have already drank my morning coffee in all the Rosenthal cups (just to see if the taste changed from one cup to the other, you never know). And regarding the party, apparently it was a good one - not that I remember very much of it after some time-. I rented this place in Hanauerlandstrasse, which I like a lot (and also the people, I would assume, I hear that other people want to rent it as well) and I had around 70-80 people coming. We all danced, thanks to dj Carletto's music, and had fun. Actually I was thinking that I should rent it again in the summer and we can use also the place outside - thoughts? Anyway, I loved it, I loved to see all the people I cared for there with me having fun and it is definitely one of the best moments of my 5 years in Frankfurt (now I get sentimental... getting more and more sissy with age...).

OK, enough from now - assuming you managed to read up to here.
As I told you before, go visit the new blog.
And miei cari, I loved my time in Frankfurt, I loved meeting you all, I loved sharing what was happening in my life with you (whether you liked it or not, and actually it was better face to face), loved the random gossiping, loved the partying, loved the lazy weekends, loved the cooking, loved the catan, loved the travels, loved the rants, loved to see you getting married... Now I guess I can spare you from reading another 25 pages of what I loved and come to the point: I am simply lucky for you having you all. Thanks.
And don't forget: LET'S MAKE A LAKE OUT OF SWITZERLAND!!