Grazie Pappalecco
Stephanie Jane
You know that warm tingly feeling you get when you return home after a while of being away? This is a feeling that I have experienced ever since I was little, every time single time I landed in Rome, in the Leonardo Da Vinci, Fiumicino airport in Rome. As the plane would get close to Rome I would start to recognize our path into my city… first the wonderful country side of lazio, then it would start, “IL TEVERE”… look, “AA ER COLOSSEO”… then came “LO STADIO OLIMPICO and finally… ahhhhhh “There’s the piazza where I live!! CASA DOLCE CASA!” and so I’d go, get off the plane with a huge smile on my face and happily dive into my italian rituals… straight away, call everyone and meet for a nice aperitivo al bar da Nando, per spritz e stuzzichini! And then the usual passeggiata up at the osservatorio di Roma, to take in all the beauty and essence of LA CITTA’ ETERNA…………
As I watched that beautiful view of that city from the airplane window this past august, leaving Rome to start my new adventure, the feeling I felt while looking at that city was not the same….. I told myself I wouldn’t be feeling that warmth of home for at least a year… As the plane rose off the ground, my eyes filled with tears, my throat closed up and swallowing I said “Ciao Roma, Ciao Casa.”….4 When I arrived to this country my “Italianita’” felt stronger than ever, and I felt soooo homesick! But….. little did I know that on a random Saturday afternoon of aimlessly wandering around my new city i’d walk into a little piece of home. PAPPALECCO….. it was that silly, super italian sounding name which lured me in! As soon as I walked in my smile got huge, my heart opened and that long, lost feeling of warmth released! CHE BELLOOO!!! :) The music, the espresso machine, il gelato, smiley Patrizia speaking to me in Italian…. I didn’t know what hit me, I was so overwhelmed with happiness and and felt extremely comfortable in that familiar surrounding! “I HAVE TO BE A PART OF THIS!!!!” I thought, and almost as destiny I soon became part of this amazing extended family. I have found my “home away from home”…
I have settled with that warmth again, that excitement, the familiarity….. Every time I walk towards Pappalecco I start filling with that amazing feeling I would get back home… as I get near the door I hear the the Italian radio station RTL playing in the distance, then I reach the intense distinct smell of the freshly baked cornetti, and those always smiling faces to greet me at the door! I have found a family, a little piece of LA MIA ROMA here in sunny San Diego, a chance for me to feel at home, to feel like myself!
Thank you Pappalecco family-the clients, the staff, the food-THANK YOU!- for all those times you ask “Oh, are you Italian?” giving me the chance to passionately rant and rave about my beautiful Roma… for all those jokes cracked behind the kitchen doors, that only an Italian would understand and laugh at, speaking in Italian, singing in Italian, EATING ITALIAN!!!!…… thank you for giving me the chance to be the REAL Stephany expressing my true essence! …I don’t think you guys understand what you mean to me ☺! GRAZIE!