Gino & Marissa

Growing up I had a best friend that lived four houses up the street from me. I think I was about three or four and Gino was five or six the day we met. I was sitting outside my house with my mom when he happened to pass by and say, “Hi, I’m Gino!” My mom used to always laugh because for the next twelve or so years, every time he called the house his message on the answering machine was always the same, “Hi, it’s me, Gino!” We went to different high schools and I eventually moved to Hermosa Beach, and we unfortunately didn’t stay as close as we should have, but we still managed to find each other here and there. About a year and a half ago he married his beautiful wife Marissa, who happens to be my sister-in-laws cousin, and when I told them I was making this trip around the world they said they would love to meet up. They arrived in Ischia the day after my mom’s birthday to spend the weekend here. Gianni took his car to work so I could use the scooter to pick them up. Gianni, in his classic fashion, asked me if I thought they would be hungry and would want to go to one of his favorite restaurants for lunch. Assuming that they hadn’t eaten in hours I said yes and he called to tell the owner that we would be there shortly and to have a table ready for us. Lunch went as follows… a bottle of local white wine, a bottle of sparkling water, and the owner of the restaurant telling us, as he opened the wine, the fresh fish he had for the day and of course how beautiful Marissa was. Without any of us making a decision all was decided and lunch was underway. First course was a delicious octopus salad and marinated anchovies, followed by linguini alle vongole (clams), and for the main dish a whole local fish, cooked and seasoned to perfection. Oh, and of course another bottle of wine. After the entrée we enjoyed some fresh fruit, coffee, and rucolino. As usual, when Gianni was ready to leave, he out of nowhere said, “Okay, let’s go!”, and we left. Gino offered to pay, and again, as usual Gianni smiled and said let’s go. From lunch we headed off to the local thermal park to have another rucolino as Gianni gave Gino and Marissa a quick history lesson about the island. After the thermal park we made our way to the house, dropped of their bags, and went for a beer at Triangolo. After our beer we had a nice walk on the pier, made a call to Gino’s dad, and walked back to the house. Cleaned up and ready for the night, we headed up to Bar Campo for a perfect pizza before heading to Forio for a glass of wine with Carmela and Martino and then some dancing at a local club. The only thing I could complain about for the night was the music at the club. I think we were there for twenty minutes and the playlist went as follows: YMCA, followed by La Bamba, followed by Laga GaGa, then Greased Lightining, and then an Italian song that no one seemed to recognize. The good thing about the music selection is that it was entertaining. The following day we woke up to find the sun shining and headed back to Negombo, the thermal park near my house. Gianni had called in advance and had tickets waiting for us at the door.

Once there, we made our way to a few different thermal pools and the sauna before finding a nice spot next to the main pool to relax and take some sun. Sara and her friend Simona joined us in the afternoon and I relaxed with them as Gino and Marissa went for a walk along the beach.

Gino, Marissa, and I finished the day off with a bottle of champagne on the beach and headed back to the house for a much needed nap. When we woke up from our nap I received a call from Gianni telling me that Filipo had been at his house cooking all afternoon and that we needed to be there in thirty minutes. Naturally, we quickly showered and walked up to Gianni’s house. Upon arriving we found that Filipo had made all-day sauce from fresh tomatoes only for Marissa, because up until yesterday she didn’t like clams, made clams for the rest of us, and Angelo, another close friend, thought it rude that we had only had a first course for guests, left to go buy roasted chickens for the second course, as Gianni called Raffaelle, to pick up some dessert. Needless to say a good time was had by all and we continued the evening with coffee and hours of conversation before heading out to the club for the usual Saturday night. Sunday afternoon I hopped on the bus with Gino and Marissa to head to Ischia Porto where they were to catch their ferry back to Naples as they made their way to Rome.