A Civil Ceremony
On a beautiful September day I began to feel rather nervous because within a few hours I would be officially married! A strange feeling? Most definitely! However, despite the nerves everything went very well. The build up was of course worse than the actual event with many things running through my head. What if I had to read something out in Italian only to stumble over my words? What if I didn't understand what was being said? But I decided if it all went horribly wrong I would just have to laugh about it.
Felice had arrived at the Town Hall first with his parents in tow after he had gone to collect them. I arrived shortly after with my parents closely followed by our witnesses, Felice's sister Maria and husband Roberto.
We were led into a small but comfortable room (they even laid the red carpet out for us!) and were greeted by a pleasant gentleman in his late 50's who was dressed in a smart suit and an official sash with the Italian colours blazed across it. He began his speech. I listened intently, only hearing part of what he was saying as I desperately tried to understand. Fortunately it wasn't too complicated and I realised I would only have to say "Si" at the appropriate moment!
Ten minutes later it was all over. I was presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers that I kept pricking my fingers with as we left the building. After that, we could then relax and enjoy the food on offer at the local restaurant we had booked. Speaking of which, I don't think my parents were quite prepared for the amount of food on offer and probably ate enough to feel full for the following week!