Recently I went to dinner at a friend's home, who's parents are Dutch (papi) and Italiana (mama). We had an amazing dinner of mozarella di buffalo, a Salerno specialty, salad and pasta with a fresh tomato sauce. Mmm! What was amusing to me is how these two cultures blend in holy matrimony. His parents fought constantly through the dinner, the momma arguing loudly while the father resisted with silent brooding, occasionally tossing irritated glances. On the whole, they still appeared very much in love, and it reminded me how although my mother always warns me of the difficulties of mixing backgrounds within relationships, love really shouldn't allow such a simple boundary. The Dutch, with there mild austerity, critical and superior natures really accent well the Italian boldness, outrageousness and spontaneity. I do not mean to have any of those adjectives come off as 'bad', or negative, but simply common traits I have seen. A funny story we learned that night over coffee- Once, when the father had sufficiently angered the mamma, she proceeded to collect all of their wedding photographs and promptly burned them. The sole survivor of the massacre is a shot of most of the uncles, placed on the mantelpiece and serving as the unitary visual reminder of their deepened lifelong commitment to each other. She told the story with pleasure, while he groaned inwardly (and outwardly) and went to watch TV.