Dining table of Italian family

"You wanna rice? Yeah, of course. 'Cos You are Japanese" I was said so and served risotto. Although the most famous resort in Sicily, Taormina didn't have crowd in winter. I was the only guest in the pensione. So I became a lucky person to have dinner with owner. Carmella and Pricila who run the pensione were sisters. (I could not call them as current Italian beauty queens. But they must be ex-Miss Italiy) The guest house was run by the sisters except summer. And during the summer, their children came to Taormina from Palermo for running it. Instead of them, Carmella and Pricila lived at house in Palermo. It's their routine.

It's true that family was very important factor for Italian. For example, even after children got married, they still have a strong relationship with parents or brothers as a grand family unit. Even Carmella who live apart from her child, she seemed to get touch with her children very well. Maybe without such a good relationship, they could not run the Pensione together.
One good example which I saw expressing strong bond of Italian family was that all the relative lived in same apartment house. All the family members came together at their boss's (grand pa's) apartment every night and had dinner. They took plenty of time over the dinner. They enjoyed mamma's (grand ma's) dishes and conversation with another member. It's interesting that even grown up children who had own family lost their dignity in front of their grand father. That's Italian family.

Carmella's risotto was different from the cuisine of Italian restaurant I knew. It's a simple boiled rice. The dining room was lighten up with reddish light of late afternoon. "We saw Japanese opera <Madam Butterfly> recently" Carmella and Pricila talked to me over the dinner. Unfortunately I didn't know the story of Madam Butterfly. However the dinner time with the sisters was happy to me. And I really enjoyed it.
After all I reached to the definition that Italian family must exist for having the wonderful meal all together.