On the eve of the 23rd, 45 of my colleagues and friends gathered in our new home to party together, celebrate christmas, my new position, and just hang together.
We had several people coming from abroad who were able to attend.
Alberto, who now works at CERN, was coming from Geneva. He's an old friend, we worked together in CDF for quite a while.
Luca, who is at Santander (Spain), arrived with his trolley directly from the airport. I was a tutor for his PhD in Padova.
Andrea, who now works at Philips in Amsterdam, got his PhD when I did. He was working on silicon detectors back then.
Gino, who is now at Purdue University, was visiting Italy with his wife Petra and his kids. It was great to have him here.
Giacomo, who once graduated with a thesis on silicon detectors for CMS, and is now working for Kinsey, was coming from New York.
Gianluigi also graduated with silicon detectors in Padova several years ago, and now works in Munich, Germany. It was fun to see him again after a long time.
Patrizia and Nicola, old colleagues of mine, now work in Geneva at CERN. They arrived in Padova the evening before the party.
Nanni is a professor at University of Cassino. His was a most welcome visit, since I had not expected his presence until Dario told me he was going to come with him and his new girlfriend - congratulations, Nanni!
And of course, the rest of the crew of the CDF-CMS-Padova groups, plus others... It was indeed a nice party.
Food... There was a large salmon, salami, other assorted appetizers for a start. Then Mariarosa cooked her pasta with scampi (the largest scampi I've seen in a while!), two pasticci di lasagne, one pasticcio with artichokes.
Then, we had "seppie col nero", a very special Venetian dish made of cuttle-fish, cooked in their own ink. With white polenta, of course. And swordfish. And roast-beef for those who did not like the former.
Finally, many cakes, baked by our students...
All in all, I think I had 60 empty bottles of good wine to dump in the morning. People enjoyed the party, I am quite sure...
I am sorry I have no pictures to attach here... I decided I would just enjoy the party rather than witness it.