Bellisima, Ciao Bella, Arrivederci!

For the last week we have been enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Italy where we have found things to look at, yummy treats to eat (up to 3kg) and most importantly, things to pose in photos with!

September - Cry for you

After leaving Nice, we spent the day on the coach making our way towards Florence. On the way out of Nice, we stopped at a real French perfume factory and all left smelling like the proverbial French whores.

To break up a long day of driving, we stopped at Pisa to see the leaning tower. Needless to say there was hardly anyone doing a neutral stand posing with the tower and we saw some interesting ideas people had to make their photos fun. Here are a couple we came up with :

The next day in Florence we spent the day taking a group walking tour seeing everything Florence had to offer and statues. Lots and lots of statues. King Neptune. The statue of David. Life size replicas of the great artists and writers, Donatello, Michaelangelo, Leonardi Davinci, Dante, Machiavelli. Hercules. We climbed the Duomo (Thanks for the tip Charlie!), which is a big domed cathedral, and got some fab views of the city and surrounds. As we wandered the streets, we stopped for a macchiato and slice of pizza at this café here, a cappuccino and gelati at that little shop there and after 7 hrs of free time and both a little tired and grumpy, we met up with the group for dinner. The joys of group travel sometimes!



We have both had our moments where we have needed to get away from the little group of friends we have made but after a few hours on our own, we are ready to meet up with them again and continue exploring together.

Lunch the following day was at a winery in Tuscany, in a beautiful, tiny village called San Gimiano. As we enjoyed some antipasti, and then an amazing local soup called Ribollita, we tasted 4 of the winery’s wines and enjoyed the scenery.

It was a veggie soup with loads of cabbage, bread and yummy vegetable goodness.

Ribollita Soup

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling at the table
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 carrotts, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 fresh laurel leaf or 1 dried bay leaf
Coarse saltand freshly ground black pepper
2 cans small white beans, such as cannellini beans
6 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups tomato sauce
3 cups stale chewy Italian bread, crust removed and bread torn into pieces aboutt 1/2 a loaf
1 small white onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped, for garnish
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish

Looking out from San Gimi, it was surrounded by lovely green fields and has the honour of having the most towers in Italy with 76 in the town itself. Walking through the tiny streets was like stepping back in time as many of the buildings were a bit run down and you could see where bricks and walls had fallen away and then been repaired. Quite extraordinary. It was a great day and we were both looking forward to seeing loads of history as we continued our journey onwards to Rome.

Observations:

• I wasn’t aware before the trip but after watching Gareth eat an apple a day, I’ve noticed he gnaws on them like a little rat