Full plates, mini-breaks and earthquakes

This blog definitely comes with a warning - get a cuppatea or glass of wine before you start, lest you die of thirst before the end. 

The last couple of weeks in Italy have been about food, food and more food. Recently we visited a slightly insalubrious-looking restaurant as is sometimes de rigueur in these parts, but one that was recommended by our new friends Steve and Marion so we gave it the benefit of the doubt. We ordered the antipasti for starter and three pasta dishes thinking this was a reasonable amount of food. What appeared at our table was epic in proportions - the 'antipasti' was about 10 dishes on its own and then the pasta began to show up which is when we realised our mistake. Three dishes turned out to in fact be five (one being a trio) and each one large enough to feed a team of hungry construction workers:
 

Pastageddon

Nevertheless the food was very nice and we got to take the rest home to eat for dinner. Steve and Marion were very helpful people to know and are currently renovating an old farm house, which is surrounded by their own olive grove. They intend to run holidays for foodies once it's finished, which we are sure will be quite brilliant and we've already done one of their cooking experiences (more on this lower down). We went to visit the farm, which was beautiful and Charlie got to sit on another tractor and beep the horn.   

Man, he did not want to leave that tractor

Ed's Mum Jennie came to stay with us for a couple of days and we repeated our trip up to Gran Sasso. This time the weather was completely different - all the snow had melted and it was warm and sunny. We were able to drive up to the observatory at Campo Imperatore and we decided to climb up to a mountain refuge about 400 metres up on the hill, a somewhat challenging escapade given we had a three year old with us. Katie was absolutely determined to get Charlie to the top and cajoled, bribed, threatened and finally carried him up there. The views at the top were rather majestic and there was even a bit of snow. We blamed our extraordinary levels of breathlessness on the altitude, rather than our increased mass and decreased fitness levels.

Mum climbing the path with a view down to Mussolini's place of imprisonment during WWII

Quite a view from the top, plus a lovely example of a glaciated U-shaped valley in the background for all you Geology nerds

A rare photo of Ed smiling and Katie pouting (it's usually the other way round)

After hoofing it up the hill we had BBQ (of course) and then went to San Stefano where a gelato place was open. They didn't have any gelato, but they did have semi-freddo cakes which were a) extortionate and b) strange tasting and mostly consisting of squirty cream. Naturally we polished them off as it would be rude not to. 

Charlie and Jennie wondering how much more strange crockery can be placed on the table

After Jennie left, we had a quiet day waiting for Cate, Paul e famiglia to arrive. Annoyingly the dishwasher decided to break down so Steve and his mates from up the hill came to have a look at it, which was very kind of them. They attempted to dislodge any obstruction by blowing into one end of the waste pipe, which precipitated a certain amount of juvenile guffawing which Katie chose not to participate in. Sadly, all this activity did not result in a mended dishwasher. Once they had left, Ed continued to try to 'fix it' which somehow (Katie still isn't sure how) resulted in him ingesting a large gulp of fetid water from the bowels of the machine. Thus followed ten minutes of Ed retching (unsuccessfully) in an attempt to make himself sick and Katie attempting (unsuccessfully) to conceal her amusement. 

 Cate, Paul, Dylan, Arwen and Quinn arrived late the following evening and of course we got far too excited and stayed up late into the night talking. Unfortunately, we three had decided to go to Rome for two days the next morning. So after just 2.5 hour's sleep (in Katie's case) we joyously leaped in the car and drove three hours down the road to the eternal city. Google maps did its usual trick of sending us down farm tracks on the way to the autostrada (we actually had to stop for a brace of ducks with their ducklings to cross the road!) but eventually we hit the unbelievable chaos that is Rome's traffic, which was all expertly navigated by Ed. We had booked an airbnb with parking, which turned out to be impossible to get into and Ed ended up with our car stuck touching another car. He finally got into the space by engaging in an Austin Powers-esque 53 point-turn-reverse-parallel-park while Katie looked on it awe and dread.

  

Rome was totally manic. I think it's fair to say we picked the wrong day to go. There was a general strike of all public transport, meaning the roads were solid. This didn't stop us from going on an open-top bus tour and immediately regretting it as we sat in the endless traffic fumes. It was also both half term and 'Misericordia' - apparently a 'Jubilee of Mercy', involving a papal audience and some canonising. Once all that had finished the many thousands of pilgrims flocked from St. Peter's Square into the city, each group larger and more infirm than the last. In spite of these many obstacles we saw all the main sites - the Colosseum (awesome - and Ed scared Charlie with lots of stories of lions coming through trapdoors)

"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?"

We saw all the main sights - The Forum, The Trevi Fountain etc. (although we actually thought the Trevi Foundation was an entirely different one and we were slightly underwhelmed by how tiny it was and the total lack of throngs of tourists. Then when we found The Real Trevi Fountain, we realised our mistake. There were so many tourists they were pretty much falling in the water). 

Particularly impressive was The Pantheon, built by the Emperor Hadrian, reportedly one of the better emperors. Mind-blowingly, it was built over 2,000 years ago and is the largest un-reinforced concrete dome in the world. There is a hole in the middle of the dome which strengthens it, and the rain falls through into the building (which is now a church, obviously, because every second building in Rome is a church) draining away as the floor is also slightly convex. Out of anything else we saw in Rome, it revealed the staggering architectural and technical prowess of people so long ago. 

 Our night in Rome was the anniversary of our meeting ten years ago, at Mary and Tom's party in Sussex Gardens in London. We celebrated with a bottle of ten-year old Nicholas Feuillatte champagne (it turned out to be a very good vintage) which we picked up back in September when we drove through Epernay. Then Ed went foraging while Katie put Charlie to bed and found a burrata. For the uninitiated, this is the holy grail of mozzarella, which has had cream added to it, creating a delicious molten centre. It is one of our favourite things in the whole world and an apt celebration of what has been on the whole a pretty good decade!

The next day we had lunch at Gusto - thankfully well off the tourist and pilgrim trail and recommended to us by two people independently, so we knew it would be good. It was an epic-style brunch buffet, but rather than the buffets we recall from our bike trip across the US (where often the only edible item would be a luminous lemon-meringue pie), this was top notch. Tables groaned under the weight of vegetables, pastas, stews, pizza, omelettes, ham, chicken and anything other Italian treats you can imagine. 

2nd plate of 6 in Ed's case

Then a whole table for desserts - tiramisu, brownies, tortes and panna cotta. In short, we gorged ourselves like Roman emperors, but sadly after about seven platefuls we had to stop as the restaurant lacked a vomitorium and peacock feathers are surprisingly hard to find in modern day Rome. We stayed in the city until late that evening and then drove back to Abruzzo, via a minor suburban detour due to a disagreement between Ed and google maps. 

"I will not pose for this foto"

The next day it was up bright and early for possibly the best day of an entire trip so far - learning to cook pasta with Filomena, an actual Italian Nonna (granny) - organised by Steve as a tester for his foodie adventures. We were lucky enough to be invited to their farmhouse and we learned to cook a number of dishes that we then devoured with an extended group of Brits and Italians.

Raviolissimo

The lunch was one of those epic affairs that we thought were apocryphal - 20 people seated round a table outside under a pergola, surrounded by an olive grove.

We ate:

Like the Ferrari showroom but for olive oil (photo Steve Hughes)

1. Bread and olive oil (in fact, an olive oil tasting of five local olive oils including the 'Ferrari of oils' which goes for around €25 a litre). Also with local cured meats.
2. The name of this dish escapes us. It was a mix of chickpea and semolina cooked in water and thickened to a custard-like consistency, topped with fried lardo (bacon) and dried sweet peppers (which you see hanging outside most houses). Charlie ate about 12 of the peppers.
3. Fagioli e zucca: a delicious dish of pumpkin cooked to a pulp with borlotti beans
4. Pasta! The ravioli we made accompanied by Filomena's legendary tomato passata. We filled the ravioli with ricotta (both sheep's and cow's milk, into which parmesan and another hard cheese was added, along with egg yolks)
5. Carne (meat). The regional specialty arrosticini was made from one of their own lambs, recently killed, alongside chicken cooked in the pizza oven. It was wrapped with olive oil and roasted in the hot oven which had made it incredibly succulent, almost translucent with the skin pretty much deep fried. In fact, the closest thing we can think of is a confit.
6. Dessert:

• fresh melon as a palate clenser,
• homemade panna cotta with strawberry coulis
• Gelato from Regina's (the best ice cream place in town) both frutta (frozen yoghurt with strawberry) and crema (a selection of chocolate, caramello etc.)

Washed down with local red wine, of course. And then the local digestive. And then espresso. 

Sun dappled late afternoon delight (photo Cate Hamilton)

Then after all that food everyone lounged around cuddling a lamb who had recently been born on the farm (and tried not to think about its compatriot who we had just consumed).

Katie's work experience on a sheep farm 20 years ago comes in handy

This experience is the tip of the iceberg of what has been a true gastronomic experience over the last month. We've explored the local market in Penne and bought among other things some salt cod, which we had to soak for four days before making into delicious fishcakes. Ed has developed the ultimate veggie lasagne made with a ragu of lentils, vegetables and oyster mushrooms plus freshly made pasta and topped with sheep's milk ricotta which may be one of our favourite dishes so far. We've also discovered the pasta shop in Penne, which can produce fresh tagliatelle, ravioli and tortellini in the blink of an eye with their enormous pasta making machines. And that's not forgetting the mountain BBQ at the top of Gran Sasso, which we have visited three times in as many weeks.

It goes without saying that if you see us over Christmas in the UK, please be jolly nice and don't mention how much weight we've put on. Just say something tactful like 'you're looking very well'. 

As has been well reported in the news, Italy has been hit by a couple of big earthquakes in the last few days. It was deeply alarming to see the house physically shake before our very eyes, but better it did that, rather than what has happened to many of the old towns and villages. But thank goodness no one has lost their lives on this occasion. 

It was with a heavy heart we packed up the car once more and took an overnight ferry to Greece on Thursday. We're sure this will bring it's own delights (we've already been invited to a Halloween party by our incredibly friendly airbnb hosts) as well as its challenges.

We truly loved Italy and are very grateful to Jean and Martin, who have let us stay in their house, as well as their daughter Cate and her lovely family who were such excellent company for our last week here. That's not forgetting Steve and Marion up the road who have helped us so much here and been great at recommending lovely local stuff to do. We hope to be back in Abruzzo at some point, and we chucked some coins in the Trevi Fountain which means at the very least we should return to Rome one day...

Arrivederci Italy (photo Cate Hamilton)

High plain drifters

We have been neglecting the blog somewhat, which is down to a very busy couple of weeks, a couple of visitors, a proper head cold, and a mountain of wood to chop, bookshelves to construct etc. Those are our excuses anyway.

For the last two weeks we have been living la dolce vita and it is wonderful. We know a few Italian ex-pats in London and all we can say is - what were you thinking guys? It is seriously tempting to sell up the Palais de Hackney and stay here forever. Still, I suppose it's easier to be romantic about a place when you can't understand a word anyone is saying and yet still fully comprehend their hospitality.

So about a hundred years ago, or so it feels, we packed up the Alps house and drove another 10 hours further south to Abruzzo - our home for October. On the way we stopped at the Lamborghini museum, which Charlie claimed to prefer to the Ferrari one from two weeks before, although we were somewhat underwhelmed by their basic lack of effort, with just two rooms and about 20 cars. Having said that they did have two of the most beautiful cars ever designed on display so it was difficult to be too crestfallen. 

Concept Miura and we think a Diabolo glued to the wall in the background

We then drove to Sasso Marconi to overnight in a quaint bed and breakfast half an hour's drive from Bologna (our new spiritual home). The B&B was owned and run by an old married couple, Luciano and Loredana, who had between them about as much English as we have Italian so we awkwardly muddled through the initial meeting and felt a little out of place, ashamed at our lack of effort to pick up even a few Italian phrases. However, we needn't have worried as they were the perfect hosts and could not have been more welcoming. They adored Charlie and played with him once he got past his initial shyness. He got to pet their cats (although not the aloof, scratchy but pretty tabby), run around the farm rolling a Frisbee and even sit on a tractor and incessantly beep the horn which was very popular with him but no one else.

"which button is the horn again?"

That evening we put Charlie to bed and sat out under a pergola and celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary with a fusion gourmet picnic dinner of foie gras, parma ham and mozzarella. Sadly it didn't last long enough for us to snap a picture and we were also fortified by copious free wine and beer supplied by our generous hosts. 

The next morning at breakfast we fired up the google translate app and suddenly we could communicate with our hosts! Loredana offered us an impromptu pasta making lesson, which we jumped at. We made fresh egg tagliatelle and watched in awe as Loredana assisted our amateurish efforts to roll out the pasta, showing her years of experience. We've since tried it out again and will hopefully be doing another pasta making lesson soon, so we'll save the gory details of how to make your very own carb-fest for another post. 

Charlie made his own mini pasta dough, which Loredana claimed to be better than ours

After reluctantly leaving the B&B we raced into Bologna to pay another whistle-stop visit before heading south. Luckily we had the trusty bikes so we whizzed through the city dodging pedestrians to eat lunch at Tamburini restaurant, which is more a shrine to ham than an eating establishment. 

Ham salad, ham and cheese, more ham and controversially polpo salad

Then we nipped over to the ice cream shop of our dreams, Cremeria Funivia, before jumping back in the car to drive 4.5 hours south to Abruzzo. We arrived with our hosts, Jean and Martin, rather late but just in time for dinner and clutching our handmade tagliatelle, which went very well with the ragù that Jean had prepared. Jean and Martin are the parents of our very good friend Cate, and have kindly (or perhaps foolishly) agreed to let us stay in their house this month. The house has jaw-dropping views across the Abruzzo countryside right to the sea and to the Gran Sasso mountain. It's near the medieval town of Penne, which we are busy discovering along with the surrounding area.

Over the rainbow

Highlights so far of Abruzzo:

A charming book cafe in Penne, which makes a hot chocolate so thick a spoon stands up in it. 

Chocolate soup

Seeing Ed's Dad who was fortuitously holidaying nearby. Charlie bossed him around incessantly but Grandpa got his own back by chasing the little ragazzo around the beach flinging seaweed at him as Charlie squealed in a mix of terror and delight! 

"dig faster old man"

Having Charlie's best friend Remy to stay with his mum Ellen. These two insisted on having their photo taken in every doorway in Penne.

Visiting the beach in Pineto and astonishing all the Italians wrapped up in bomber jackets by picnicking on the beach and paddling in the sea.

Ed having numerous manly moments chopping wood and building book shelves for Jean and Martin. Katie may buy him a lumberjack shirt for Christmas.

Making our own spinach and ricotta tortellini and vegetarian lasagna, although admittedly with the help of a pasta machine.

They started pretty rough but we got better

But the biggest highlight has to be driving up to the Campo Imperatore. This is a vast alpine meadow about 2,000 metres above sea level surrounded by snowy mountains. 

It was cold, so Charlie opted for the three hoodie look

The best thing is that smack bang in the middle of this huge plain are two makeshift butchers/restaurants. You buy meat, such as sausages or the local delicacy arrosticini (small meat skewers), which are grilled by a man on a BBQ outside. Then eat that with a hunk of bread, some local pecorino cheese and a (small) bottle of Montepulciano. Charlie summed it up perfectly as we sat tucking into this rustic feast in the middle of the stunning mountain amphitheatre - 'Mummy, today is a good day'.

Cheese, meat, bread & wine, what more could a toddler want for lunch?

After that we visited the medieval towns of San Stefano di Sessasio and Castel del Monte, both of which featured in the 2010 film 'The American'. Indeed as we explored the tiny cobbled streets and hidden squares, we almost expected George Clooney to emerge from a dark corner (we live in hope). Sadly both towns are still far from repaired after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and Charlie was fascinated by all the cranes. We were amused to note that the legendary sartorial elegance of the Italians even counts for construction workers, many of whom were wearing chic leather jackets and not a builder's bum in sight.

We've got lots planned for the next week including a couple of cooking classes and it will be lovely to see Ed's Mum, who is popping out for a couple of days. Then our friends Cate and Paul with their three children arrive, which will be wonderful for both us and Charlie. 

By the end of the month, we'll be on a ferry to Greece. We've decided that although it's fun marauding around the countryside like demented beasts devouring everything in sight, we might like to turn our attention to a more worthy cause for a bit. In November we're going to volunteer with Refugee Support Europe, working in refugee camps around Thessaloniki, doing whatever we can to be helpful to people who are far less lucky than we are. So if the weather in Blighty is getting you down (or just the grim politics), then swap a lot of pounds for a few euros and come and pay us a visit.

But before then, there'll certainly be lots more Italian food to tell you about...

Un weekend en Provence

We've had a busier week than expected since last we blogged so brace yourself it's a long one, for a quick hit take a look at this. After we published the last post, an old colleague of Katie's who lives in Provence got in touch and kindly invited us to stay, so we leaped into the car and drove down there for a wonderful long weekend in lavender country.

Before we drove down to Provence we made the most of an increasingly rare warm Alpine day, returning to our favourite mountain hang out in the Nevache valley. We fancied a snack as we arrived in the village and attempted to buy a pain-au-chocolat from the boulangerie, only to find they had sold everything save a solitary, sad croissant. The paucity of stock in local bakeries has become something of a bête noire for Katie, who has become maniacal about beating the smug early birds who nip in there and buy up the whole place. For example, the very nearest bakery in La Salle sells out of all pastries by around 8.30am (but they can be gone by 8am at the weekend). And if you're a fan of a pain-au-raisin (as Katie is), you can forget it - they are rarer than an albino peacock. The boulanger artisinal in Monetier-les-Bains makes just TWO OR THREE every day (and not on Mondays or Tuesdays). Katie has circumvented the problem by ordering the cursed things in advance, so who's laughing now, eh? Someone clearly has too much time on their hands. 

Delicious pastry snail

Back to Nevache... we walked out of the village towards a waterfall and did some scrambling up a land-slid mountain path to sit at the top and eat our picnic. 

We perched on that little rock on the upper left

We gave Charlie a lacklustre lesson in foraging (we're such London folk) which mostly involved identifying some wild raspberries and eating those, and telling him everything else was poisonous. Charlie did his usual trick of rushing down a path and falling flat on his face, which we think is simply a ruse to be carried on someone's shoulders. At dinner that night we cracked open the raclette machine and the vast quantities of cheese gave us very strange dreams.

Meat, cheese, roasted veg and blanched broccoli

We left the Alps in more burning sunshine to make the scenic drive down to Provence, through peach orchards and avenues of plane trees, winding up in the incredibly smart town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Terribly well turned out people were wandering round terribly nice shops and lunching in terribly expensive restaurants (once a habit of ours, but sadly no more). We felt a little out of place eating our picnic of tuna pasta, peaches and coffee in a thermos, perched on the side of one of the town's drinking water fountains, especially when Charlie started trying to wash his hair in it. 

Duck face

The theme continued as we visited the monastery of St. Paul de Mausole, still a working a psychiatric hospital but more famously where Vincent Van Gogh spent the prolific penultimate year of his life and where he painted many of his most famous works. We mistakenly told Charlie about the ear incident before we arrived so he spent the entire visit loudly asking 'but WHY did he cut his ear off Mummy?' over and over again. After being tutted at by a disapproving French woman, our inquisitive pre-schooler was banished to the gardens to drive his toy cars around in the dirt.

'Little Jeff Corvette' cares not for post-impressionism

It was lovely to stay with Lucie, Slawek and their children Alex and Clara. Charlie was ecstatic to be in the company of children and to have access to the best collection of toy trucks he had ever seen. We visited bustling Aix-en-Provence, which was much more our style than Saint-Rémy. 

Post-chocolate-eclair

There was a super food market and we had a rare lunch out at a lovely restaurant in a beautiful square. We ate enormous salads, which the French do so well, into which they chuck everything but the kitchen sink. We would have taken a photo but sadly we fell on them like a pack of hungry wolves given how long it took us to get served (but we'll save a rant about French service for another time). 

All in all it was a pretty good lunch

Next day we went to a beach near Marseille and swam in the totally calm, warm sea, dodging the occasional jelly fish. Afterwards, we were heading back the Alps via the Gorges du Verdon, touted as the French Grand Canyon

Can we get we bit more lens flare?

However realising we had arrived woefully late in the day and conveniently having packed the tent, we decided to camp. We found an unattended campsite, persuaded a camper to let us sneak through the electric gates and pitched our tent. We ate a simple 3 course meal at a nearby restaurant overlooking a lake,

Hungrily waiting

then survived a fairly freezing night under canvas. It was well worth it though as the next day we were able to properly see the gorges, which did not disappoint. First we visited the ridiculously good looking town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, followed by a pedalo ride into the gorge from the Lac St. Croix. A highlight was watching a rather brave/foolish man scale the vertical rock face to jump from a great height into the completely opaque turquoise waters. Equally amusing was afterwards observing every other man in the vicinity almost visibly bristling with the feeling that perhaps they too should put on such a manly show.

We finished off this rather perfect day with a vertiginous 100km drive around the whole gorge, stopping every five minutes to jump out of the car and stare down into the abyss. 

say...

...no...

...more

Almost as stunning as the gorge were the Provencal lavender fields - row upon row of perfectly straight plants - and the most beautiful sunset we have ever seen as we drove back to the Alps in the evening. Sunsets are mostly lost on those not there to witness them but trust us, this was a good 'un. An enormous red orb slipped behind the distant mountains, its fiery hue outlining the surrounding clouds...OK whatever, it was pretty spectacular anyway.

We are very lucky to have visited both Tuscany and Provence in the last two weeks, which are the stuff of holiday dreams. We're now back in the Alps, closing the house down ready for winter. Today a mobile delicatessen turned up in the village square selling a vast array of dry-aged côte de boeuf, charcuterie and local cheeses. So different from the dodgy man selling frozen chicken out of the back of his van that turned up once outside Katie's house when she was a child. Ed made French onion soup for dinner, which happily Charlie wolfed down 

Charlie's breath still smells from this onion based delight

and to our elation he has also started eating tomatoes - although only if doused in balsamic glaze.

On Friday we leave for Italy. France has been wonderful, much wine has been drunk, pastries eaten and hills climbed. Charlie has cultivated an impressively bass, nasal French accent, in which he loves to cry 'saucisson' at the top of his voice. Ed is halfway through writing his first book '100 Ways With A Tin Of Haricot Beans'. And Katie has realised she needs to be less uptight about pastry. We'll be spending most of October near Penne, a little town near Pescara about halfway up the boot on the east coast. We drive down there on our fifth wedding anniversary, when for form's sake, one imagines we'll call a ceasefire on our epic driving-related rows.

Pasta and pirates

We're back from Italia and a hideaway in the hills where internet coverage was at best incredibly dodgy (unless you managed to drain all of Tom's wifi hub data allowance, ha ha).

The hills were actually alive... with grasshoppers

The day before we went we walked as near as we could get to the Meije Glacier at Col de Lauteret and then had a picnic. Charlie heroically ran up and then down a mountain, but fell over just before we reached the car park and slightly brained himself on a rock. Luckily his skull is very thick indeed. 

Then the next day we drove to Italy along the autostrada from the Alps to Tuscany via Turin and Piacenza, before deciding to go on the local roads past Parma, Modena and Bologna in the vague hope that a hunk of Parmesan or a bottle of balsamic vinegar might spontaneously drop through our open car window. Instead, we just had a monumental argument in Parma. It began as a disagreement over parking and then matured into all-out character assassinations. More significantly we failed to get any ham or cheese for which the city is famous. After the remainder of the drive sat in grim silence, we arrived in the beautiful Tuscan hills just in time for dinner and a glass of the excellent local wine which we drank by the gallon.

The ultimate argument diffuser

We stayed at Agriturismo Corboli in the hills outside San Querico about halfway between Bologna and Florence. There were plenty of people staying there, including our friends Tom and Mary with their son James and a two lovely German families with children of similar ages. Charlie had a great week, released from the boredom of hanging out the 'rents. He and James remained in character as pirates for the entire week as well as regularly performing a strange ritual 'ca-chika' dance for the little German girls (à la Gob in Arrested Development).

 

The boys in a rare non-pirate moment

One day we visited Bologna, hired bicycles and visited two stunning churches which were enlivened by Tom's brief but detailed module in the history of architecture so that we're now fully appraised on Gothic arches and flying buttresses. We were unfortunately slightly foxed by the food scene for which Bologna is renowned, as we turned up to an amazing indoor market which was understandably bustling and afforded four adults and two toddlers no space to sit and eat. We eventually compromised by sitting on what admittedly was a sort of hybrid bench-ashtray where we hurriedly stuffed down various pastas in ragu sauce (not the kind peddled by mildly offensive Italian stereotype muppets, thank goodness).

We then made up for this sub-optimal experience by locating the most amazing gelato palace that to our minds has ever existed (Cremeria Funivia). I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's the best ice cream we've ever tried, in fact sitting writing this in the Alps it's almost tempting to drive the 10hour+ round trip to go back for seconds. IT WAS AMAZING. The inside of the parlour looked part science lab part wonka-esque fantasy. We got a pretty decent selection, Charlie had plain chocolate, but there really was nothing plain about it. Katie went for lemon and strawberry sorbet, refreshingly clean and bursting with flavor. Ed went for the triple threat of dark chocolate, cherry and to finish white chocolate and hazelnut. Did we mention how good it was? It was very good.

Before

After

It should come as no surprise to those of you that know us and know Tuscany that we generally ate very well the whole week. Every night after the kids had been put to bed we sat outside, watching the hills turn green-to-pink-to-grey, trying in vain to keep the mosquitoes from feasting on us and putting away about 729 bottles of red wine and pigging out on take away pizza, chicken in white wine, Tuscan sausage and bean stew, or various pastas and fresh tomato mozzarella and basil (the hills were alive with wild herbs which infused everything we cooked with a heady depth of flavor). 

We alternated days hanging out by the pool and occasionally throwing the kids in with more adventurous outings including Siena, which Ed remembered well from a family trip to see the Palio in the mid nineties. Unsurprisingly the close proximity to horses galloping at full speed round the central cobbled square without any adequate barrier to protect the spectators left a pretty vivid memory and he managed to point out the exact point on the circuit where he stood as a teenager. 

This is why Ed usually wears black...

We scaled the Torre del Mangia for more vertiginous views of the city.

"Pirates always climb towers"

Then managed to get the kids to pose for possibly the grumpiest photo they could muster at the top. 

The princes in the tower

View from the top

On the way down

Prior to that we felt we needed a hearty meal to fuel our touristic endeavors so we found a great little buffet serving a lovely selection of pastas, cured and cooked meats and artichoke hearts. James guarded the restaurant and threatened to keelhaul any landlubbers who dared step aboard

About 10 people stopped to photograph him, he's probably trending somewhere right now

We decided to prolong our stay an extra night and this proved not entirely successful as all day Friday we were treated to an antediluvian* rainstorm. We cowered in our tiny lodgings cooking buttery eggs and hotdogs and steadily getting more and more cabin feverish until eventually around 4pm the clouds briefly parted and allowed us to get a very brief sodden stomp down the hillside before dinner. Still we were grateful to have not had to drive through the maelstrom and it was lovely to spend one more day with Mary, Tom and James.

We decided to set off at a leisurely pace for our return to the Alps, and decided to make Charlie's year by visiting the Ferrari factory in Maranello, after first buying him a model F1 car and allowing him to watch the Grand Prix qualifying while eating pizza for lunch. It might have been the best day of his life. 

Ed's favourite Ferrari. Might look in Autotrader when we get back in case we can just pick one up.

As we pushed on North the weather deteriorated and we ended up driving into the Alps in similarly torrential rain as we had experienced the day before. This wasn't much fun on the descent into Briancon in the pitch dark but thankfully the trusty VW delivered us safely back to our home from home and we've settled back into our Alpine retreat. When we woke up the next morning, it was apparent that Autumn had arrived in our absence. So we went and bought firewood from a man missing most of his fingers and ate smores for dinner tonight...

Charlie had such a sugar high he did laps of the room squealing, good reaction...

*Ed's private education is showing here because Katie sure as hell didn't learn the word 'antediluvian' at Theale Green comprehensive. Christ.