Sand Castles and Sardines

On Sunday we left Greece after what has been an unexpected, fascinating and wonderful month. Ed’s sister Alex and Dad David have been out to visit and we have enjoyed showing them some of our favourite spots as well as visiting some new places.

Enjoying a Thess sunset...

...with a coffee

The day before Alex’s arrival we explored the old town up on the hill and decided to visit Thessaloniki’s zoo. We’re not quite sure what has happened to the zoo, but its population consisted of some deer, a flock of sheep, some rogue goats stood on top of a shed, and confusingly, pigeons in a cage. It was unclear whether they had broken in or had been put there by design. There was also a solitary pelican, living in a pond with a large number of ducks. Most of the enclosures were empty and it was a rather sad place, clearly the money had run out some time ago. We did pick up a stray kitten however, who followed us round the entire time and even to our car. It took a lot of will power not to take her with us and smuggle her back to England!

Cutest cat ever

Finding very little to excite us in the old town, we drove east and miraculously found a parking space near recommended restaurant Olive and Lemon and had an excellent lunch of meat skewers.

Postprandial tooth pick

The next day Al arrived and we took her straight to Perea for a slap up fish lunch at our favourite restaurant. Instead of sea bass we ordered three Dorades, along with the obligatory enormous Greek salad and some fried courgettes. These underwhelming vegetables are transformed (like most things) when encased in a delicious tempura batter and we proceeded to order them in virtually every restaurant we’ve visited since.

Several fishy on a dishy

Once Ed’s Dad had arrived, we all bundled into the car and spent one of the most enjoyable days of our trip on the beach at Halkidiki. The temperature was about 17 degrees, but the water was still clement so we all went for a swim (except Charlie, who though better of going any further than up to his waist). We played frisbee and did some underwater filming with the go pro, which will no doubt be cropping up on a film in December. 

It was beautifully sunny and we set up our camping table and had a picnic of cheese pastries, tzatsiki, aubergine dip and Greek salad. Sadly Ed was suffering from a bout of toothache and had an impressively swollen gum. Happily Greek pharmacies let you buy antibiotics over the counter so he dosed himself up on those and a load of painkillers (luckily Dr. Cross was with us). After we’d built an impressive sand castle complex with Charlie, the sun slipped behind the hills and the temperature seemed to drop about ten degrees. We suddenly found ourselves in wet swimming costumes on a freezing beach so we deployed our faithful thermos of coffee and made a hasty retreat to the car with the heating on full blast. 

Could be July frankly if it weren't for the Greek person in a bomber jacket and scarf out of shot.

We drove back to Thessaloniki and ate at a well-known fish restaurant in the eastern district of Kalamaria. We wouldn’t have got a table on a Saturday night, only we arrived at 7pm, which is at least two hours before any self-respecting Greek person would think of having dinner, so they squeezed us in. We all shared a delicious whole grilled Kingfish along with, guess what, another mountain of fried courgettes. Ed also realised that in terms of treating toothache, gargling with ouzo is by far the most effective medication and managed to get through about a bottle by himself in this pursuit. 

On Alex’s last day we ate at Estrella, a brunch place that had been recommended to us by our airbnb hosts as well as a random woman in the street, who took it upon herself to tell us to eat there apropos of nothing. Maybe she works for them?! It was actually a little like being in Hackney again – eating eggs on toast surrounded by people much younger and more beautiful than you. Katie ordered a dish that came with ’64 degree eggs’, presumably referring to the cooking temperature. These were a real misfire and were milky and cold. Blurgh. We found it a bit try hard and not a patch on some of the more authentic eateries the city has to offer. 

God these weird eggs are boring

For example, we have recently discovered a meze restaurant in the covered market, which is absolutely superb, so much so we visited it two nights running. Some of the dishes would not have been out of place in Barrafina or Jose’s (our two favourite tapas haunts in London). We paritcularly enjoyed the cod’s roe tarama, octopus cooked in squid ink and red wine (this was divine) and fried sardines served in the skillet. Service was fantastically friendly, a seafood bisque arrives on the table when you sit down, without being requested (or charged for) and the same goes for the raki after the meal is finished – they just leave the bottle on the table. When such a good meal with gallons of wine comes to just £30 you know you’re onto a good thing.

With Ed’s Dad here we have been visiting some of the archeological sites. Ed and Charlie took David to see the ruins at Dion and to visit Mount Olympus. Eerily, while they were there, someone set off a load of flares from Mount Olympus and it was as if Zeus himself was chucking down lightning bolts at us mere mortals. This has rather fuelled Charlie’s imagination and we are pretty sure he thinks the Greek Gods are real. David has been reading to him from an exhaustive, but incredibly dry treatise on the Greek myths by (the generally brilliant) Robert Graves, published in 1912, although we hope he skipped over the more unsavoury bits like Oedipus accidentally killing his father and marrying his mother. 

Actual proof that Greek Gods EXIST

The most impressive of all the sites was Vergina, the place where King Phillip II of Macedonia (or Val Kilmer to us) was buried, along with some other important people.

 

Macedonian royal family

Their tombs were uncovered in the 1970s and it has all now been developed into an impressive museum, containing the artifacts discovered within them (think blingy gold crowns). The whole place was beautifully done and up together. Most Greek archeological sites are presided over by at least five members of staff all chain-smoking next to the no smoking signs and doing absolutely nothing else other than following you around like you might be planning to rob the joint (not unreasonable after we pulled that trick with the Elgin Marbles). Not so at Vergina. The museum sits beneath the mound of earth containing the tombs and around the tombs themselves, so you walk into the hill. We also managed to piggy-back on an English speaking tour, which really illuminated the whole thing. Obviously Charlie was bored witless and all this visiting tombs brought up the Death Conversation again (while we were in Dion, Charlie saw a dead cat and we had to have an extensive conversation about death and explain that all people die and it’s the one thing we know will happen to us. Heavy).

Charlie thinking about serious stuff

Greece was brilliant. It could even be our favourite country so far. This month didn’t end up being quite what we expected, but that’s actually been a positive. The weather has been amazing (it’s rained once) and we have swum in the sea in November!

Good old Thess waterfront

Greek pirate ship

Greek people are lovely and Charlie has milked the situation for all it is worth. One evening we walked into what can only be described as a dessert emporium – row upon row of tiny beautiful cakes and pastries. We were hardly through the door and a waiter had performed the obligatory cheek-pinch and thrust a chocolate biscuit into Charlie’s little paw. We don’t know how he does it.

A cake young sir?

One of our most enduring memories of Greece will be the totally mad driving. You will never see hazard-warning lights deployed with such wanton abandon – they are literally a license to do whatever you want. We’re not sure what the Greek driving test consists of, but if you own a fluffy dice, you probably automatically pass.

We imagine a Greek driving handbook reads as follows:

- Fancy double or triple-parking on a dual carriage way while you saunter off for a coffee? Stick your hazard lights on and go for it!

- Don’t have time to wait at a red light? Flash your hazards and then creep through.

- Lorry driver in need of a wee or a kip? Just stop on the motorway’s slow lane (hazards on obvs.) Everyone will swerve around you.

- And motor cyclists – you don’t need to wear a helmet, just sling it over the handlebars.

However, the longest lasting memory of Greece will in fact be Katie’s hair. In a fit of madness and nostalgia, she decided it would be a good idea to go red again. She got a bit carried away with an over-enthusiastic hairdresser who was already sporting her own garish shade and was persuaded to go for a colour that could only be described as adventurous. At the final reveal, all the other hairdressers in the salon downed tools and gathered round saying things like ‘wow, new you!’ eagerly eying her to see if there would be tears. As Katie was leaving the hairdressers, a stray dog started barking at her. Ed gallantly said it looked nice, but nevertheless, walking past shop windows is now a deeply shocking experience. But it will really annoy Katie’s parents which probably makes it all worth it in the end.

On Sunday morning we began heading home, via a 2,700km drive through eight countries (Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France). We planned to spend a couple of nights in Belgrade, a night in Ljubljana, a few nights in Sonthofen in Southern Germany, probably finishing with a night somewhere like Cologne, then making a mad dash for the coast, a ferry and a pork pie as soon as we hit the white cliffs of Dover. 

On Saturday, the day before we left, we had a quick chat about the journey by way of preparation. It suddenly dawned us that neither Macedonia or Serbia are in the EU (something we should frankly get used to). This means our car insurance didn't cover us, so we spent a panicked two hours researching alternative routes back through Italy or via Bulgaria and Romania (and although we were keen to meet Vlad the Impaler on a dark country road, it would have added serious mileage to our journey). 

Then after some internet sleuthing we discovered we might be able to buy a third party insurance 'green card' at the border to cover us while we drove through. Sounds dodgy and it probably is, but 50 euros and some very careful driving later, we made it through the lawless non-European hinterlands and are safely back in bona fide insurance zone. Mind you, we thought the game might be up at the Serbian border, when they requested our vehicle registration certificate, which is safely filed (at an unknown location) in the UK. We managed to bamboozle the border official by handing them a folder with all our MOT and service receipts for the last 13 years. After about 20 minutes they got bored and sent us on our way.   

We've visited Belgrade (probably the new Berlin - you heard it here first) and Ljubljana (chocolate box) and we're now in Sonthofen, Germany, looking forward to a couple of days R&R, eating wurst and drinking beer.

Myths and Moussaka

Many moons ago we drove from Abruzzo down the coast of Italy to Brindisi to catch our ferry to Greece. The weather was pretty grim by the time we arrived, so we were expecting a rough crossing. Happily this did not materialise and we grabbed five hours of sleep in our cosy cabin before the deafening tannoy woke us up a full 1.5 hours before we docked. 

Ahoy there cap'n

Bleary eyed, we gathered in the boat’s main cafeteria and watched quite an interesting Greek documentary about crocodiles featuring an evil pelican. Charlie is still talking about it. Then, with relatively little diesel in the car we drove through a mountain range with not a single service station for an hour and a half. We were just getting nervous when one appeared through the mist, complete with its own murky swimming pool and a gaggle of Greek coachers, all franticly vying for the pastries and loos.

Our flat in Thessaloniki is basic, although mostly importantly, not a tent. Internet is laughably slow and infrequent (Katie exists in a constant internet rage), the hot water tank lasts for two minutes and there is no washing machine. Nevertheless, our hosts are very friendly and in lieu of these basic services have provided us with fully annotated maps of the city’s best restaurants, filo pie shops and cafes.

Thessaloniki, while scruffy in parts, is a buzzy place and reportedly has the highest number of cafes and restaurants per capita in Europe. It has a lovely waterfront along which you can stroll or ride a bike for miles (we did – our trusty steeds are still with us), or pop into the many parks that lie alongside it. You can also buy pretzels and strange gloopy liquid that we thought was coffee but instead seemed to be corn flour, water and cinnamon. Not an experience to be repeated.

Pretzel C

Every Saturday we visit the local fruit and veg market to stock up for the week. The produce here is amazing and really cheap – for example you can buy a huge bag of spinach for 30 cents. We have been cooking meat-free all the time and getting through tons of aubergines, squashes, leeks and pomegranates.

Ed made this dish by roasting slices of butternut squash and beetroot, topping them with feta, walnuts and pomegranate seeds, with a healthy dash of our Italian olive oil and some Greek yoghurt.

It ain't a beauty but it tasted alright

Then Katie made moussaka (when in Greece…) with a ragu of onions, garlic, lentils, mushrooms, tomatoes and red wine, layered with roasted potato and aubergine and topped with béchamel, feta, parmesan and another unidentified halloumi-esque cheese we found in the supermarket.

Feeling smug about not eating baby lambs. This time.

Of course the reason we came here was to volunteer in a refugee camp – which we did for two weeks and which was a valuable experience. All the refugees in our camp were Syrians and we worked with a team of volunteers from the U.S., Germany, Ireland, the UK and Spain distributing clothes and food to supplement the rations they receive from the Greek government. Warm coats and jumpers were gratefully received now the weather is turning colder.

In the course of a busy day in camp, random moments are overwhelmingly sad. The cheeky smudged face of a child Charlie’s age peeking out of a tent. Watching a smart old couple choose warm clothes from those we have had donated, and wondering whether this is how they expected to spend their retirement. Chatting to a young woman who is three months pregnant with her first baby and thinking about how it must feel to start a family amid such uncertainty. Having been to Syria twelve years ago when it was still a peaceful country, each person in camp represents a familiar life brutally smashed apart.

A lone child in the playground on camp

Working in camp and looking after Charlie was much more challenging than we expected. Between us we covered six days a week, leaving just one day together as a family and very little time for Katie to do her work for PEAS (despite impressions, we are still working a bit this year, albeit ‘remotely'. How very modern). The person left in Thessaloniki probably had the harder deal, negotiating a busy Greek city with one of the most confusing bus systems ever, all with a toddler in tow, and it frequently became a bit much. So it’s much easier now we can spend our last two weeks in Greece with normal parenting capacity.

Charlie thinks Greece is brilliant (we think he likes being in a city again) and our flat is near the railway so one of our favourite activities is to stand on the bridge and wait for trains. Sometimes the train driver even waves and beeps the horn at us! We’ve also found a place where we can hire a bike for him and nearby is a mini road-complex for children to learn in, complete with road signs and pedestrian crossings! 

Police on patrol

Greek people seem to absolutely love Charlie and think nothing of pinching his cheek on the bus, or berating us for putting him in shorts in the ‘winter’ (hello – it’s like 20 degrees people and we are British) or giving him a free banana in the market.

We have been making the most of our extended summer, as only in the last couple of days has the weather turned properly autumnal. We spent a wonderful afternoon on a deserted beach in Halkidiki, and after Katie managed to throw the Frisbee into the sea rather than at Ed, he gamely stripped off and swam in to retrieve it! 

 

A bit like Baywatch

We lunched in the sunshine at Perea, which is jam-packed with fish restaurants. We ordered a whole sea bass to share, which came with the most enormous and delicious Greek salad of tomatoes, feta, olives, (very spicy) peppers, aubergine and onions. The fish was among the best we have ever tasted, and it goes without saying we shall be returning before we leave.  

Whitebait starter... pre sea bass

We also drove over to Pozar to visit the thermal baths, which were in a picturesque setting at the foot of a mountain. 

Steamy

A hot waterfall pours into the pool and you can stand under it and get an impromptu back massage and hair wash thrown in for free. In fact, the whole effect would be rather romantic, a bit like an ‘80s Timotei ad, if it weren’t for the numerous 20 stone Greek men with lustrous back body hair. After that we visited Edessa, a pretty town with some very impressive waterfalls, although we weren’t tempted to try and bathe in these ones. 

Wonky waterfall shot

And what it actually looked like

We’ve also been delving into some Greek myths and visited the archeological park at Dion, at the foot of Mount Olympus. Alexander the Great used to hang out there and in preparation for our visit we watched the first half of 'Alexander' starring a distractingly blonde Colin Farrell. It was pretty ridiculous and our favourite part was when Aristotle lectured the young Alexander and his friends while they lounged around in the ruins of a Greek temple. Oliver Stone did it not occur to you that they would not have been ruins at the actual time this purported historical scene took place?!? Also, everyone in it had Irish accents. There's nothing wrong with that, but we're not sure it was prevalent in pre-biblical Madedonia.

Anyway... Dion is quite an amazing place, somewhat overtaken by wildlife and vegetation, but in some parts, even the mosaic floors of houses and baths are visible.

Thinking of doing the bathroom floor the same when we get home

Ed used it as an opportunity to teach Charlie about the Greek myths but Charlie had a few questions we had trouble answering: ‘Is Zeus like Spiderman?’; ‘What car does he drive?’ and ‘Does the Cloud Palace have a door?’. We concluded that yes he is a bit like Spiderman (throwing lightning bolts, rather than webs), that he likely drives something flashy like a Ferrari and that no, the Cloud Palace probably doesn’t have a door. 

In other (important) news - Charlie has learned to raise one eyebrow. He's been practicing ready for the arrival of his Aunty Alex and Grandpa, who who are visiting for our last week here before we drive back to the UK.
 

Quizzical pirate

 

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)