I wasn’t prepared to be as sad as I was at the sending off of the students on their journey home. This trip was an interesting one….exhausting (emotionally more than physically) in many ways, but it was fun nonetheless. I will say that there were a few who caused me so much stress that it was a pleasure putting them on the plane.
Oops.
Did I just say that?
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But for the most….well, it was fun. Fun seeing a country/way of life that I love so much thru your first time eyes.
Anyhoo….British Airways was as lovely as ever (and I don’t mean that in a lovely way, either) and we basically got them on the plane (after being at the airport 3 hours early) about 8 minutes before they closed the gate.
For reals.
And then I had to say goodbye to my friend Ambra as she headed back to Rome. And I cried. But now I have a friend to come back and visit...
But what all of that meant was that M and I didn’t pick up our car and head out onto the open, crazy, Italian road until almost 2 hours after we were supposed to.
We were supposed to pick up our car and head to Padua, where we had made a museum reservation months in advance. Oh well. Missed that.
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Ambra suggested Plan B and said we MUST go to Ravenna…2 hours south of Venice. And because she is an Italian and because I like her, we listened.
But first, driving in Italy with a GPS sure makes it easy. Well....easier.
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Gotta love that.
On the way, we stopped and ate a piedina…basically, it’s a flatbread made with ground chickpea’s, grilled and stuffed with whatever you want. My fave is this white melty cheese that I can neither pronounce NOR spell, plus arugula…M’s is tonno (tuna in olive oil) with fresh tomatoes. There are little spots all along the sea road and we just picked one to stop at…the only downside was the bathroom, which was a hole in the ground. Yep. Welcome to Europe.
Ravenna is probably my new love in Italy. Mosaics so incredible they took my breathe away and quite literally brought tears to that guy that I like so much’s eyes. We found paradise and I cannot wait to come back.
I miss my boys.
Lots.
Back to Lucca. We ate two of the scariest meals ever. EVER. We also had the best ever picnics here…prosciutto de parma, parmesan reggiano, toscano salame, fresh bread and olives. Yum.
Yesterday we took a road trip and drove 2 ½ hours to Montalcino…the home of Brunello wine. We stood in a room with a bazillion bottles of bazillion priced wine and tasted one glorious sample after another. We bought one of those bazillion dollar bottles to put away for our 25th anniversary next year…and I (shamelessly) tried the ‘my husband is a school teacher but we LOVE your wine so much and would buy more if we could afford it’ avenue and it was still a no go. No discounts for poor people. I guess in their minds, if I can afford to get my butt to Montalcino, then I don’t need a break on the price of wine.
And I see their point.
Though that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
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I love market days in Italy...though I am pretty sure I wouldn't be buying these.
Icky!