Today we have decided to travel a bit outsite of Barcelona to Montserrat Mountain. It is well known as the site of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary. The stone from the mountain is also used for the construction of Sagrada Familia

We navigated our way through the Barcelona public transit system to reach the R5 train that will take us to Montserrat. We are still inside the Barcelona city system when we board the train. It is already almost full. Nicole and I manage to get seats, but the boys had to stand for the hour long journey. There was a young woman next to me who wasn’t well. half way through she vomitted. She had nothing to clean herself up with. I had a couple of travel tissue packs and another lady passenger had some wet wipes. She was able to clean most of it up, but the aroma travelled along with us the rest of the way. Poor girl.

We have chosen to buy tickets that include a cable car ride up to the top of the mountain. There is also a cog wheel train or funicular that can take you up as well.

There appear to be a couple of events happening on the mountain today. I tried to speak to a few of the participants on the mountain. Language was a barrier, but from what I understood is that they hiked up the mountain, I later discovered, from a gentleman at the Metro stop (who was wearing the event shirts) that it started from a town a bit north, was a 25K event with over 2,000 participants and ended with a significant climb up the mountain. Listening to particpants, there were multiple languages involved. A bit later we saw a number of cyclists arriving at the top as well.

The Abbey is also know for Our Lady of Montserrat or the Virgin of Montserrat or Black Madonna. The image is one of the Black Madonnas of Europe, hence its familiar Catalan name, La Moreneta (“the little dark-skinned one” or “the little dark one”). Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the Church, it is more likely a Romanesque sculpture in wood from the late 12th century. We were unable to secure a viewing for her, so this is best we could do to see her inside the Abbey.

We spent some time inside the Basillica and the surrounding areas. We captured some interesting shots.

We found a discrete spot to leave a bit of Stu. Somewhere new for him!

We headed back down the cable car to the train station for the ride back to Barcelona. It is a very steep descent. A woman in the center of the car is clining tight to the post with one hand and her husband with the other, all while cringing and staring at the floor. Not very much later we are on the train, this time everyone gets a seat!! YEAH!! Not long after the big boys are asleep. All it takes is 5 minutes. They make me very jealous!!

We decide for a non European dinner time at an all you can eat buffet. A place where we saw a lot of young people hanging around the day before. It is quiet inside as we are early. Had an OK meal and wandered back to our apartment. Passing some very interesting doors along the way.

This is our last night in Barcelona as tomorrow we board the Sun Princess for next 3 weeks. Alex chooses to stay at the apartment while Michael, Nicole and I go searching for a little souvenir, Adam decides to go explore a bit of Barcelona on his own. We all arrive back safe and sound to settle into our last nights sleep here.

We have decided that today we will tour Barcelona on one of their Hop-On-Hop-Off buses. It is a beautiful day, the temperature in the low 20C. Great for sightseeing.

We begin in Plaça de Catalunya.  The plaza is one of Spain’s largest, with a surface area of 30,000 square metres.

Our first hop off is the World Trade Center. Accoring to our tour opperator, Barcelona is now the number one port for Mediterranean cruise ships thank to the construction of new moorings at the renowned World Trade Center atthe end of the Barcelona Docks. It will be here where we board the Sun Princess on the 11th.

The city is hosting the America’s Cup sailing race begining in August. This is a pretty big deal here. The appear to have been preparing for quite some time.

We see a couple of interesting sculptures that appear to be floating the harbour. They are looking skyward. This one looks like it and the seagull are having a staring contest. I discovered that these are polyester and fibreglass sculptures, their gaze turned up to the heavens, were designed by Robert Llimós and built by local shipbuilder, they are called the Stargazers.

Alex is getting a tad to close for comfort!! 😉

We hop back on and our next stop is The Miramar Gardens. This the spot where the cable car from the 1929 Worlds Fair ends. The views of Barcelona and Mediterranean Sea are stunning. We find a beautiful spot and enjoy lunch looking over the city.

We wander around the beautful gardens and are thankful for the shade of the large trees. Adam takes the opportunity for a “Rocky” moment with this large stair case. The rest of us were happy just to watch!

We hopped off at another Gaudi creation, Casa Mila. t was the last private residence designed by him. In 1984, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since 2013 it has been the headquarters of the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, which manages visits to the building,[1] exhibitions and other cultural and educational activities at Casa Milà.

The final Hop Off is the Sagrada Família. This is what most people think of as the iconic image of Barcelona. It was designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and has been underconstruction since 1882. It is still under construction and isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2026. That is 100 years since the death of Gaudi. I am sure most people have seen images of this cathedral. None of those images can convey how magnificent it truly is!! The only other sight I have seen that is also this way is the Grand Canyon. To truly appreciate the splendor is to see it in person. I have very happy to have the opportunity to see this with my family!!

We found a nice restuarnt very near to Sagrada Familia as it was time for food!! Nicole and I both had Paella. I had the traditional fish and seafood and Nicole had the vegi version. Alex had onion soup augratin to start and finished with a pasta dish. Adam enjoyed chicken scallops and Mike had a beef dish. I didn’t get photos of everyones, just this.

We made these plans a number of months ago, not long after I returned from the New Zealand Cruise in October of 2023. It was always a long way off. Now it is TODAY!!

I booked a Van Taxi to pick us up today. Arriving at the Lewthwaite’s on Stanton at 6:45 and then making their way to me in Pitt Meadows by 7:00am. We did this on the way to the cruise port in September with Dana, Callum, Aidan and I and it worked out just fine. They must have put many many more KM’s on this van since then (if it was the same van)! It was pretty rough. The small speed bumps in our lane in Pit Meadows made groaning noises below. It was a long hour in this van on the way to YVR, giving us all a bit of anxiety along the way. However, not as much anxiety as hearing about the WestJet labour dispute that threatened The Lewthwaite’s on Stanton’s trip. They were flying WestJet and I was booked on Air Canada. Thankfully WestJet reached an agreement with their Mechanics and the dispute did not affect our travel day.

We arrived at YVR with plenty of time. My flight was leaving at 11am and the others an hour and a half or so later. They flew through Calgary and I through Toronto.

They were very long flights for all involved. The Lewthwaite’s however, had an very unruly toddler behind in the row behind them that made their’s feel even longer than the 9.5 hours that it was.

I arrived in Barcelona about 10:30 local time, spent 45 minutes in the line for customs and after a bit of searching found the baggage carousel and my bags. I settled down for a nice peaceful wait for the rest of my family, continuously searching for their flight on the Info board so that I could let them know which carousel to pick up their bags. The WestJet site said that they arrived early, but nothing showed up in the terminal. I noticed that the WestJet site said the were arriving at Terminal 2. I was at Terminal 1. Off I go to figure out how to get to Terminal 2 as our accomodation had arranged for transportation based on their flight. Not to difficult, just had to find the free shuttle bus. No big deal. I found the cab driver, but we had to wait an hour. Even though the flight arrived early, the customs line and big delays in deliverying the luggage added a lot of time. Finally they arrived!!

We had a much nicer cab van to take us to our apartment here in Barcelona. We enjoyed looking at the architecture as the cab driver navigated the busy streets.

Michael and Adam went exploring while Alex took a much need nap as the toddler didn’t allow him any sleep over night. Nicole and I sat in the living room listening to beautiful birdsong from our terrace. This is a beautiful spot.

When Michael and Adam returned we all succumbed to our exhaustion. We all had a much need sleep.

We ventured out for dinner and found a great spot. Pasta, risotto and beef were our choices. A very nice little spot. They even brought us some shots. Apparently, Gin, Pineapple juice and something red. Very yummy. Cold and refreshing. I was the only one not able to down it in ONE. 🙂

After dinner we continued walking and found more beautiful buildings and parks. Alex didn’t bring his camera this time. The light wasn’t the best for his purposes, but we will make sure he gets back here to get some awesome shots.

Barcelona has an Arc de Triomf as well. It was built in 1888 as the gateway to the fair which was held in the Parc de la Ciutadella.

We made our way back to our apartment, stopping for Gelato along the way, as well as a stop at a small grocery store for drinks and breakfast food. Once home we made plans for our next 2 Barcelona days. Stay tuned!!

This year Michael, Nicole, Alex and Adam were planning a European cruise. When I arrived home from New Zealand they invited me to join them and I jumped at the chance to travel with another part of my wonderful family. We are cruising on the brand new Sun Princess from Barcelona round trip for 21 days. I talked Lindsey into coming with us as well. She can’t take the whole 21 days, so she will be joining us in Rome on the 18th of May.

More wonderful adventures!!

We have been on the road for approximately 3 weeks for me, and 4 weeks for Greg and Leslie.  I know that I have some very stinky socks among other items.  Greg and Leslie are in a similar situation.  Our little villa has a washer.  We can do a load and let the Tuscan sun dry our clothes.  Good plan.  We put in our clothes, try to figure out the controls that are obviously in Italian.  We do a load and when the washer is finished we pull out our clean clothes.  They are dripping wet!  The spin cycle has not happened.  We try the “Centrifuge” setting, nothing happens.  The next day we ask our hostess.  Even she isn’t sure if the button that means “spin” should be pressed in or left out.  By that time we have used our muscles to wring out as much water as we can.  They are now drying in the sun.  We dare not leave to do anything as at any moment another thunder storm could pop up.  So we take a chill day.  Read, catch up on my blog, keep wringing the clothes.  Almost dry, we bring them in as we have a private pasta class followed by wine tasting and appies, with our hosts at 4pm.

Our class is very small.  Just the 3 of us.  Martina is the translator for her Mom Giuliana.  She is the teacher, she has the experience.  It is clear that she loves what she does.  We think she understands more English than she lets on, but is not comfortable speaking very much.  She does enjoy the oohs and aahs as she demonstrates how to prepare the pasta.  It seems that in very short order we have 3 plates of different pasta that we will take back to our villa to eat over the next few days.  In this class we did not use the magic pasta machine, just a rolling pin and our muscles.  😊

After the pasta is made we get a tour of the wine cellar.  Martina explains the process that they go through to make their wine.  After harvesting, the put the grapes into a concrete tank.  I have not heard of this method before.  After the grapes spend a couple weeks in the tank they are removed and pressed to remove the skins.  Here they sell the skins to a distiller who will make Grappa from them.  It is illegal for them to produce the Grappa themselves due to the high alcohol content.  They put the wine in French Oak and Slovenian Oak barrels to age.

After our tour of the cellar we return to the room where we made the pasta.  Here we will be tasting some of their wine and having some appies.  Oh my, we were not expecting such a feast!  We certainly don’t need dinner tonight.  This filled us up pretty well.  All in all a wonderful experience!! 

Lindsey is leaving today, hopefully.  The plan is to do a bit of a Tuscany tour and then head to Pongobongo for her to catch the train back into Florence.  She has a hotel booked there so she can catch her flight tomorrow morning.  She and I head out to the property to make a Stu deposit in this place.  He was really looking forward to this section of our trip as well.  In the original version of this itinerary, this would be the first time we were hooking up with Greg and Leslie.  These people were the reason he was so looking forward to this villa and Chianti and Tuscany.  There is a beautiful swimming pool here with views out to the rolling hills of this area.  As he loved hanging at a pool and obviously stunning views, we choose this place to leave him, under an olive tree.  It is a very grey morning, but I have confidence that he will often be soaking up the sunshine along with the views.

We head off in the car.  The destination is Volterra.  This also is a medieval fortified hill town.  On the way we take some photos, some from the car, others we stop at a viewpoint for some better views.  The storm clouds are roiling in the distance.  We can see the rain heading towards us.  As we get back into the car the rain just comes pounding down.  It is so hard we can only laugh.

We arrive in Volterra, which is know for it’s alabaster.  It is time for lunch and we find a little brewpub-ish type establishment.  Not long after we sit and order, the clouds open up again!!  We are under a large umbrella, so feel happy to have a covered spot before the deluge hits.  Not long after the seams between two umbrellas spring a leak and lots of water is pouring onto our table.  We move the table away from the little waterfall, but it is cold and wet.  We have ordered food, but it has not been delivered yet, so we make a break for the indoor seating.  A nice dry spot at the back of the restaurant is just what we need just now.  Our food is delivered.  We have ordered burgers here.  They tell us that they are cooked for a very long time at a low heat.  They tell us that the inside may look pink, but not to worry, it is definitely cooked.  This apparently prevents the meat from becoming chewy.

I missed food photos.  I guess we were too hungry.  The weather is very crazy!!  The sun comes out, the rain comes out, repeat, repeat, repeat!!

We are soaked after not seeing too much of Volterra so we start the journey to Pongobongo (Poggibonsi) so that Lindsey can catch the train.  We still drive through unsettled weather, but get her to the train on time.  Safely on the correct platform we leave Lindsey for her trip to Florence and eventually back home.  The cancelled flight messed up plans, but she was able to see this beautiful part of Italy, which she would otherwise have missed.

Back to our villa, we are making a dinner of leftovers with a beautiful fresh crunchy soft loaf of fresh bread.  Can’t beat that!  YUM!!

We wake up to bright sunshine.  We are in a beautiful part of the world for sure.  Here are some photos of the villa and the surrounding hills.  We have a Lamborghini (tractor)!!

Exploring our village of Castellina is on the agenda for today.  There is much more to this little village than we saw yesterday as we stopped to eat as we were hungry.  Today we can wander leisurely.  We see a cute little “Luigi” Fiat parked on the street.  Lindsey is standing next to it for scale.  It is a tiny tiny car.  Next we see this Harley Davidson, but not your run of the mill Harley Davidson.  It is causing a bit of a stir in town.  😊

This is a very old village.  It has Etruscan roots.  The Etruscan civilisation dates back to the 900’s BC.  Just a couple of years ago.  Here are some images of the very vibrant little village.  Lots more  than I had expected.

Our hostess has a list of recommended restaurants in Castellina.  We pick one with a lovely view on their rear patio as it is Lindsey’s last day.  We need to wait for a large family party to finish before we can be seated.  We debate just sitting inside, but the gentleman at the front convinces us that it will be worth the wait.  He was right!!  Stu joins us for our lunch.  Lindsey and I share an antipasto and a primi of Pici pasta with beef, Leslie and Greg share an antipasto of stuffed zucchini flowers, Leslie has a risotto and Greg toasted bread with lots of great stuff on top.  Pesto, cheese are a couple of them.  They have a very extensive wine list.  They are a Restaurant, a Winery, a Shop and a high end Hotel.  It is called “Squarcilupi”.  Apparently a very old family in this area.  It was a fabulous meal.

Wandering up to the Castle we see an unusual sculpture.  This is what I learned about it. The Siena based sculptor and artist Alberto Inglesi built this sculpture for the small village of Castellina (2850 inhabitants) at the border between provinces of Florence and Siena. Background of the sculpture is the historic rivalty betweeen cities of Florence and Siena. But his sculpture “Allegoria del Chianti” on Piazza del Comune shows as well, that this two famous and beautiful ladies have created in the area in between also the wonderful Chianti wine, illustrated by a grapevine connecting them. The place is located in front of the Museo Archeologico del Chianti Senese and the local castle.

We are all very full after our wonderful lunch.  We have a later snack, copying the lunch we had in Siena.  We found some soft cheese in the shop, topped oven toasted bread with garlic and olive oil, with a bit of pesto, the soft cheese and sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts.  Oh my god, it was sooooo delicious.  Greg headed for an early night while Leslie, Lindsey and I played our own version of Farkle. 

Another wonderful day!!

Well, we are up and running.  Checking out of our little apartment after a week.  We have train tickets, or at least Lindsey does, at 11:38, (I have paid for tomorrow, as I was supposed to meet Greg and Leslie again after Lindsey left) for a place called “Poggibonsi”.  I can’t seem to get the name of this place straight in my brain, so I am calling it “Pongobongo”  😊  Greg and Leslie are checking out of Siena and picking up a car and some groceries.  We will arrive at our destination at approximately 12:44 and wait patiently for them to arrive. 

We took up 4 seats on the train.  We feel a bit guilty as the train is quite busy.  There is no place to store our larger bags, so they are in the seats with us. 

We change trains at a place called Empoli.  The next train we are on is much less busy.  We have approximately and hour on this train.  This area of Tuscany has many cyclists.  This train has a section to accommodate them.

We arrive In Pongobongo a bit late.  The train station has a bar.  I head in while Lindsey sits with our bags on a bench in the shade of a tree.  I return with 2 nice cold Birra Moretti to enjoy in the warm sunshine.  As we wait, we look at our bags and start to feel that the car might be too tight with 4 adults, bags of 4 adults and the provisions that Greg and Leslie are picking up.  I switch the SIM card in my phone to my Canadian one, so that I can text Leslie.  With my Italian SIM I can only call or text Italian numbers.  Not the most convenient, but not the end of the world.  I text Leslie to say that we can grab a cab to our accommodation so that they don’t have to pick us up.  We get a reply that they are almost there, so we hold pat.  Once they arrive we need to repack the little Citroen like a 3D puzzle.  All set, we are off to our “Luxury Villa in Tuscany”!!  Woo hoo!!!

We stop in the little village nearby, Castellina di Chianti.  Stopping at one of the first restaurants that we see, we have pizza for lunch, we are starving.  When we pay we discover that there is a 3.5 Euro “Coperto” charge. This is a common charge in Italy, usually to cover sitting at a table, cutlerly, table linens etc. We sat outside with paper napkins and had basically takeout pizza. A bit exhorbatant. We will be more careful. 12 Euro is about $18 CAD just to sit down!! Also pick up some wine in town before we arrive at Agrotourismo Rocca, it is so lovely.  This is the kitchen/living/dining room.  There are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  The setting is beautiful.  A vineyard and olive farm.  Some people take naps, some people don’t.  While the naps are happening thunder and lightning rolls in and the clouds open up.  The rain is absolutely teeming down.  I don’t know how someone (Lindsey) can sleep through this thunder. 

Greg and Leslie leave to pick up milk, cheese and other perishables that they didn’t want to pick up earlier as the long car ride would not be good for those items.  Just after they left a HUGE thunder clap rocked the cottage.  They were on the road when that happened!  They arrived back, like drowned rats.  The power keeps dropping and coming back on.  No one was going to go out for dinner.  We improvised with what we had.  I had some local pasta from the Cinque Terre area and pasta seasoning packets from the Central Mercado in Florence.  Leslie had picked up some tomatoes.  Great Italian dinner!!

The Tuscan/Chianti adventure begins!!

We are off to meet Greg and Leslie in Siena today.  We need to catch a train at 8:08 and have a 15 minute walk.  So it is an early morning for us.  An alarm at 6am in order to get everyone caffeinated 😉  The streets of Florence are very quiet this morning.  The Ponte Vecchio is empty, no annoying tourists jamming up the roadways.  Hahaha.

We find our train and next thing we know we are in the ancient walled city of Siena.  An interesting feature of this city is the system of escalators and moving walkways from the train station to the upper streets of this hill town. There is an interesting sculpture near the train station

Siena was a financial rival to Florence until 1290’s.  The Medici’s took control of the financial empire of Tuscany and Italy.

There are 17 areas or neighbourhoods of Siena.  They each have their own flags and colours.  They even have colour coordinated street lights unique to their neighbourhood.  From what we hear and see they are very competitive with each other.  Twice a year they hold the Palio which is a crazy horse race around the square they call the Campo.  Each neighbourhood has a rider.  We were able to watch some video and it is very intense.

The architecture here is amazing.  Everything is soooo old.  I find it so fascinating.

Here is The Campo.  This is the spot that they do the horse racing.  They seem to cover the stone walkways with dirt in order to allow the horses to run.  It must be quite a job to get the surface stable enough for horses to run somewhat safely.

We find ourselves in front of the cathedral.  It is very ornate.  One to rival the one in Florence.  As we are gazing at the magnificence of the cathedral, we look to the left and see a series of arches with “Opa” written on each one.  We are stunned!!  Opa is here with us!!  Trying to find  out the significance of Opa.  From what we can translate from the signs, it has something to do with opera.

The doors are decorated with many different things. Just a sample of some of the more interesting ones.  Also a building with a plaque that says it was built in 1691!! I am trying to find out what these rings are along the buildings.  Sometimes they are at a height where they could be used to tether horses, but sometimes they are very high up, so unless you were a giant, and I mean a real GIANT you would not be able to tie your horse to it. 😊

As Sienna is getting pretty busy.  We find a little bar for some bevis.  We enjoy a drink called Hugo.  It is generally made with sambuco, mint, lime juice and soda.  This place has a version that uses basil instead of mint.  Lindsey orders the basil while I order the mint.  Very very nice.  We enjoy this and order another round.  As the bartender is basically a chemist, so the drinks do take a while.  By the time we get our second drinks it is almost 7pm.  Lindsey and I have booked the train back to Florence at 8:18.  Woo we better get a move on. 

We drink up and head off.  We plan to stop at Greg and Leslie’s place for a peak at their view and a potty break.  We then head off at a quick pace to the train station.  As we were so intent on our pace, we missed our turn.  Greg asks a shopkeeper who tells us we are way off course.  We make a uturn.  My cell phone is only at 20%, but I turn on google maps.  It tells me that we will make the train station at 8:24. Hopefully the train is late!!  We are almost running.  Greg and Lindsey with their long legs are way ahead of Leslie and I.  We get to the top of the town and the escalator series.  We are passing people as we go.  Rush rush rush.  We rush into the station.  There is no train ☹  We have missed it!   There is one more train though, whew!!  So we now have just over an hour until the LAST TRAIN TO FLORENCE.  Off to the mall across the road to see if I can buy a plug for my USB cable so that I can charge my phone.  Our train tickets are on my phone, so I need some power if we get a ticket check, which is very rare in our experience on Italian trains.  The stores that are open, do not have what I need.  Booooo.  We also need food.  Head to the food courtish area.  Woo hoo the Poke bowl place has USB plugs!!!  I sit and plug in, so we need to try Italian Poke bowls.  I have never had an non Italian Poke bowl, so I have no point of comparison. 

We head back to the train station, leaving plenty of time for the train.  As this is the last train, it is smaller, only 2 cars.  It has also had it’s better days behind it.  We are happy we are on and as the train begins to move, we see a young woman loaded with bags make her way to the platform.  We lock eyes with her, the train is moving, she can’t get on.  We do the universal sign of OH NO!!!  She shrugs and waves goodbye to us.

The passengers on the train are a bit sketchy at this time of night.  We do however make it to Florence unmolested.  YEAH.  We have already walked over 20,000 steps today and some of it double time!!  We catch a cab outside the train station.  This is another wild ride.  He is whipping around the narrow Florentine streets.  Finds a street he wants is closed.  He grumbles and whips around the more.  Does manage to get us home in one piece.  Phew, time for some wine!

As Lindsey’s phone now connects to the wifi in our place, she says “On No, Your flight has been cancelled!!”  Oh crap, Air Dolimiti has cancelled her flight from Florence to Frankfurt on Sunday.  They said they would let her know soon what will happen.  No further email.  She clicks the link to “Manage Booking” button and discovers that they have rebooked her for Tuesday!!  No help from anyone.  Call Luftansa, call Condor, call Dolimiti.  Around and around the circle.  The wine continues.  Phone calls, emails, online chats…  

Lindsey’s memory of our trek to the train station is “of her running through the streets of Siena. Jumping over dogs.” Reminds me of the old OJ Simpson Hertz add running through the stations jumping over luggage. Only, the oldies may remember this, the days before the fall of the Juice!!

Then another email arrives.  It is informing Lindsey that she has been accepting into a Library program that she has applied for.  The HIGH!!  Today we are UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP.  We are spinning.  So, the plan.  Lindsey and I will go back to meet Greg and Leslie in Tuscany tomorrow.  This was the original plan, but timing just did not work out.  It is 2:30, we drank all of the wind, we need sleep.  Good night!!

OMG a Day for the record and memory books for SURE!!

Today Lindsey and I have booked a pasta making class.  The location is straight across the Ponte Vecchio, about 15 minutes walk.  The morning is lovely as we start out towards our cooking venue.  The shops on the bridge are just starting to open up. 

As we approach our destination we see our Chef Vary standing outside waiting for her students.  We are the first to arrive.  There will be 10 of us for this class.  We are the only Canadians among 8 Americans.  A couple from Chicago and a family (sister Moms each with their 2 daughters) from South Carolina.  Dad’s are off doing some other activity this morning.

At the work surface we each choose a station.  Each station has a bowl with 100 grams of flour.  Some have an egg, others some water and olive oil.  Once has a mix of flours, one with a whole grain.  Each one will make a different pasta.  The one with the egg will make ravioli, the one with the flour, water and oil will make a short spiral pasta and the one with the multiple flours will make a long noodle pasta, square in shape.

We mix our ingredients to make a dough.  Once this step is done, Chef Vary wraps each ball of dough in plastic wrap and puts them into the fridge to “rest”.  While our dough rests, we get busy cutting and chopping the rest of the ingredients we will need.  Tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, onions and most importantly basil.  We also mix ricotta cheese with lemon zest for the filling for the ravioli. Today we will be making pesto again.  This time using walnuts instead of pine nuts and also a bit of sun dried tomatoes.  The onions are coated with olive oil and sautéed to caramelize them. This will top the ravioli.  The tomatoes are mixed with olive oil and a rosemary, garlic, spicy pepper along with olive oil.  This sauce will top our long pasta.  The short spiral pasta is cooked with diced potatoes and the green beans.  Later to be topped with the pesto sauce.  Our creations complete so we sit down for our lunch with some tasty wines, of course.  We enjoyed meeting our classmates and hearing of their experiences in Italy and where they are off to next. 

Our bellies full of good food and good wine, we leave this lovely little wine bar in Florence and head towards Bardini Gardens.  It is also on this side of the Arno River.

We walk past a parking garage that has Ferrari products in it’s windows.  I am interested in some of the items so we go in to enquire about them.  This is no regular garage.  Look at how tightly parked these vehicles are!!  We ask the fellow looking after us how they do this, as there is no way they can open a door once the car is in place.  He doesn’t have the English to describe it to us, but pulls on the bumper of one of the cars and it slowly rolls out towards us.  It seems that they are in neutral and somehow they maneuver them into place.  Not sure, they are magicians!!

Continuing along the way we stop to look for a Geocache.  There are many nooks and crannies in the walls along the way that used to be the anchors for marble slabs that once decorated the walls.  Now they are great places for birds to build nests and for some people to stash trash.  While hunting for this cache Lindsey finds this note tucked into one of the holes.  How romantic!!  Here is another parking masterpiece.

We climb the hill to reach the Bardini Gardens the views of Florence are stunning.  We find a lovely spot with beautiful views to take some photos of Stu, The Travelling Fish.  We wait for the discreet moment to leave some of him to enjoy the view of the Duomo and it’s bell tower.  Feeling glad and grateful for this spot.

The sunshine is fading away and the wind is picking up.  We move to the little bar here.  We order some wine and enjoy the views as thunder rumbles above us and the rain begins to fall.  We finish our glasses of wine and the rain is still falling, so we order more!!  What else could we do??  It would be rude not to.

The rain does start to ease, so we head back to our home away from home.  Looking back on the lovely staircase to the garden bar and along the river as we go.  We notice now that the shops have their umbrellas at the doors of their shops to entice those who might make an impulse buy.  Very clever!!

After some R&R in our place the aromas coming from our next door new favourite restaurant are too much for us to resist.  Back we go.  More yummy food!!  Brenda we are enjoying each mouthful!!