Avignon

We are back in France after a really long day's drive. I was a really good sport for one night at the Formula 1. It has bathrooms down the hall. Showers like a sauna and minuscule towels.

This is breakfast French McDonald's style

 I made Tom bail and we are staying the next few nights at a slightly upgraded hotel with ac, a cockpit bathroom and brewed coffee for breakfast. It is Hot. In the 90s. But not so bad sitting in the Pope's palace gardens. 

But first we had to climb up. Good thing I did some stair practice at home.

We had lunch yesterday in Beaumes-de-Venise home of our favorite muscat desert wine. Bought some too.

We'll try it out at our Gite in St Columbe we need access to refrigeration.

Seafood cooking Italian style

We did it all- fish, squid, shrimp, mussels, clam and even eels. Sautéed, fried, braised, and pickled. 

We started by meeting Gabriella the teacher and Lorenzo the translator at the pier in Viareggio. We were supposed to pick up our fish at the stalls set up by the small boat fishermen but the weather had been iffy and the boats had not gone out. The big boats sell all their fish at 2 o'clock in the morning at auction and then it is flown by plane from Pisa to Milan. The local shops and restaurant owners get second dibs at 4 am. The general public doesn't have access and has to make do with what the small boats bring in.

After following Gabriella to her home about 5 miles a way we sat in her garden and discussed food and menu.

We cooked, then ate.

These are some interesting crustations the big eyes are on their tails.

 We made pickled eels 

Stuffed mussels and cooked them in tomato sauce

Wrapped shrimp in "lardo" - special pork fat salted and aged in marble tubs and then fried.

Pasta with seafood(sorry no photo) and fried fishes

Here are the shrimps, mussels and eels.

And last but not least dessert! Goat's milk ricotta mixed with lemon peel, sugar and whipped cream, served with strawberries. Even though we were stuffed to the gills we ate it all. We even made it in camp. Yum. 

After all that food and 3 bottles of wine and homemade lemoncello we had to go back and lie down.

I might make the eels if I can ever find any, and the pasta was really good too. The Italian Passata is different from our tomato sauce. I will have to try and find some when I get home.

My "museums" and "cathedrals" are grocery stores

Just drop me off at the closest Mercatone Uno or Lidl or Coop - I really want to see what 21st century Italians are doing and let others have my spot looking at the 14th century. I love to check out the entire 150' long aisle full of every known pasta - and discovering the million different mozzarella options. And how about what they think a cookie should look like? And how come their bunnies are 1/4 the price they are in Burlingame. 

Duncan figured out the special shopping carts. This Essalunga store had 2 underground parking floors with a lovely escalator ramp getting you up and down. they did't like the idea of some heavily laden shopping cart missile rolling down the ramp, held by a 90 pound grandma so they have magnetic locking wheels. As soon as the cart gets to the bottom, wheels unlock and grandma can head off to her Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Dacia, Kia, Peugeot, Renault or whatever the heck she's driving. 

Dudes, I have seriously lost karma

Take a look at this Gran Fondo Mario Cipollini directional sign. Us bike goons make a habit of helping clean up after bike races by snagging directional arrows and signs - Hey, we're boys! Almost without fail these signs are just good for 1 event and the organizers like spreading their "brand" as far as possible - we are, after all, their target audience. They like them showing up in garages, bedroom walls, dining rooms, etc. (just kidding about dining rooms....). But this is a re-usable sign - see the peeled away date? I am going to burn in hell - and look at the grommets to attach these signs to poles - this is a high class board and now the Mario Cipollini Police are probably setting up roadblocks....

Let's start at the beginning.....

Here is the car we leased - a Citroen Berlingo. And it is sitting outside our cabin. Fortunately it is on the outside of the camp ground overlooking a field of some mysterious legume. I think they are fava beans.

Here is Tom working on his post.

My iPad is very popular, I bought a chip at the Vodaphone store for unlimited data woohoo! Everybody wants to use it for Internet, mail, banking etc. Tom is reduced to using it since the campground doesn't have wifi. That's pronounced weefee.

So far we have spent time in Cinque Terre. Taking a crowded train and a rough boat. Jessie an Duncan liked it so much they took the train back for a second day.

Sienna - just imagine this piazza during the high season or the Palio (horse races - look it up).

And even better this is where the infamous "Strada Bianchi" bike race finishes in march every year. We did see some of those white rock roads on the way into town - they were Dude Awesome. 

San Gimignano where we were really glad we got there at 9 am and it wasn't every crowded.

We ended up that day with the crossbow contest in Volterra . Lots of pagentry.

Lucca - a very nice walled city. We have been twice. We rented bikes and road around the top of the city walls, first one direction, then the reverse.

Tom and Duncan hiked to the top of this tour for a panaramic view. It has oak trees on top.

Good time being had by all.

Viareggio is like.....

Viareggio is like…….

Mission Bay in San Diego, Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, the Great Highway. It is a total beach town, right down to

 

But unlike California beaches, not everything is free. Here’s the dividing line between the 13 Euro cost for 2 chairs and umbrella and the very nicely raked sand of the private beach – and the other side that’s free. The ladies just walked around the fence liked they owned the place.

Those of you who know Becky know that she will never willingly go to the beach – sand, wind (especially WIND) yuck. So, you know who did touch with bare toes the Med and who didn’t

 

And now, the mystery – what is this that was cluttering up the free beach? Looks like a perfectly round hairball but it came in all sizes, from ½” diameter to almost 2 inches (OK, in a sop to all of you Euro types, from 1 cm up to 4 cm – and you realize that all of our ancestors actually intentionally LEFT Europe – for good reasons, right?) – I picked one up today, and here is what it revealed

More of the same hairy stuff- go figure

Tom lied- I actually  went in the water. With my swimsuit on

This is his idea of a day at the beach:

Update Italy

We've seen the Cathedral in Lucca. 

The beaches are not open yet in Viareggio.

We like hanging out on our porch in Camping Paridiso.