SUNDAY, APRIL 7

Sunday we stayed at home. Since it was actually sunny, we went for a walk up the hillside into the country amid the olive trees. It is permitted to burn the pruned branches so the air smelled of autumn and there was a smoky pall over the landscape. We managed anyway to get a few fotos without smoke!

Then, and this will surprise you we know, a huge Sunday family lunch with Memmo, Giovanna, friends, son, son's girlfriend, sister of girlfriend, boyfriend of sister of girlfriend of son... and whoever was in the house at the moment (us, per fortuna!).......

-Ravioli con salsa della nonna di Giovanna (pork ravioli with butter and cream di Giovanna)

-Ravioli con ragu di carne di Roi (Meat ravioli di Roi)

-Stracotto (lesso di manzo) alla cipolla ed erbette (roast beef sliced and recooked with herbs, onion and carrots)

-Insalata di carciofi (raw young artichoke salad)

-Paste varie (varied pastries from two VIP pastry shops)

-Torta della nonna con crema (a very light poundcake filled with cream)

(Everything was very light)

(no fotos, we were too hungry and distracted talking)

MONDAY, APRIL 8

VIAREGGIO. Since the forecast was for clearing after 11 am, we left about 10am for Viareggio to "salutare il mare" ... unfortunately, it rained (rather hard at times) the entire time we were walking ... The surfers didn't mind, and there were quite a few covered from head to toe in wetsuits...  but the beach was not so popular

The "excuse" for the trip was to walk along the seafront that is lined with beautiful "Liberty" style (art deco) buildings. (And also to revisit the place Dani went several summers as a child. Hard to figure ... a little boy who lives in the Caribbean would be sent to Viareggio to go to the beach... hmmmm???)

Coming back to Pescia the weather was better, and we visited Montecarlo (nothing to do with the "famous" Montecarlo, this is a lot nicer!); It's a little village on the top of a hill between Lucca and Pescia

TUESDAY, APRIL 9

(Sigh... whatever forecast Capitano heard was wrong.... While it has not been pouring rain, it has not been sunny either... or warm.... still using the heating at home. ]

COLODI

A lot of people are not aware of it, but "Pinocchio" was not originally from Disney Studios; The original book was written by a guy called Carlo Lorenzini, a journalist with a decided political bent who was born in the little village of Collodi in the middle of the "Valdinievole Hills in Tuscany." He adopted the name of his village as a nickname (around here in Tuscany everybody has a nickname) so... you will see that the author of the official, original Pinocchio is Carlo Colodi. Even the names of the characters in the book are nicknames referring to local important people, and every character has some facets of a real local person's personality. So, the fox was someone who looked or acted like a fox (a local politician no doubt). The cat was someone who looked or acted like a cat. A friend of ours who was born in Colodi told us that when she was a child, everyone called the local carpenter Geppeto (as a nickname, of course).... Around here you never know where the truth ends and the fairy tale beings... very common in Italy, especially in politics.

When you visit the old village that seems to flow down the side of a hill, behind the fortress that now is a Villa, you can see that in his book he described the village where he was born.