Italy 6, July 2009

I’m back!
We spent the weekend in Tuscany…in a little city called Lucca. It’s a walled-in city…meaning to enter it, we had to walk through the entrance of an ancient barrier wall.
The funniest thing about being in Lucca? There are plenty of shops because there are plenty of tourists! You’d think that because it was an ancient city, there would only be landmarks…churches, ruins, amphitheaters to see. We did see a church that was at least 800 years old (I still can’t wrap my head around how old this place is), but we couldn’t go in because there were 800 weddings taking place on Saturday.
That night, we ate at a traditional restaurant. Fabio’s friend and his girlfriend ate tomato and bread stuffing, which is apparently a traditional meal in Tuscany. I had meat, which I hadn’t had in a few weeks. I don’t know how they do it here, but it was delicious! Thin fillets, cooked with oil, wine and maybe something else. Our appetizer this night was the same thing Fabio’s friends had…the tomato bread stuffing…but it was with seafood instead of tomato. Seafood bread stuffing? That doesn’t translate well. But it was also very good. And I’ve been drinking enough wine..red and white…to sink a ship.
Last night, on the way home, we stopped at another one of Fabio’s friends’ houses, in Florence (still in Tuscany), for dinner. Fabio had told them that we had eaten a late lunch, and therefore asked if we could eat a light dinner.

I’d hate to see what a normal dinner looks like :=).
We had appetizers of cheese, sausage that her mom had made at home, pickled vegetables that her mom and her husband’s mom had made, and bruschetta (which I learned how to make, by the way). Then, for our first course (light dinner, remember!), we had lasagna tha ther mom had made. Our second course was meat…made in a way similar to the meat I described from the restaurant in Lucca. Thin cut fillets cooked with wine, oil and some other things I can’t name. This time, she topped the filets with mushrooms. I sadly gave half of my portion to Fabio, because, in case you don’t remember, we were supposed to be eating a LIGHT dinner!
Dessert was some delicious cake made with ice cream.
We ate well in Tuscany.
I’m sure we will also eat well in Lazio, where his parents are and where we will pass the coming week.

Did I mention that Fabio and I ate pizza by the meter on Friday night???!