Tag Archives: cooking

Many Goodbyes

For the past 3 days we have been soaking in the remains of Spring….literally! Storms of a rarely-seen magnitude descended over the entire valley and lashed the land with rain, wind and lightning.  The clouds that sometimes hang over the … Continue reading

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Scenes from an Italian life – part II

I feel it’s time for another blog post containing only photos and captions again. We travel a lot, but this little place in Groppo we have called home this past year truly has the best sights and characters of all.  … Continue reading

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Lucca, Carrara, Bibola, Lerici and other goings on

This year, we enjoyed Easter celebrations at Christina and Enrico’s house in Lucca.   We drove down in time for lunch and enjoyed a delightful pre-dinner Prosecco in the garden before sitting down to an enormous lunch. It was not quite … Continue reading

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Nice and other stuff

Last week (just a few days after our return from Paris), we drove up to Nice to swap our car over.  Due to a bit of a contract mix-up, it turned out that we were supposed to return it on … Continue reading

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Scenes from an Italian life

Here’s a blog post containing only photos and captions for once. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, just that daylight saving started yesterday and that 1 hour of lost sleep has rendered me quite brain dead today.  … Continue reading

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Carnivale in Viareggio…it’s time to party!

The trouble with having only news channels to watch in English is that you tend to become mired in the doom and gloom that is broadcast daily. Civil unrest, the economic crisis, wars, William and Kate (the latter not gloomy … Continue reading

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A spooky tour and an English lesson

There has been much going on this past week and of course it’s only possible to write about a few selected highlights here.  That’s not to say that the parts I omit were not important, just that I probably don’t … Continue reading

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Casabasciana

One of the reasons we came to Tuscany is to find relatives and places of significance to Chris’ family.  Chris’ Dad was born somewhere near Bagni di Lucca in a small town called San Concordio.  He doesn’t know the exact … Continue reading

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Fosdinovo and Treschietto

I’m sitting here waiting for a man to come and look for Fainas.   It’s just another part of country life here in Italy, dealing with the critters who share their habitat with us pesky humans. A Faina is a small … Continue reading

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Sarzana and La Befana

In keeping with our plan of taking small trips around Lunigiana during the school holidays, we visited Sarzana this week.  We were not only lured by the history to be found there, but by the promise of a shopping mall … Continue reading

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