Happy Anniversary to Me!

That's right, I said 'Happy Anniversary!' No, not a wedding anniversary like everyone else has. Today is the first anniversary of my very first (hopefully NOT last) trip to Italy and subsequently, the first authentic Italian meal! On this day, September 20, 2007, I traveled with friends from Cheltenham, England where I was on vacation, to Pisa, Italy for a mini-inside-my-vacation-vacation.

Once we were to Pisa, we traveled by train on to the historic city of Florence. The owners of the apartment we rented for our stay suggested a family restaurant/meat market just around the corner. We were hungry travelers searching for sustenance. No time to check the travel book for a place to go so we followed their directions to a place that in my opinion, served the BEST food of the entire trip! We ended up eating their on two separate days, it made me happy :) Communication was minimal between the us and the waiters during the entire trip but as you can see, we were able to work it out. My first meal? Lasagna & Bistecca (steak). Fantastico!

Tonight my mom and I ate at a local restaurant here in St. Louis called Trattoria Toscana to commemorate the occasion. I was a bit let down by all the artwork which seemed to consist of about 90% Venice and 10% non-specifically geographical Italian scenes, rather than anything even closely resembling the beauty of "Tuscany" as the name would suggest. It was not a visual reminder of my trip, unfortunately. I later learned the owners are really Albanian. Hmmm. The food was overpriced but had big portions. Not all foods make good leftovers. I would rather have had a smaller portion and a smaller bill. I had tilapia and mom had linguine with clams. We started with a smoked salmon antipasti with toast, butter and lemon. Mom thinks the butter was actually cream cheese, I thought, is this Italian fare or Jewish?

It just goes to show, nothing can compare to the real thing. Ding, Ding, Ding! Everyone raise your glasses, "Here's to the hope that I will again some day, return to the home of my ancestors and feast on the abundance of a time and place I will dream about forever!" Bonapatito!

Birthday gifts: Real and virtual

I wanted to share with all of you, the most special presents I've gotten so far for my birthday. This year has proved to be a very special year in the gift getting department. No, it's not leather lingerie, I mean, "Get serious!" But first, a couple of virtual presents I got today from fellow bloggers. Thanks Sandee and Misty Dawn who posted this yummy looking cake and these lovely flowers on there blogs for me. Much appreciated!

Back in reality, this year I was given a gift that will last a lifetime. The wonderful memories and experiences will be in my heart always. When I was on my trip to Florence, Italy, my friends surprised me with a combined early birthday and Christmas gift! I had wanted to take some sort of a mozzarella making or cooking class while I was in Tuscany but didn't have much luck researching the various classes. I gave up looking but my friend did not!

As an early surprise (and boy was it!) I was treated to an Italian Immersion class! I met up with a small group of four women. A mom and 3 daughters there as a gift from the daughters to the mom for her birthday last January. You will NEVER believe where the mom and one of the daughters were from...ST. LOUIS! Well, technically, Webster Groves, but that's part of St. Louis too! I couldn't believe it...and it just goes to prove my mom was right, you can't talk about anybody! We met our instructor, Marizio and we took a tour of the Mercato Centrale (or the Central Market).

This is where all the local restaurants get the fresh ingredients for the day's menu. They have everything from horse to hair, chicken to cow, dried fruit to dried pasta, oils and spices to fresh pastries...you name it! And there was a second floor dedicated to fresh produce of all kinds.

One of the vendor's gave us a short tutorial class on balsamic vinegars, olive oils, truffles and parmesan cheeses. This woman had a great presentation and lots of great information!

Next we met with the rest of our class members and made a rendezvous with the taxi driver. We rode in a van out to a villa on a hillside in Signet, a neighboring town to Florence. The villa was beautiful and boasted some nice views! We were left outside to wander around before the class began. There was another couple who had made the journey to the villa for the class on their own. Everyone was so nice! And better still, everyone was so on board about taking lots of pictures!

Once we were brought inside the kitchen, we found the room quite large and welcoming. There was a large fireplace on one end and a very long table set for all of us in the center. We met our other instructor, Liza. What a wonderful lady! She was informative and patient and smart and funny!! I took lots of pictures.

A lot of the photos came out blurry in the faces or hands. Everything was moving so fast. The class lasted all day, more than 8 hours altogether! We were given the recipes for all the dishes we made including: tiramisu, Sausage and cheese crustinis, fresh pasta for lasagna, fresh pesto for the gnocchi, a black olive chicken dish, and even how to use that weird Italian coffee maker!





We had one at our apartment, but didn't really know how to use it. After this class, we had the best coffee ever! I still want to get one of these for my house...

The class was alot of fun and yummy! I will always remember it and smile. The taste of Tuscany shall live on in my heart and my memories! Thank you so much A and P for the very gracious gift that only you could have given me!

I sure wish I could remember everyone's names...for that I feel bad! I did make some great friends that day...even if we were only friends for one day. Speaking of friends, my friend A also sent this to me today. It's called 'The Flea' and was just about my favorite pieces at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. (I like it because I think she looks like me)

European Vacation - Episode #3 Part A

Monday, September 17, 2007 - Cheltenham, England

Morning came very very early. I can't remember the exact time, but I believe it was around 4 am. A and I were up, showered and ready to go for the day! And what a big day it would be! So big, in fact, I am breaking up today's post into 2 parts in order to keep the length of each story down. After all, it involves 2 separate trips to 2 separate places and all the details of full adventures in each one!

So A made some wonderful breakfast sandwiches for the road with the fresh English eggs (yes, they are different-and very yummy, I might add) that she bought the day before at the store. Well, I assume that's when she got them, I was 3/4 asleep walking through there, remember? Anyway, off we were to the town of Swindon. Our friends "J and A2" were on a month long vacation all over England and Ireland. I have known them for years from here in St. Louis through A, they've been friends for years. So we fetched them from the train station and off we were to drive in the darkness. I really dislike driving in the dark, I feel like you miss so much scenery!

Today's 1st significant destination is Stonehenge. I've always wanted to see it. Not because I believe it has any special powers or because I really know anything about it per se, I just always thought it was cool! A has a special membership granting the privilege of early admission and access beyond the observation path to be allowed directly up to the stones themselves! Anticipation was mounting for me, my mind was racing! "Ken" (the Australian narration character of A & P's TomTom GPS unit shown in the below photograph towards the bottom mounted to the windshield) showed we were getting very close. The sun had already began to come up. Our reservation time was 6:45 a.m. and the sun began to rise around 6:35 a.m. We were just driving along the very busy road passing by fields and hills and farms and we came to just another open field and A said, "There it is!"

Just like that, it was just sitting there in a field, unassumingly. I thought there would be big signs and big parking lots and a long path and for some reason, I thought it was near a cliff. Anyway, the above photo was actually taken after we left, but it gives you the idea better, of what I am saying here.

So, there it is just perched in the middle of several fields. The only thing to see around there, are the roads that go around it and maybe a farm house or two in the distance. They have cleverly tucked the car park, ticketing booths, gift shop and toilets behind the grading of the countryside across the street and there is nothing obstructing or taking away from the view of or from the stones. They built a tunnel to take you from the car park, past the ticket booths and down under the road itself that comes out up onto the grounds of Stonehenge's fields. Even then, it's all hidden from sight, fantastic! Glad I thought of it!

Of course the gift shop is closed because we are there before opening for the day. I never did find the souvenirs for Stonehenge in other places like I wanted, so I'm a little disappointed by that but I'll live. Walking through the tunnel, they had murals painted that implied the story of how the stones got here and just at the other end, there is one panel that shows how the stones would have possibly looked originally.

Once you have crossed through the tunnel and up the ramp past the interesting murals, you are on a path that takes you near the stones. Here is my first unobstructed, unfenced sight of the stones!!! As you can see we're not the only such privileged visitors with reservations on this cold early morning.

There is a guard on duty, a few guards actually. But we passed them by and walked right up to the stones! This is a treat! And what a privilege to cross the chain barrier and walk amongst the giants. It's called being 'inside the circle.' A special privilege indeed. I did my best to take photos that were free and clear of other people.

The stones are eroding and sometimes there is stuff growing on them.

Some are tall and thin. Some are shorter-more narrow.

Some still have the capstones up on top.

Some look like teeth. Notice the vehicles on the road in the background here.

Here's me. It's very cold and I have flip flops on! I didn't notice really.

I was very distracted with the cold feel of the old worn rock and the height of them all.

As you can imagine, some have fallen down over time while others remarkably have remained upright!

This is having fun with perspectives. I heart photography! This was a photo graphical feeding frenzy for me!

I took many-MANY-photos here. It was very difficult to decide which ones to show you and which ones to leave out!

Notice here, the 'lego' type precision carvings of notches on the tops of the stones which allowed the capstones to stay in place.

Here you can see on this fallen stone, the groove craved into it that fits onto the notch at the tops of the others.

I was also able to walk out around the stones and captured many postcard quality shots like this one. Thousands of people gather here for summer solstice. The observation grounds outside the chain barrier reminded me of a drive in without the poles. Like I said before, I didn't feel anything particularly mystical about being there. But I'm so privileged to have gotten such an opportunity! I shall never forget this! The weather was kinda cold and overcast but the sun did make short appearances from time to time.

After we spent a short time here in Wiltshire's Stonehenge, we next made our way to Bath. I will pick this up next time at Part B. Bath, England and the Roman Baths and Abbey. Stay tuned...