It's been a quiet few days since the entire US seems to have taken this week off. No doubt, I'll be slammed next week after having sat on my hands yesterday and today... and probably tomorrow.
The program took the students to a nearby lake town (Capodimonte on Lake Bolsena). The Lake is the largest volcanic lake in all of Europe -- formed by a volcano that has not erupted since 104BC. The depth is conical, coming to a point. I have my favorite caffé here -- at the very end of the stretch of beach where it tends to be more quiet. It's run by an older woman with whom I chat, or try to, and there's a little Jack Russell there, and this day, an adorable little girl (seemingly the granddaughter of the woman). She was so content, humming along, coloring, wading in the water once in a while, sitting on the counter to play with the cassa -- the cash register. I read, blogged, did crossword puzzles, and tried to track down my kids.
Here's where I was. The little red dot under "Italy" and above "Rome." The lake is the biggest in the country. It's about a half hour (tops) from our apartment.
I took these photos with literally rose-colored glasses. They all look so much less lush than I experienced them.
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It's cool to see deciduous trees all along a sand shore. The bark is crazy. |
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| More crazy bark, if you can call it that. This is the trunk of a palm tree. |
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| This guy was great. I wish I had the nerve to talk to him, get closer, and get a better shot of his face. It was a fantastic face. |
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| There's a guy playing some kind of paddle ball on the beach in the distance. |
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| Best beach toy ever! |
We ate in last night, a much-needed break. I had one of these cans of tuna with black beans, corn, and red peppers mixed in --- it comes that way --- over arugula, and Fred used another can to put over pasta. Sadly, when adding pepper to the sauce and the pasta, he mistakenly dumped a whole jar of peppercorns into the mix :( So he used more pasta and another can of this tuna stuff, but with farro and orzo. A tad too much starch for one meal, but we made do. Usually we use fresh ingredients when we eat in, but I was on this kick. I'm over it. The tuna thing I had last year was a puttanesca sauce which I can no longer find. It was GREAT.
On a similar note, poor Fred dumped salt into his cherished second cup of coffee this morning... you can see how that can happen:
Today we await the arrival of Fred's brother, sister-in-law, and their two sons! We can't wait. I picked up our rental car today --- it's a Lancia this year. Usually it's a Fiat.
Okay—fast forward—it is now Friday and our visiting brother, sister-in-law, and nephews have arrived! They are real troupers and hung in there all through a pizza dinner on our favorite first-night piazza. It's great seeing our second home through their eyes.
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