Italian Dining at Home

Last week we had a dinner party at home, and we decided to make it all Italian, a bit of nostalgia. We also discovered an Italian deli in the city, so we decided to give it a try. The starter is inspired on a dish we always eat at Zoff in Leuven, the main course is created by Lolo and the all time classic Tiramisu, served in a mason jar. And Italian wine of course.
 
 

Losing the baby hair - returning to normal life

all the signs warn me that normal life has to start soon, I'm even losing my baby hair.
the most common period of hair loss occurs approximately four months after delivery. The rise in hormones during pregnancy keeps you from losing your hair. I had the greatest hair when pregnant. After delivery, the hormones return to normal levels, which allows the hair to fall out and return to the normal cycle.
my pregnancy hormones are gone, I even wonder how I still have one hair on my head.
but anyway, all that, just to say, that my maternity leave is over and I don't really know how to deal with that. I enjoyed it so much and it feels so unnatural to leave my baby all alone at the day care - she is still so small, my sweet little girl.
I have never left her more than 2 hours with someone else during the last 4 months.  
my mother heart bleeds
from the moment they are born, you already have to learn to let go. pfff
mother love is the strongest love there is.
and these 4 months were the best and the most rewarding of my life. (upto now that is) 




I labelled all her little things and today was the big day!
Today was our little girl's first day at daycare, and she did it like a boss! We are so proud.

I am a sucker for my daughter.
 


 

città che terminano con A

On our trip to Tuscany, we tried to visit the most important cities of the area: Florence (in this post), Siena, Pisa & Lucca 
SIENA
Siena is really beautiful and has lots of charm. It was even declared a world heritage site by Unesco. It has a lot of hills, so be prepared to walk, not an easy town with a stroller. 
 Nice detail: The opening scene of the James Bond movie 'Quantum of Solace' was filmed here during the Palio Horse Race, a 600 year old tradition,held on the Piazza del Campo, the main feature of Siena.
Lonely Planet describes this plaza as an urban carpet, a fitting description, as everybody sits on the ground.






 funny fact: when we were ending our visit to Siena, a giant storm broke out. Gallons of water poured down over the city, so we had to find shelter for more than 45min. While we were hiding from the rain,with all the other visitors of Siena, groups of boys started running over the plaza wearing nothing but white soaked boxers, all the people hiding with us all over the plaza were cheering them on, so it ended up to be a funny moment after all! In the end, we had to run to the car anyway, the 3 of us looked like soaked water rats. 

 PISA
We did not expect much of the site of the leaning tower of Pisa, but all of a sudden while we were walking it was in front of us, and the whole site was impressive. Glad we made the trip to see it.
The funniest thing was seeing all this people posing for pictures pretending to hold the leaning tower. 
We did not. We are not that kind of tourists, duuuh! :)



LUCCA
Lucca is a little town, some 20 km from Pisa and it is a labyrinth of little streets filled with nice shops, restaurants and coffee bars. The rectangular grid of its historical centre preserves the Roman street plan. The walls around the city are still intact, which gives the city an extra something. I particularly liked the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.







Food Lately at our house / Toscane Edition

As we rented a house for the holidays without catering, most of the days we cooked ourselves with the fabulous products you can find in the Italian supermarkets and farmers markets. Nothing better than doing the 'aperitivo' on your terrace with a magnificent view, and lighting up the candles as it gets darker.
We had addicting mozzarella (with 800% more taste in it than what you can find here) and by addicting I mean we ate at least 1 a day! The Bistecca alla fiorentina was also so magnificent, a T-bone steak from Chianina beef, a Tuscany bred cattle, normally done rare over the coals. And of course we ate a lot of fish, calamares, vongole, mussels, dorade, ... Njam. It was a culinary delight, this holiday!