Marsala vineyard getaway

October is already peeping around the corner, and I am still thinking about our night we spent at a Marsala winery before going east into the wonderful island of Sicily. Waking up with the sound of ...nothing, crossing the patio to have breakfast, easy life. Holidays are always too much anticipated and too quickly gone again. Here's to exploring the world in all its glory, despite all the sad things we see on the news everyday.

Happy week to you all!

All I need...

A good spot to watch the sunset and these two people. 

There is something magical about the last rays of sunlight. And it is even better on a beautiful location as this one.The white steps of Scala dei Turchi gleam in the evening light - and we enjoy watching the sun dissappearing into the horizon. What is it with islands and sunsets? 

I think we're going to make this into a tradition on our future trips: Sunset Spotting!

Last year in Ibiza, we also watched this show a few evenings (here) 

Beauty is everywhere.  If you want to see it.

 

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.

 

 

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!