Italian Date night -June 20

Our first date night in Europe offered amazing scenery and food at Il Conte Matteo in Trequanda.

Dinner went in and on, just like the amazing views. The sky was full of incredible clouds and our 360 view enabled a front row seat.
The gorgeous Tuscan countryside full of its living patchwork quilt of maintained lands spread out in each direction.

We watched what we thought were sheep in a meadow only to realize in our way home that they were actually cows and even further away than we guessed.

The wine was delicious and I'm ready to have a cheese tray to follow every meal from here in out. They of course wanted us to linger after our meal but we felt we needed to scoot on back to the house to make sure all was well. It took a solid 45 minutes just to flag down and get our check, so we felt plenty of post-meal chill.

On the way home we saw a couple small wild hogs scampering across the road.

The views on these roads absolutely make my heart go pitter patter.

Teapots of Chocolate, part 1

When your dark chocolate fondue is a steaming tea pot. 

We loved our daily breakfast of champions in Rome at our hotel. 

Sent from my iPhone

Italian Postcards from Molly

"In Florence I got a purse so did my sister but this is about me I said how about a bow and she said ok. "
🤣

All about the gelato

💕

Tuscan Take-always

In cooking with a limited kitchen and regional/local foods- these are the things I've picked up and hope to carry the habits home:

Picorino cheese (younger, not long aged) is amazing

I've been making small batches of fresh salad dressing each night with the basics: olive oil, balsamic, garlic, oregano and sage. I used to do this quite often after I realized the grotesque amount of sugar was added to most of my favorite salad dressings - but then in the never ending pinch for time, I found some store-bought dressings that were delicious and had a reasonable amount of sugar (as in, a couple grams per serving, not 2-3 times the daily suggest intake) and just keep those staples around. I digress, oil and vinegar and a quick whip is really so quick and delicious/ I really should reinstate the practice.

Apertivo! And really, coursing out a meal is truly lovely. Challenging for timing bit who doesn't love a challenge? And it's totally worth it if it can all work out. Nothing a little planning ahead can't solve.

Digestiv/ post meal small liquor. Yes, please. I love me some sherry and this general practice allows me to not feel like a blue haired old woman sipping from a cordial glass. As I do. (Owning it)

I'm pretty sure I'll be wishing to be back here soon. It all so relaxing and soothing and all things real and honest and good. People are kind and gentle, with an overflowing love that manages to escape being so overly enthusiastic that it feels forced.



—found this in my drafts. Never quite finished but going to go ahead and post—

Sent from my iPhone

Italian Postcards from Jackson

A collection of postcards from Jackson

Pointies for Jackson

Date night

Thursday night at Mirabelle with an amazing view

Afternoon at the Forum and Colosseum

Jackson, mom and dad got to spend some time on our own on Thursday afternoon, exploring some Roman Ruins

The Forum

We really liked this very social bird. He was not scared at all.

Owl Top

"Uh oh. Owl Top"
Lilly lost her owl top near the Circus Maximus and we heard a lot about it. Very sad.

Colosseum and View of St Peters

Tiny Little Colosseum Pick Pocket

Thursday morning tour of Roma!