Friends and Fire

Noah, Sasha, Frieda May, Jemima and Hugo

Arturo and Noah

Brian, Nikola, Len, Simon,Meg, Dan, Andreas+Ruth (our hosts).

Vito, Brian (Denmark) and Dan

Simon (UK) and Dan

Len (Denmark), Meg, and Nikola (UK)

Bourride (St. Raphael, France)

St. Raphael Beach (Mediterranean)

Noah demonstrating proper mussel eating technique. Eating mussels with a mussel.

Our only real snafu.  Jonquera Fire.

Six hour ride becomes seventeen hours.  Meg says turn around, we did, two hours later fire sweeps across the same traffic jam...four die jumping off the cliff into the ocean, fleeing their cars and fire.

We head west to Andorra for a harrowing midnight ride through the Pyrenees on empty.

High Ropes

 We embarked on a two day odyssey through the Monte Pizzo adventure park---a high ropes course at 1100 meters in Emilia Romagna near Poretta.  Noah and his friend Hugo climbed the course on day one.  They returned and threw down the gauntlet. Meg and Sasha, with Jemima and Nikola accepted the challenge.  Complete the green, blue and red courses and we will grant you equal respect.  The pictures don't tell the full story as this course was really quite challenging and the obstacles are 30-50 feet off the ground.  Dan was happily disqualified for fatness and Simon for a broken ankle. As such, Dan served as resident photographer and chauffeur.

Some obstacles required unclipping mid traverse. 

Jemima, Nikola, Sasha and Meg 

Don't look down!

Hugo and Noah celebrating and posing at the finish.

Venezia

 We had an incredible day in Venice.  Noah had no idea what to expect and he was thrilled at the fact that all of the roads were water and all the trucks were boats.

Aboard our Gondola...Monica

Lorenzo...our gondolier.

We stumbled into a neighborhood festival and had a great meal and absorbed the atmosphere of the community.

Noah in Gondolier training.

Cooking class bolognese style

Tagliatelle dough, hand rolled

 We were invited by the family that runs Nel Castagneto to take a free cooking class. We only had to promise to stay for dinner.  Since this was our favorite restaurant in Italy the decision was a no brainer.  We ate there three time in two weeks and had a wonderful time getting to know the family.  One of the highlights of our entire trip!

Tagliatelle with nettles dough, ready to be cut.

Meg making pasta a la guitarra. A guitarra is a device designed to cut pasta by pushing the dough through guitar-like strings.

Totelloni filled with sheep milk ricotta.  We formed these and filled them by hand.

Nettle pasta with pork belly and onion sauce.

Tagliatelle

Christina, Andreas and Anna.  Our cooking instructors at Nel Castagneto.  Daughter, Father and Mother.

Tiramisu we made.