BBQ to Boobies. What a week!

Wednesday night Alessandra invited us to her house with some other friends for BBQ Italian style.  Someone once told us the average American dies with seven pounds of undigested red meat in their stomachs.  We now have about ten pounds and cholesterol off the charts but that dinner was worth it.   Great company, a delicious cheese plate and beautiful Florentine steaks and kebobs.   Alessandra was a terrific hostess and her home and garden are lovely.  Thank you so much for inviting us!  

Thursday we picked up a rental car and braved the streets of Florence for a drive into the Tuscan countryside.    We were on an olive oil hunt and drove three years ago so weren't too worried about giving it another whirl, except for the dreaded roundabouts.  On our last trip we just drove in, kept going in a circle and hoped we got spit out in the right direction.  After a day of that we really, really needed a drink.  I always drive while Tammi navigates.  She's getting pretty quick at spotting the signs but we were both a little rusty so we did get stuck in one roundabout and got just a teeny bit lost getting out of Florence.  We didn't really need a drink but we got one anyway in Radda.  It was as cute as before but we hit it at siesta so couldn't see that store where we all bought artwork last time.   They did however have olive oil.   

Anyway, we ended up in Cortona, a nice hilltop town where we thought we could practice speaking with the locals.  Thanks to Francis Mayes and her little novel Cortona is now more American than the states.  We did meet two really nice ladies from Texas who were driving around Italy and headed down to Positano.  We told them from experience they don't make American cajones big enough to drive on that road so please post on our blog that they're alive.  The next day we headed back to Florence by way of some olive oil fattorias.  Tammi told me first thing she was on her game navigation wise so we were both surprised when we followed a large sign with an obvious arrow to what we thought was a olive oil vender.  Five miles later and a drive to the summit of Mount Olympus in our little Fiat 500 (which isn't made for offroad driving) we gave up and headed back to the main road.  A bit later we found a
different entrance to the same vendor where a nice guy explained to us, all in Italian, how they pick and produce the oil.  Very cool.  Apparently only the older people are willing to pick the olives because they get paid in oil rather than cash.  The younger ones won't do the work.  That's the trouble with kids these days.  They need to get their priorities straight.

I haven't mentioned the smell in our apartment for a while but just so you know, it's still there.  After being closed up for two days we took a deep breath before entering and quickly threw open the windows.  Dinner Friday night was at the Borgo, the local haunt run by our friend Miguel.  Too many wines later (all on the house) we crawled into bed at 3:00am.   Seriousamente, what's the deal with Italian wine?  It's a good thing we don't live here
because we can really drink this stuff and never seem to feel it.  Don't get me wrong, we weren't exactly chipper on Saturday but it could have been a lot worse.

Sunday we walked 5k in the "Corri la Vita" race for breast health.  We figured we could get exercise and help support boobs at the same time.  Unfortunately we signed up late so they were out of t-shirts, which were sponsored by Ferragamo.  Huge bummer because, after seeing the prices at the Ferragamo store that was about as close as we were going to come to wearing Ferragamo.  The race was more of a stroll, actually, with participants wandering in and out of museums and churches along the way.  It really messed up Tammi's pace tracker.  It took about an hour and a half to walk.  Only in Europe will you see people smoking as they race for breast health, which is really funny because you had to supply a health certificate to race the 12k.  It was fun though and afterwards we walked up to the San Miniato church, which is amazing.  By the time we got back home we'd logged 6 miles.  We discovered a panini stand in our piazza we've walked by a hundred times and had the best lunch ever sitting on the steps of the Santo Spirito church.  We'll definitely be going back there.  Capped off the night with dinner at a place down the street we thought was a locals hangout.  We were almost the only ones in there and they seated us next to a couple from Texas.  Those Texans really get around.  Apparently all the locals came in later and sat up front but the waiter took pity on us and we
chatted with him a while.  One of these days we're going to get the hang of this language and they'll seat us with the locals.            

Happy birthday Dani! We love you lots!!