Sunday/Rātapu
Today we are cycling outside Reggio Emilia. The Ficarelli/Prandini's have six bikes. They are now put in the shed as about a year ago while locked in the yard, someone climbed over the fence and stole one. Paulo has been working for days on getting the bikes ready for us. Lachie gets the bike with one gear and dubious brakes - he is young and fit and can handle a rough bike! The rest of us are not so robust.
So off we go. It’s also pretty easy to get around. Chiara had said this to us in an earlier email: "Everything is located on the Via Emilia, the dead-straight road laid down by the Romans in 187 BC that splits the province in two along its east–west axis, dividing the Apennine mountains in the south from the flat fields of the northern plain, the Pianura Padana. So think flat and straight." It reminds me of kids on bikes in the Sound of Music.
First stop the home of a famous author / poet of Italy, Ludovico Ariosto. This is the museum and a plaque in his honour.
Off we go again. This is Lachie, and his "flash" bike.
Manuela.
Bill.
Chiara.
Cycling tour leader - the great Italian cyclist Paolo Ficarelli :).
Manuela took a better photo of us all. She knows how to use the self-timer!
A crop, especially nutritious and easy growing for cows to eat.
We stopped for a coffee. Bill found the sports pages in the newspaper (he buys them even when they're in another language, although this one was in the cafe), with the All Black game report. Allarme!
Back at Via Pellegrini we showered and another sit down lunch. Paolo cooked.
We had two desserts tonight. The first was strawberries and ice cream with balsamic vinegar (from the smallest and oldest barrel). I tried not to judge balsamic vinegar and strawberries before we had it. I was trying not to grimace on the first spoonful. I had to eat my words. This was the BEST dessert ever. The balsamic vinegar has an incredible taste. It is not alcoholic. It tastes fruity and bitter at the same time, and a taste of it's own.
Then we had a traditional rice pudding dessert.
Then we acknowledged the cook of that dessert.
Archie, the cat. He is a much loved cat and Manuela sat on a flight from Seattle to Bologna with him next to her. Without anyone seeing her, she took him out and he snuggled up to her the whole way. She knew he would not run off - not like our cat Scipio! And maybe this one was trained well by the Ficarelli / Prandini's (having a vet in the family may help). Here is Chiara with Archie in his special spot underneath the air conditioning. (I haven't said but it was 36 degrees and more every day we were here.)
On the way home in the car I say to Bill, "I preferred the strawberries, ice cream and balsamic vinegar to Lori Nonna's dessert tonight, and just had to say, I could barely finish it, and was looking around to see how I could offload it." Bill agreed but said it wasn't that bad to offload. I think he is grateful to anything anyone cooks for him and never complains about that sort of thing.