Hmmm Easter Sunday and the bunny hadn't found us, somehow we never got around to buying any chocolate as we were already having a Nutella croissant most mornings at "Bet and Dreams" our favourite bar/café /betting shop - not that we are doing any betting but it seems a very civilized place to follow the instructions given by the establishment's name, if you are so inclined.
Honestly it didn't feel Eastery for two reasons, firstly I wasn't with my children and although they are adults I love preparing the traditional Dutch treats that my mother prepared for me. However I had communications with all four of them - although it wasn't the same at least we are in constant contact. We also had an Easter call from our grandson Julius which was a delight! Now the second reason our Easter wasn't Eastery was because Torre del Lago is a new coastal town which focuses on tourism as it is where the less affluent stay when they want a beach experience rather than at Viareggio the next town. Therefore there were no special Easter events and although I'd wanted to nip back to Florence for celebrations at The Duomo, a certain someone didn't want to catch the 7am train.
After doing our laundry - again, we caught the train to Viareggio which was a mere 8 minutes. We followed the crowd and after a brisk 20 minute walk (why wasn't i wearing my fitbit? I needed praise) we arrived at the strip. Our Aussie idea of beach just doesn't equate with the Italian version. This was total pimped up Gold Coast. The stores were glossy fashion houses interspersed with either fancy restaurants with a section of private beach or a humbler café which the likes of us could afford to frequent. Though in all honesty even the expensive places were affordable. €30 Euro for a degustation with alcohol is sooo cheap but we're on a budget of €35 per day for both of us. Although sneaking in all those aperitifs sometimes pushes us over!
Blue skies and a superb temperature demanded a picnic so we purchased some artichokes, olives, cheese and salami at the market stalls and sat on a wall st the edge of the sand. It was so weird, there was rubbish all around us and people were sunbaking next to it. Worst of all babies were crawling around in it. I couldn't get over it. The nice thing was seeing so many families out and the amount of dogs out on their leashes. I have to say there were a lot of dogs being carried or cycled about - Italians are dog mad! Plus there were kites being flown everywhere, Eric has never flown a kite and I offered to buy him one but he too embarrassed.
After our picnic and hike through the bottles to the waters edge we needed amenities so I was forced to have a frozen pina Colada in order to avail ourselves of the blocked toilet - although the service was wonderful noone cared about the flooding toilet. We had another promenade up the strip then went to a bar to have another aperitif this one had the best gratis bar snacks ever! Couscous, risotto, panini, grilled vegies, cheese , olives , cold meats etc, people even got plastic plates and fed their kids. However we were filled with self control and shared a small plate before realizing we were running late for our return train.
I thought we were going to miss it and power waddled the whole way we had prebougt our tickets and the next direct train was in an hour. We were so lucky that the train was delayed by 10 minutes as we would certainly have missed it if it had been on time. We were home within half an hour so I started cooking our Easter dinner.
Enrica our hostess had every type of kitchen appliance possible and a top of the range stove combo as well as the fridge from heaven, so it was very pleasant to cook. I made burato wrapped in asparagus and grilled scallops on the shell for our appetisers then a salad to go with our vongole pasta. It turned out relatively well although I always find it hard cooking in a strange kitchen without my extensive range of condiments.
Since we were leaving for Rome the next day I booked our tickets online so we could be better mentally prepared than with our journey from Firenze to Torre del Lago or Venizia to Firenze! We also had to pack our bags and what a chore that was. Eric had to pack all the books we'd bought into his suitcase as mine was chockers with unnecessary clothing. (And I'd packed less this time than last time). It was 230am before I had finished packing and cleaning up the kitchen. I set the alarm for 6am and dropped off!
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