It seemed a mere blink of an eye before I was due to head back to Gatwick and all my grand plans of catching up with other friends fell by the wayside - my plans had clearly been unrealistic, although under different circumstances (and had Helen been with me rather than dog-sitting at home) we would have taken a much longer trip to do just that. So all too early it was time to get the flight home to my lovely and somewhat lonely wife.
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| The groom being adjusted by the brother. |
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| Groom and groomsmen dressed and ready to go. |
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| The beautiful bride with mum and youngest son Jonah. |
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| The new Mr and Mrs Brown. |
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| A very English affair, a lush lawn by the river. |
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| Post ceremony photos of the groomsmen. |
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| Confetti at the ready! |
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| Why is it called a wedding breakfast? |
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| Post speeches and clearly had a couple of drinks now. |
It was lovely to see my wife waiting to greet me in arrivals at Pisa airport as I came through the automatic doors, and after the obligatory hug and kisses that I'd been looking forward to, we headed home with plenty to catch up on along the way.
By the time we arrived home and I'd introduced myself to our new apartment guests it was about half eight so we sat out on the patio with a bottle of wine for an hour while we continued to fill each other in on our respective happenings over the last few days before retiring indoors for some dinner and a much needed sleep.
Sunday started quite late for us - it was about 9.30am when we woke as we heard Reggie crying from downstairs, clearly having had enough of his crate, so we got up and headed downstairs to let the cats out, followed by Reggie.
As Helen spent a while on her computer I set to work sorting out the satellite dish before we sat down for breakfast.
It was clearly going to be a hot one today, as by the time we'd finished breakfast at 10.30 the sun was already almost unbearably hot, so we coerced Reggie into the car to take him for a much-needed walk along the river in Pescia.
The river was very quiet this morning, and with the exception of a group of cyclists and a couple walking their golden retrievers, we saw no one. This meant that Reggie could really have a good stretch of the legs off lead and plenty of splashing around in the river. He was enjoying the splashing so much at one point he forgot where he was for a second and almost went into a marking roll before suddenly realising he was about to dunk himself and recovered with just one wet shoulder! After our walk we bundled Reggie back into the car to head home.
As I had missed Helen's official birthday on Friday, I had promised we would make Sunday a re-run, so after giving Reggie his lunch and a chew, we left him at home and headed over to Montecarlo for a bit of lunch in the welcome shade of the main street.
It would seem that our favourite pizzeria is now shut for lunch (during August?). Businesses being closed for August is not an uncommon sight around here and a lot of shops (even the local builders merchants) are now closed until the end of the month.
We decided instead to head to La Buca - a small husband-and-wife-run establishment that boasts its own produce in the way of cured meats and cheeses. We've been in here a handful of times previously with various friends to buy some of their delights, I really think some of their meats are the best around so it wasn't much of a compromise.
We took a table in the street and greeted the wife by name as she approached - which made her look like she was playing musical statues and someone had turned the music off, she completely stopped in her stride, mouth open and eyes looking upwards towards the sky, her brain searching for our faces. A split second later she had remembered who we were and asked how things were going while laying our table and handing us menus.
We were soon furnished with a chilled bottle of Vermentino from the local vineyard Buon Amico and a huge platter of meats and cheese accompanied with local acacia honey.
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| A birthday treat. |
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| Mmmmmmmm... meat! |
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| ...and a birthday surprise! |
With the 'snack' gone and the wine bottle empty we prepared to leave and I went in to ask for the bill, but Mara had other ideas and told me to sit down as she was bringing us a bottle of Prosecco for Helen's birthday (I'd told her during our chit-chat that we were here for her birthday)!
Shortly after sitting back down Mara arrived with a board of home-made choc-chip cantuccini and a chilled bottle of Prosecco...on the house she said, from La Buca to Helen for her birthday!
Not only that, Mara refused to allow me to leave a single cent as a tip as this would have paid towards their gift to us. I think we've found ourselves another regular haunt!
We drove home to rescue the dog (or our guests, depending on which way you look at it) and settle into the early evening which firstly involved a Skype call from Bristol for Helen to chat with her friend Louise who is coming over to stay with us this Autumn. While Helen was chatting at her computer, Chris arrived with young Erik, calling in on their way back down from Sorana.
Once Helen had finished we all had a drink on the patio and caught up on the latest planning permission developments before Chris and Erik headed home, leaving us to out dinner. We wanted a light dinner after our protein-heavy lunch and opted in the end for tomato bruschette (using more of the tomatoes given to us by Donatella) with tuna and 'poor man's capers' (pickled nasturtium pods) given to us by David and Sarah (and delicious they were too, we shall be asking for the recipe and making our own next year). With dinner despatched, we watched a single episode of Scrubs, of course in the usual fashion: in Italian language with English subtitles, before retiring to bed to read for half an hour before lights out ready for the week ahead.
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