The sound of the rain pelting down on the skylight outside our bedroom was enough to wake us in the early hours of the morning, and when my alarm went off just before 7am, it was still hard at it. Since we hadn't yet heard a peep from Reggie, plus it was clearly very wet and it was still dark, I seriously considered turning the alarm off and going back to sleep to wait for him to wake. However, Lucca and Florence were already starting their offensive on our feet, so I (slightly over optimistically) pulled on my exercise kit, fed the cats and headed downstairs.
Reggie had clearly heard me padding down the stairs and when I went in to get him from his crate, he was just stirring, yawning and stretching. He and I headed out into the dark for his morning toilet trip. Not only was it still dark, but the rain was heavy and cold with it. Brr. I knew that, regardless of whether or not I could face an exercise session in the rain, it certainly wasn't suitable weather for young Reggie to be out in the garden while I did it, so the pair of us came back indoors, dried ourselves off and settled down in the office to wait for daylight to arrive so that I could let both the cats and the geese out.
Come 8am, I decided to change into my civvies, have some breakfast and make an early start on work. Stuart attempted to do some log cutting after his breakfast, but the rain soon put paid to that, so instead he spent a couple of hours splitting logs between the showers.
Come mid-morning, little Ollie was all togged up in his rain suit and wellies and chomping at the bit to go and find some puddles to jump in. We therefore decided to take Reggie out for a walk along the path behind San Lorenzo, where there were guaranteed to be some corking puddles. Sure enough, there was puddle after puddle along the track, which Ollie merrily splashed his way through, relishing the freedom his rain suit gave him to splash as much as he liked.
Reggie also had a great time - starting to display a bit more inquisitiveness and wilfulness than on previous occasions, which manifested itself in him veering off the path, scrambling up banks, tying his lead in knots and starting to chase after cars. He also made a friend in one of the gardens we walk past - on the return trip, he was most disappointed to find that his new friend had either gone inside the house or had gone out:
Wet walk over, we drove home via Amanda's alimentari, where we bought some portions of lasagne, baccala (salt cod) with leeks, and some roast potatoes for our lunch, as well as a handful of delicious castagnoli(?) - small, sweet, light pastry-like balls dusted with icing sugar.
On arriving back at the house, we agreed to reconvene for lunch down in the apartment - since we still don't have a working oven in the main house, the food would have to be reheated in the apartment oven anyway, plus it would be more convenient for Ollie to go straight for his midday nap. Lunch was therefore both tasty, courtesy of Amanda, and a nice change of scenery for us - making us realise that the apartment really is quite nice! By the time we'd got home after our walk, the sun had started making its way through the clouds, and as we ate our lunch the sun streamed through the apartment window and door, making it a lovely warm spot.
Once lunch had been despatched, it was back to the office for me, while Dave and Stuart got to do some more male bonding in the sunshine over some tree trunks and a chain saw.
Dave has not only made the week a truly delicious one, treating us to amazing meals each night, but also been a huge help to Stuart outside, putting in lots of heavy graft. I should also mention that Sarah has been an angel with her washing up, sweeping and cleaning (and that's in our house!), while Ollie has been a great source of amusement, a great buddie for Reggie (who eventually stopped nipping at him), and overall delight. Their week with us had gone all too quickly and we'll miss them when they have to head home tomorrow, they are such good company.
Anyway, back to today. At about 4.15pm, I decided it was time to pack up the office and time for us all to head into Pescia to take Ollie for one more ice cream (a.k.a. 'i-beam'). We therefore all piled into the car and drove to the main square where we descended on Bar Pulter once again. Ollie made light work of his i-beam (this time, lemon and stracciatella), while Dave and Stuart each enjoyed a slice of torta nonna.
Once cakes, drinks and ice creams had been finished, we left Bar Pulter and wandered up the road in search of bread and ingredients for a 'grazing' dinner. We bought bread from the bakery then headed into the macelleria (butcher) for the first time, where we bought some parma ham and some Tuscan blood sausage (mallegato). We then went into the small deli at the top of the square where we bought some peppers, some marinated garlic and some carrots from the very friendly lady.
Finally, it was time to head back to the house, where Dave cooked up an amazing lentil, pepper and roasted garlic dip, as well as mushrooms and pancetta in mascarpone, which we ate along with the meats, cheese and bread and a bottle of very special wine - the bottle that Stuart and I had bought on our very first holiday in Italy back in 2003 (when we packed it carefully in our suitcase all those years ago, we never imagined it would be returning to Italy with us one day!).
So we had one more enjoyable evening with the Wattses before they retired to the apartment to put a tired Ollie to bed, after which we watched a little TV before putting a tired Reggie to bed.
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