Neither Zach nor Holly (or Winry, for that matter) were born in New York, but New York is where they'd spent the last two years of their lives before selling everything to start their world adventure - an adventure that started five weeks ago in the little town of Barga (in the next valley over from us), and which continued, three weeks ago, at our little farm. Where did the last three weeks go??
Today was the end of their stay with us - a sad day for all. We've had a great time getting to know each other and last night was no exception. As has become our custom with our Helpxers, we took them down to the station car park last night to find Mimmo's porchetta truck and relieve him of some of his super tasty food - but niot before a quick stop at Bar Pulter for three Aperol Spritz (Holly, Helen and me) and a martini (Zach).
We were relieved to find Mimmo's wagon illuminated in the car park and ready for business - at least Helen and I were, Zach and Holly had no idea as to what they were about to experience, and I suspect their expectations were lower than ours upon arrival.
As we ordered our tasty morsels, we explained to Zach and Holly that Nick and Tess, our helpers and friends from New Zealand, had claimed Mimmo's 'bosco burger' to be the best burger they'd ever eaten. Coming from the States, I think that Zach and Holly were a little dubious as to whether such a burger could live up to the standards they are used to over there, but I think that Zach probably wished I'd told him that before we ordered as he, like me, plumped for the spicy Calbrian sausage while both girls had the infamous 'bosco burger'.
We spent the next five or ten minutes sharing a couple of beers and chatting to Mimmo, while the smell of salsicce wafted through the evening air.
I couldn't help but take a photo of my creation on Mimmo's grill. I say 'creation' because you order a sausage panino and then have a choice of a dozen extras to add so you can build your own sandwich. I ended up with scamorza (smoked cheese) onions, rape (oil seed rape leaves cooked with garlic and salt), and a sweet green chilli.
The second Zach bit into his panino, I watched any doubts he may have had as to his order fall away from his face to be replaced with sheer contentment. I forget just how amazingly good these sandwiches are (which is probably a good thing really).
The girls' burgers arrived a little later, but they were more than worth the wait - a huge, wild boar pattie lavished with fried onions, a couple of chips, some of the delicious rape and bosco sauce. Like our Kiwi friends, Helen and I maintain our position that these are probably the best burgers we've ever eaten, and it only took one bite for our New York friends to agree that it was probably one of the best burgers they'd eaten. High praise indeed!
Anyway, back to today. Holly, Zach and Winry came up to the house just before 8.30am, and we all piled into the car and headed for the station (sadly Mimmo was not there this time so there would be no bosco burger breakfasts). After a sad farewell, we watched Zach, Holly and sweet little Winry walk off into the station to prepare for the next leg of their epic adventure while we headed supermarket bound.
After a dash around both supermarkets and a couple of cappuccinos in the café in Pietrabuona, we went home to collect Reggie and headed out to one of our favourite haunts for a walk.
It was a lovely day for it - much cloudier than yesterday, but when you're walking uphill you stay warm enough and we were soon in short sleeves. There was little to report on the walk other than finding a pile of wolf scat on the path! Apologies if you're squeamish (or eating your breakfast while reading this), but this is nature, people!
After the walk it was time to head home for lunch on the patio - which was pleasant enough, but our enjoyment was tempered by our looming mammoth cleaning chores. Helen's Mum and Dad are arriving tomorrow morning, and after a hectic three weeks with two dogs tearing the place apart and four people (plus two dogs) traipsing in and out of the house (not to mention the plastering and the repointing jobs that left their own trail of destruction), there was a lot of cleaning to do. Zach and Holly had done a great job of tidying before they left, but we still needed to do the deep clean as well as change the linen, so while Helen went down to the apartment to do that, I set about giving our part of the house a thorough spring clean. And so the (entire) afternoon went - dust, vacuum, scrub (and repeat). And to think we turned down a wedding invite in Abingdon for this! Huge, huge congratulations to the new Mr and Mrs Berryman, Colin and Louise!! We wish we could have shared your big day with you, but you were in our thoughts today, and we raised a glass of Prosecco to you this evening.
We are planning an early night tonight in readiness for heading to the airport first thing tomorrow morning to welcome our next set of guests!
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