Our Week in Cornwall

We spent the last week of June in Cornwall to celebrate A's sister's birthday. It felt like a completely different country to me than being in England, but it was filled with pretty beaches, cute villages and lots of good ice cream.

Highlights included: my new obsession with crumpets, St. Ives, too much clotted cream, my other new obsession with cornish ice cream, a fun day foraging, cooking and eating with fat hen, these beach towels, and staying in this farmhouse (which I highly recommend if you are looking to stay in the Falmouth area).

Not so good: the baby licking sand off her hands (on multiple occasions & *I think liking it), double roundabouts, the baby teething for the majority of the trip = super unhappy, clingy, not fun

^^Poor thing, I can report that she is much happier now. 

Vacation in Famara

Here are a few of my favorite moments during our vacation to the Canary Islands. We based ourselves in Famara, which was our favorite quiet beach town we frequented last year. Amélie enjoyed getting lots of attention and finally started to eat solids like a champ.

^^Enjoying one of her Christmas presents.

^^A pretty sunset and the door to our villa. 

^^Quality time with daddy.

^^Beach walk.

^^We had lots of seafood and rice.

 ^^We had a walk around the Jardin de Cactus

^^plus visited all the Manrique sites.

^^And of course had lots of tapas.

We are back home now, busy making our home more homey and getting into the swing of 2015. 

Summer Vacation: Montpellier & Eating Too Much in France

I admit I slacked off with the pictures the last week of the vacation. A majority of it was spent reading on the beach while enjoying too many baguettes and croissants washed down with Orangina.

Here are a few of my (mainly food) recommendations if you plan on visiting the Montpellier area or actually France in general:

1. Get a fresh baguette early in the morning from a boulangerie.

2. Do a pain au chocolat taste test. We tried three in one morning, oops :)

3. ^^Get a Giant from Quick. It is so good. Skip the fries though, they aren't as good, just get the burger in my opinion.

4. ^^Have a crêpe with nutella and banana. 

5. Eat at a typical bistro. I recommend La Cocotte in the city center of Montpellier.

6. Explore different beaches and bring a cooler, umbrella and beach towels with you. Use this beach guide for the Languedoc area. Espiguette and Marseillan are a couple of my favorites.

7. Stay at an apartment rental rather than a hotel. You'll have the freedom of cooking dinner when you want (^^like the above salad I made) and even doing laundry (which is especially useful if you are on vacation for more than one week!) I recommend Smart Living if you are staying right in Montpellier.

8. Try speculoos ice cream (or biscoff to those in the US).

9. Buy fresh fruit and vegetables at the weekly open market.

10. Have a classic jambon, beurre, fromage sandwich with an Orangina.

Etruscan Coast: Baratti Beach & American Festival at Camp Darby

It has been super hot here in Modena so we decided to take a day trip to one of our favorite beaches, Baratti, in Tuscany with a few friends. The Etruscan Coast is one of my favorite weekend getaway destinations since it is full of great beach towns all with the beautiful views you think of with Tuscany.

Baratti beach is great because there aren't hundreds of beach chairs lined  up in a row leaving hardly any "beach" left. Most people in the area go to Rimini since it is much closer, but if you travel just over an hour more, I think it is well worth having warmer water, better scenery and less people. Baratti is mostly is a free beach where you can bring your own chairs and umbrellas, but we usually choose to pay for a couple of lounge chairs and an umbrella at Bagno Altamarea. It is 20 euros total for 2 lounge chairs with an umbrella for the entire day. Bagno Altamarea has three rows of chairs, but pretty much all of them in the first two rows closest to the water are reserved by the locals. We arrived by 9am and had our choice of chairs in the last row. There are no bathrooms or shower facilities at Altamarea, but I usually just use the bathroom at the beach restaurant. Parking is paid by the hour in the main parking lot and you should not have a problem finding a space if you arrive before 10am.

1.50 euro for some fresh coconut

We always bring a cooler packed with water and some snacks, but there are a couple of restaurants for lunch located right at the main parking lot. Ristorante Demos has outdoor seating and very good, reasonably priced, standard Italian fare with a focus on seafood. We started with an assortment of appetizers including clams and mussels cooked simply in white wine, garlic, olive oil and parsley plus a fritto misto of shrimp and calmari. For the main course, I had linguine with lobster and A had spaghetti with alici.

After a day of soaking up the sun and napping all afternoon post lunch, we headed over to Camp Darby in Pisa, an American military base. Our friend from the area told us about an American Festival that Camp Darby hosts every June for two weeks. The main feature is "real" American burgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers and fries, but they also have some carnival rides plus a night featuring car tuning. It is free entry for the festival and they take either U.S. dollars or euros when you purchase any food or drinks. If you happen to have dollars then it will be to your advantage as there is no currency conversion. They had three different lines set up: 1. chicken fingers and fries for $7, 2. hamburgers for $3, cheeseburgers for $4, corn on the cob $1 and 3. hot dogs $3 or chili dogs for $4. Drinks included Water, Sunkist, Dr. Pepper, Beer and Granita. I was excited that they used all American products even Wonderbread! Even though I had just got my America fix a couple weeks of ago, this hit the spot and I will definitely return next year. It was a little piece of America right here in Italy. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures since we weren't allowed to take any!

It was a great Saturday and we cannot wait to return to Baratti during our next free weekend.