Woke up Tuesday morning at Three Cats on The Lemon
Tree. Last night I started reading “One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, which given our current residence was quite
apt. Just to give you a flavour of our
host’s…shall we say “eccentric” personality, here are a couple of Lavinia-isms:
When showing us round the house after we arrived late last
night – “So here we are….all together...AGAINST THE ENEMIES!! “ (Manic
laughter)
When Nick asked for a vegetable peeler in the kitchen – “I
only keep these two knives in my house.
I don’t have any more because I am afraid that someone will come in and
kill me!” (More manic laughter)
Nick took it upon himself to count the drawings and
paintings of owls in her small house – the total was 23. Obviously this was not counting her bedroom
as his quest for numerical accuracy has not reached that level just yet.
So, we spent the day at Massa Beach sunbathing and swimming
in the sea. Here’s a picture of Nick
enjoying his ice cream.
Before we left for the beach though, we were treated to a
sex show in the garden by Lavinia’s two pet tortoises, an unusual accompaniment
to breakfast.
After our day at the beach Nick cooked dinner (I know!!) –
Tagliatelle with green pesto, courgettes, peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. Apparently he got the recipe from a TV programme
involving an Italian woman who lives in Wales??
Anyway it was delicious so there’s no shirking from dinner duties from
now on.
Wednesday morning we took the train to La Spezia and then to
Cinque Terra which is a set of five villages built into terraced cliff faces
all part of a National Park. The
villages are inaccessible by road, and the scenery is really beautiful.
We spent most of the day walking around here and then
returned to Three Cats on The Lemon Tree to pick up our bags and take a taxi
back the train station…
Quick side note: While
on our travels we have encountered a series of doppelgangers, the first of
which was the chef at the hotel in Milan. He was quickly named “Lieutenant Dan
Chef” (ref. Forrest Gump).
The second was a posing Italian doing dangerous dives from
the rocks in Cinque Terra – Made in Chelsea’s Ollie.
The third was the taxi driver – a dead ringer for everyone’s
favourite Match of the Day presenter Des Lynam!
Actually if you count Joanna Lumley Chicken then there have
been four, but I’m not sure that poultry count.
So Italian Taxi Driver Des Lynam took us back to Massa
station where we caught the train to Bagni di Lucca, and were met by Janine who
is our new Workaway host. She drove us
back to her house high up in the hills and after a couple of glasses of wine we
went to sleep, ready to start work in the morning.
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