We have just arrived in Italy, we are staying on a golf resort near Lake Garda, not just parked in the middle but in an apartment with full access to a spa, gym and of course golf. We probably won’t be using any of them because there is so much countryside here to walk in but my legs do need waxing….
We cooked the roe deer as instructed, for a very long time with wine, herbs and garlic and it was so tender. I could only eat a small slice because I kept visualising Bambi standing on a hill waiting to be shot, I do realise that it is so much healthier for the animal to be free before we eat it but the fact that I’ve only managed vegetables since is probably a sign of things to come. I don’t have a problem with roquefort though.
We walked every day, the first day we walked down the mountain to a lake – we didn’t get there but we saw some beautiful cows and a massive bull, the tiny electric fence didn’t look like it would keep him back if he decided to charge so we walked past nonchalantly pretending to be brave and holding tight to Sunny in case he took it into his head to run! It was such a beautiful day, we were in t-shirts and still we were too hot, the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. One interesting thing is that the trees in France are covered in mistletoe, I’ve never seen so much, it’s everywhere and has pretty flowers as well as berries, R decided he wanted some and shredded his arm getting it down, he was very proud of himself until I pointed out that it would only last a few days so he threw it back in the tree.
We decided that it’s better to take our walk by going up first and behind our cabin was a track up the mountain we walked a bit further each day and the views were spectacular. The first few days were stunning, then it rained and sleeted a bit, then it snowed a bit. The day before we left was clear and dry when we started on the walk but by the time we finished it was snowing slightly. We went to bed with it snowing lightly and when we woke up it was beautiful, so christmassy and Sunny absolutely loved it.
We drove to Italy on the motorway, we usually go the scenic route but we wanted to get here quickly, when we left France it was cloudy and overcast but dry and clear, we went through the Mont Blanc tunnel (not my favourite thing to do) but when we got out it looked like Narnia, cheered me up immensely. We are going to spend a week here and then head back up through the alps to Germany. I’m not supposed to say but we have come back to buy a pair of boots that R didn’t buy last time we were here, I hate that we always have to go back to the first shop and buy the first pair he saw, we don’t usually travel 500 miles to do it though.