We're having a rather extraordinary day here in northern Tuscany. It's summer all over again--after a night of pounding rain.
It's market day in our market town, Aulla. We puttered around a bit in the sun, checking out the falling value of houses before heading over to the food section of the market and buying a roast chicken (€6) and that big white bag of potato croquettes you see on the table in the picture, purchased from a guy with a trailer full of flaming rotisseries parked on a side street next to the candy man. Fun to watch him fork a pollo and flip it into a bag. A showman; a very efficient one; chickens flew from the truck as if they had wings (Oh, wait, scratch that...)
By the time we got home, it was warm enough to strip down to tee shirt and jeans and set up the table on our terrace. That's the view out our kitchen door.
While we were tearing into our chicken, neighbor Enrico came over to harvest lettuce from his garden. There's a huge plot of it still unfrozen. Upon seeing us eating outside, he exclaimed that the world and its weather had gone "pazzo" or crazy, before inviting us to dig into the lettuce any time we wanted. The off-season weather can be unbelievable some times.
Find out more about the Lunigiana, or see a map of Tuscany.
We are spending Christmas in Avignon and New Years in San Gianagmano (sic)
Can you suggest holiday traditions we would like to experience Europe traditions.
We live in N. California
My aunt lives in Aulla in Via Rimembranza and we have visited there so many times. We also have had the chicken and it is delicious! Wish I was there now!!