Herbs grow along the roadside. Olive trees dot the landscape, tomato plants are in every garden, peach trees, chestnut trees, everywhere. It's almost as if the soil of Liguria were edible.

Marcello's dad has an allotment and grows all sorts of things; weird courgettes that turn around corners, aubergines, tomatoes, beans of all sorts, several types of lettuce, onions...

Today we drove in Sestri, a large town (small city) with a beach and shops. I took a few snaps of the town and we had a coffee or two and then went to Marika's for lunch.

Now remember I have a very bad hang over at this point - plus after yesterday's massive nosh up I am in the mood for something light.


How about some seafood spaghetti (two large bowls), some anchovies, gurnard and potatoes and then tiramisu? All washed down with wine, limoncina and grappa? And bread of course, Marcello warned me not to eat too much bread at the start but did I listen?

And this was really quite excellent food. The pasta had these weird crustaceans in it that I've never seen before. They're not lingoustines but similar. They are a lot uglier than lingoustines (if that's possible) but were delicious. There were also prawns and mussels and a few other things. The spaghetti was spicy but not hot. Best of all was the gurnard. I don't know what they did to it but it was fantastic, lemony, soft and just cooked as it should be.

After dinner I was feeling completely beat. All I wanted to do was sleep but instead we went into town for a coffee and an ice cream.

And what about dinner?

After we got back from Sestri (or Breasti as Marcello and I were now calling it - you'll have to visit the town to see why) Marcello's parents had cooked us a quite superb selection of fish and shellfish. There were mussels with parsley and garlic (loads of them the photo is about ¼ of what I ate, prawns on skewers, some squid (which was really soft and not even the slightest bit chewy, how she did it I'll never know) and quite the tasties eel I've ever eaten - cooked in herbs and vinegar. I managed about three pieces of this it was so good, all served with bread and washed down with wine.

Afterwards some salad, cheese (I took a photo of the block as it was so beautiful), coffee, fruit, a glass of whisky...

I think they are fattening me up for the pot. I keep looking around to see the witch from Hansel and Gretel rubbing her belly and warming the oven. At this rate I shall put on weight faster than a baby whale.


Cake Blog

Today's cakes were: Marika's home made tiramisu and a lemon, melon and strawberry ice cream in Sestri. I have had tiramisu on my blog before back in Frankfurt but I argue this is different as it was home made and was real italian tiramisu not some imitation. It was also much softer and more like a trifle than any I'd had before. The topping is marscapone and whisked raw egg white - Marika wont make it in Britain as she says the eggs aren't fresh enough.

Some photos of the food that is just about everywhere. Wonky courgettes, giant vats of wine in the garage, a shed full of home made pasta sauces, rabbits ready for the pot, onions, shallots and garlic hanging from a beam, chick peas beans and chilis drying in the sun, anchovies in salt, kiwis growing and giving shade...