casentino :)

It does not take a lot to make this girl happy.  All I need is the people I love, good laughs, good music, good art work and the occasional road trip.  Maybe a bonfire.  That's my happy.

And yet again, Italy has my happy on overload.  I feel so spoiled that every day here gets more and more intensely beautiful.  I have to say...today's field trip to Casentino was probably the most gorgeous yet.  I don't think I have ever in my life felt so....content.

Today we really dove into the italian culture of my favorite thing.....food.  Leaving early this morning we took about a two hour bus trip up the hills to Casentino.  After some extremely winding, bumpy roads, we made it to Rebecca's family's house. (Her father is the founder of Santa Reparata)  The property is over 800 years old with a fantastic view of the countryside.  The hills are like patchwork quilts with red clay roof tops, perfect rows of wine vineyards, olive trees and cypress.  The Tuscany region at its finest.  (Lots of pictures for you guys today!!!)

 

Lucky for all of us slightly car-sick students, there was a perfect, simple breakfast waiting for us at the house when we arrived.  Tea, coffee, warm milk, sugar, plums, pears, nutella and bread, yogurt, bananas....

We got to relax a little bit before jumping into our cooking lessons.  (Which lasted for about four hours! Yeahhhhhh!!!)  It was grey and a little hazy out, but it was much cooler than the past few days.  Which I loved.  (I will always, always, always be a fall baby.)  We got to scope out the inside of the house a little too!  

   

Then it was time to start cooking.  On the menu.....hand made pasta tagliatelle, pesto, traditional fire toasted bruschetta, caprese salad, pears and pecorino cheese, chicken, rabbit, annnnnd....tiramisu.  ( tiramisu means "pick me up" in italian...perfectly named.)

I was.....of course....ever so helpful.  :)

There is something very comforting about cooking together in a large group.  I felt like we were family today.  It made me happy because I have been missing mine.  And while I would have died and gone to heaven to have them there with me....this was perfect in its own way.  

The best part was sitting down to the actual meal and eating what WE made!  Oh....and this breathtaking view didn't hurt a damn bit either.  It still blows my mind every time I look at these next pictures....

Yeah.  What the...how did I get here again? Un. Real.

And nothing ends a meal quite like home made tiramisu....

There is a happy, sleepy feeling that sort of took all of us over after eating.  I recognized it because I feel a similar kind of contentment after a Thanksgiving meal with the family, or that just-because-we-can-lets-make-some-amazing-dinner-this-friday-night....or after seeing family on Christmas eve, or pumpkin hunting in the fall.  It just feels like home.  Safe and happy and all you could ever need.  The italians have it down. It's never really and truly about the food.  It's the experience.  It's the people who lend their hands to create with you.  Its the gratitude and the fortune to come home with a full belly when others can't.  

My gratitude will never ever be enough.  I feel like if I could, I would make my love big enough to say thank you in ways that maybe God would notice.

Eat something wonderful tonight.  Enjoy creation as much as consumption.  And hug the hell out of the people you love.  These are fleeting moments, no?  Celebrate another day's worth of living.

I LOVE you.

Love, Hayden Elizabeth :)