Hanging out in Bubbio

I woke up around 7:30, a little hot. I finally got up and took a shower. Once the girls were up, we went down to get coffee and pastries. I really like being within walking distance to a coffee shop, a little grocery store, a restaurant. Even though we have a car, there's something very homey and comforting about walking to get what you need nearby. Airbnbs that are more remote, like the one we left in Corsanico, have their own charm: needing to stock up while you're in town because you don't want to have to leave once you're back up there. But I think I prefer the closeness of walking.

There's a bakery right next to our house, so we checked it out on our way to breakfast. The girl there gave us samples of one of their specialties: a small soft hazelnut cookie. Delicious. We told her we were right next door and we'd stop in to buy some another time. 

We wound up getting coffee from the same restaurant, Frankino, we had dinner at. It was yummy. We got four pastries to share with our cappuccinos.

This kitchen has a sofa in it! Kinda unusual, but kinda cool too.

The only goal today, other than to take it easy and catch up on some blogging, was to drive to a grocery store and cook a meal at home. We drove to a town called Canelli and went to Lidl, a little German budget grocery store chain along the lines of Aldi. We weren't sure what we wanted to make, we just browsed and let the supermarket inspire us. We ended up deciding on Caprese salad for lunch and tuna toss for dinner.

The Lidl had a bunch of "American" foods like hot dogs (in a jar?), peanut butter, and...peanut chips? Still not sure what those are. We didn't buy any of it.

On the way back from Canelli, the views were amazing. We pulled off twice for pics. Once was here, just outside Bubbio:

And the second time was even closer to Bubbio, at a field of sunflowers:

These look photoshopped, but I swear they're not.

Back home we ate Caprese salad and I worked on my blog at the kitchen table. I used my little Bluetooth keyboard and my phone but typed it into a Google doc instead of blogger. Works much better. That way Cristina could use her laptop. She went down rabbit holes looking at things to do in our next towns.

It's easier to blog on Cristina's laptop, but when she's using it, I use this little portable keyboard that connects to my phone

Since our dessert reservation was for 9 pm, we cooked dinner around 7. The tuna toss was great, with a few subtle differences from what I make at home: capers and grana padano cheese instead of parmesan. Also, the pasta was a shape that we don't have at home, kind of a tighter but more delicate corkscrew.

We walked down to Ristorante Frankino and ordered tiramisu, chocolate salami, and a new one to us that I don't remember the name of. It was kind of a layer cake thing made with square cookies. Our server from the previous night came by (she didn't have our table) and brought the book she had mentioned: Mr. Fridge. It was sweet that she remembered and thought to bring it for us to look at. I'll have to see if we can find it back in the States. Looks like it might be a fun read.

We went to the thing where you can fill your water bottles with either still or fizzy water and a lady was there with her dog filling about a dozen bottles. She saw our one bottle and told us we could go ahead and fill it. Then I realized that this wasn't a free one like the ones in Rome. But it was only 5 cents a liter. She just told me to use her water.

Back home we got ready for bed and I blogged a bit more, not sleepy due to the espresso that I had with dessert. We moved the fan closer to the bed and left the windows open. We'll take our chances with the noise.