Cala Violina "Violin Cove"

It's been a hot minute since my last post. To catch you up, we finally made it to Vanni for pizza. It was just as yummy as we remembered. We might have to make it there one more time before we leave, though since we live above the restaurant, take out wouldn't be a bad option. 

We spent a lovely quiet Christmas together. For dinner (we didn't have pizza) we decided to prepare together an Italian staple we had recently become aware of....Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino. Sofia, our Italian tutor in Massa brought it up to distinguish the difference between the pronunciation of aglio and olio (garlic and oil). The sound 'gli' is one of the most difficult sounds to learn to pronounce. In fact, there are multiple YouTube videos dedicated to this topic. Needless to say we were able to make it despite our less than perfect pronunciation! So simple, so yummy and so easy on the pocketbook!

Road trip! 

Well not exactly, but we did hop in the Smart to follow Andrea, Melissa and V.S. to visit Cala Violina. It was only about a half hour drive from Massa towards the sea.

We parked and then walked another thirty minutes to this spot.

If you notice, the beach was covered in what Ira and I thought was wood shavings. They were in fact a type of seaweed. 

The seaweed and more specifically the Posidonia meadow is protected along with the other meadows as they are a key element for the health of the Mediterranean coastal system. They are valued for both their ecological functions and stabilization of the seabed and defense against beach erosion. If you are interested you can read about it here Posidonia meadows. Credit to our newest contributor, Melissa for the link.

We spent the better part of the day by the sea, under the Tuscan sun. We visited while eating the lunches we packed, nothing wrong with that, right? 

And that pretty much brings you to current. We are trying not to think about leaving Italy in less than a week as it makes us both sad. Instead we are focusing on the fact that most of the visa paperwork that is left to do must be done in the U.S. and Canada. If all goes as planned, we'll be back in March.

A dopo!