There is a conference taking place here and breakfast was a bit hectic as the participants had to be finished by 8:30 for the start of meetings. The place suddenly became quiet and we took our time to fill up on the free food. No lunch today.
Last night we found a rough track heading away from the resort, so we set off straight after breakfast to explore. It was overgrown at first but improved and after 500 meters we met a young couple with a baby returning to the resort, followed by a nearly blind dog. They told us that this was a short cut to the nearest town of Barga. The dog turned around and walked in front of us, looking back every so often to ensure we were following. When there was a fork he would wait until we reached it and then continue. It was a case of the physically blind leading the mentally blind. We covered about a third of the way then decided to turn back and do the full hike later in the week. He took charge again and made sure we took no wrong turns on the way back. The reception lady at the resort told us he is an institution on the track. We passed through forests with little creeks like this one.
In the afternoon we located the track that leads up the hill to a settlement called Treppignana. It took us about two hours for the return trip. We had to dodge blackberry branches for the first part in the forest. We passed derelict buildings.
As we climbed we had views of the valley in other directions.
When we reached the traffic road that took us up to the town we met a group of about twenty five English ramblers heading down, which demonstrated that people pay money to come here and do walks. There was a very authentic feel about these tiny villages, this one having no shops.
There was a church of course, with a tower.
And on the way back we recorded this shrine.
At 4pm we kept our appointment for our free Italian Cooking Class. The chef was very friendly and quite unflappable. He had everything set out for us and started in true local fashion by pouring wine (or water) for everyone. There were eight of us, all Australian, and he had set out a little pile of flour for each of us and we had to pour some olive oil and three eggs into it and knead a wad of pasta. Lyn and Malcolm were given the task of making the meat sauce from the ingredients he had prepared. This was used for the lasagne and the fettucine. Others made gnocchi, ravioli and tagliatelli. We took turns to stir the pot.
After two hours of busy work we were photoed with our creations.
The waitress took us to a party table for eight while the chef did the baking and boiling. We were presented with a large plate with a sample of the five different dishes we had produced from raw ingredients.
With the beautiful outlook over the valley behind us, we enjoyed the meal and the conversation immensely.
For dessert the chef prepared a fruit flan featuring more of the delicious pineapple they import from Queensland.
One of the ladies was called Vanessa and resided in Singapore at the moment, so we told her to seek out her namesake if she needed physiotherapy. When the conversation turned to energy they turned out to be all very keen on renewables. The couple from South Australia told us their Premier announced a target to be carbon neutral by 2030. We spent no money today and had a really good time.
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