I am here to tell you that the movie Room with a View took serious poetic license!  There is no fountain in the Santo Croce square (where the man was knifed) and the Arno is blocks away!  These two facts seriously messed up our attempt to locate the Church this morning.  On top of that, most of the interior was under scaffolding, however, I still didn’t recognize it as the interior in the movie!

But on to much better things:  Cooking Lesson!  In the Tuscan countryside!  In a farmhouse that is over 1,000 years old (only some parts, the refrigerator and bathroom are more modern) and sits on a hill in the middle of a grove of olive trees!  Did you know that there are only three ingredients in pasta?  A special kind of Italian flour called Semoina (I think), egg, and salt!  The secret is in the kneading (until it is as “smooth as a baby’s bottom”) and a handy dandy chrome Italian pasta machine which eventually rolls it out paper thin.  (The lack of pasta machines during the Renaissance is what I blame for the enormous Titian arm syndrome)

Our group made spinach-ricotta ravioli and fettuccine.  It was amazingly good, almost as good as all the other goodies our hostess made, especially the tiramisu.  However, the real winner of the day was the Tuscan countryside.  Take it from me, there is no poetic license taken in raptures concerning that!  It is probably one of the most beautiful spots on earth.  It is my idea of the Garden of Eden. 

As you can tell, David had a marvelous time with his camera!