Sorry for the dearth of blogs, we are on holiday in Italy at the moment.
Here is a wee snippet from yesterday’s diary:

Today, a little burnt out from visiting museums, art galleries and churches we decided to head north of Fiesole, avoiding the Florence traffic, and see where the road would take us.

First stop was Scarperia, a little gem of a town with a strong tradition of making knives and with an impressive knife museum. It was 12 when we left there so we just decided to head north through the Appenines, through some spectacular roads, and stop wherever lunch time brought us.

This happened in a one horse town called Firenzuola which seemed uniquely involved in the producion of Pietra Serena,some sort of building stone, and was as modern as a new pin having been bombed out in 1945. The only eatery was a not madly inviting hotel, but, beggars and choosers that we were we went in.

Three faults were immediately evident, the place was cold, God knows how, it was quite mild outside, There were a loud couple with a dog in one corner and the lady of the house had a small child dogging her every step whom it was evident we were meant to oogle. (We did)

The food however wasn’t bad at all. Garlicy bruschetta of Tomato, and Tortelini filled with potato,sauced witha ragu Bolognaise (just a few miles up the road). The table next to us filled up with a business meeting of four men and women. The elder (in his forties) was a regular and greeted with much joy by the patronne with cries of Michele !

As we finished we asked Madame for the bill, and she, looking slightly wounded at us not taking coffee or desserts, arrived back shortly with two slices of a strudle type cake for us. As she passed the table she asked Michele to tell her how to say “Complimentary” to us. “Tell them it is on the House” he said. And yes, we could hear a faint touch of Ireland in his English !

” Where are you from ” he immediately asked us. His delight when we said Ireland was palpable. “My Mother was born in Limerick ” he said. “What on Earth brings you to Firenzuola ?”.

I wish I could say that we then ended up chewing the fat and exchanging stories for an hour but he was after all at a meeting! As we passed out though I dropped him a card for Le Le Presbytère, Chambre et Table d’Hôte. He looked delighted, I have a funny feeling somehow we may see him again, and maybe learn the story of the family.