Today was not only Good Friday but also Emiliano’s 40th birthday and luckily he had the day off as Good Friday is not a public holiday here like in Australia and many other places.  I remain surprised and a bit disappointed that in the Catholic Capital of Italy, the Friday before Easter is not a public holiday.  It doesn’t seem right or fair to have to go to work!

I am also fortunate to still be on maternity leave so today we went for a lovely drive to one of our favourite towns, Panzano in Chianti to have lunch at MacDario, home of renowned local butcher, Dario Cecchini.  He had recently returned from a working holiday in Melbourne where my father had been a guest at one of his dinners.  It was lovely to hear someone who lives in such a beautiful place be so complimentary about my family and home town!

I have already raved about the food here in previous posts and today was no exception.  We left with very full and satisfied tummies and I was lucky enough to be given an extra piece of cake by the lovely waiter Dante.

One of the beautiful signs of Spring here is the wonderful wisteria / glicine in bloom everywhere.  There were so many gorgeous vines around today and we got some great photos.  I love this flower and have been doing a bit of research to see if we could plant some at our front door.  We have a wall that really needs a bit of greenery but I found out that the plant is quite poisonous so probably not the best idea with a baby/soon to be active toddler crawling around and sticking everything in his mouth.  The other option is jasmine / gelsomino.  After stopping at the nursery / vivaio on the way home today I am pretty keen to get our trellis and vine up this weekend.  I don’t think Emiliano shares my enthusiasm though.

Apparently I am quite hard-headed (una testona) so stay tuned and let’s see if I get my way.