Yesterday was a shining example of why I'm here - beaten back en route from a visit to my favourite restaurant (Il Botteghino in Matraia, near Lucca) by their clever and cunning strategy of not announcing their new rest day of Wednesdays, we ended up in a beautiful little mediaeval hilltop hamlet near us, sitting under an umbrella at a trattoria in the square.
1/2 litre carafe of a pretty acceptable white wine, 1 litre of mineral water, a plate of 5 assorted fresh-cut, generously filled, parma ham, mortadella and salami panini, and four ice creams later I was presented with the bill - € 14.80 (just under £ 10), what I would have spent on a starter in EC3 in my former guise of Lord Luncheon of Lime Street.
Why do they bother? Very glad they do though.
19 comments:
Hi Tony - been reading your blog for a couple of weeks now and must say it's up there among my favourites.
The pictures of this post inspired me to write. You see, I've never fancied Tuscany because of the Blairs (as a matter of principle anything they favour I don't!)but now they, and their freebies, have gone perhaps I can risk it.
When you've finished running around posing and telling us how cheap nice food is,what happened to the scrappy pics,is EK back online yet ?
Thanks for the kind words Chris, I enjoyed dropping by yours, too.
Tuscany is not like an English county, it's big, more like a region (i.e. the Southeast). It's thus relatively easy to avoid the tourist flypaper-coated microwaved foccacia-selling rubbish-traps infested by the likes of the Blairs and instead settle down in a place like Massa, near Montecatini Terme (where we were yesterday) and spend really nothing on really something.
Anon, I apologise, there will be some gratuitous young women's profiles up shortly. In the meantime I suggest you visit theospark.blogspot.com for a palate-cleansing sorbet
wow four ice creans half a litre of wine , 5 cuts of meat all for a tenner.
What did the rest of the family eat? (+:
You are very astute Hitch, I left them at the bottom of the valley by the motoryway exit at a drive-through MacD.
TT,
Did you have a cleansing Peroni as well?
I would have done!
Chris is right, Mrs S and I only ever had negative thoughts on Tuscany as the Blair brood used to crow about all their freebies there.
You've done more for the Region than anyone, so keep it up! I'd be on a plane tonight, but have to go to the Kent Show tomorrow. Do you want anything there ;0)
Kent show? If you're serious, a very kind offer - some blue Pekin eggs (feertiloized, natch) wuld be great, forgot to buy them at the Norfolk show the other week - will pay via paypal or direct transfer to the scroblene depository at Coutts or Bankk of England or wherever. A barrel of Shepherd Neame Spitfire or Harvey's Sussex is always welcome, too!
Glad to see you had a really shit day too, Tony.
Why do these places always look so clean and tidy and the streets look pristine ,who would want to come to England and walk around through chip papers, dog muck,litter bins full up,rubbish designed so called modern concrete buildings,crap goverment,parking gestapo,being pc,I meant scrappy cars tt,pictures of totty is nice on the eyes,bu I'd rather have the real thing sitting next to me :-).
Anon, ahhh, got it!
Kevin, Mrs Tuscan is constantly insisting we visit and spend more time in Somerset, so it can't be really all that bad down that way. Excepting Taunton, perhaps.
Tony,
Whaaaaat?
Quelle le f*** are Pekin Ducks? Are they anything like Bombay Duck - sorry Mumbai duck?
Also, nice to see Electro is talking again. Well, answering a few posts, and so is Ayscoughe-Hussey. Jungle drums or what!
I'll do the rounds and report back, but warn you that I am up for lunch with a crowd from whom we bought a big site, (and they owe me), so may have to repair to the car-park for a post prandial internal eyelid inspection...
All looking good again isn't it?
WHAT! You don't know what a Pekin is? And me thinking you were living there in deepest East Sussex, replete with long sideboards, a briar pipe and a threepiece tweed suit (even in Summer). I do hope you're not a be-shellsuited townie, and one who only plans to infest the Kent Show with a view to buying some crazy paving. Pah!
TT
There is atv pregrame on at the moment , all about families who have emmigrated leaving one partner homesick , so they are sadisticaly brought back and shown the best of their old life to see if it still appeals and then they have to decide if they really want to come "home"
Suprisingly enough they do not.
Maybe I should sign up Mrs Tuscan, though even she has started to lose interest in returning to England of late. Bad news for me is that she now wants to up sticks and buzz off to the Italian lakes, or worse, Switzerland. Such is her onwards and upwards upbringing.
This is the sort of thing which is always enjoyable - discovering new places.
Lord, quite so, we find it difficult to wrench ourselves awayt from the favoured haunts (guaranteed fun vs. a bit of a punt) but things like this make it 100% worthwhile. There have been a few disaster places too, mind you.
Hi, Tony. Been over a couple of times now and enjoy your blog. Amazing price, that, isn't it? I know exactly what you mean about their "cunning strategy"! - We get a lot of that here in Sicily.
Welcome to the blog WL, very pleased you've enjoyed it so far!
As you well know, you have to lear to live with the wild timekeeping and general horological chaos here or shove off back to Blighty, took us 4 years to get used to it though.
This new discovery is a great little place, we're v pleased to have found it.
I have an Imp prob (see my BBC Congo comment just now)at the moment but will be over to check your blog later!
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