Farm to Florence, aka Food

For Ashton, my gym buddy, dog sitter, busted pipe saver. I lied to you when I said I would have 6 pack abs when I returned to Inola.  Everyone else knew it was a lie at the time, but I am unrealistically optimistic  (I really am, I got tested for this once in college and I was off the charts) but this has come as recent news to me. I hope you're making better progress than I am.

We woke this morning on the farm thinking maybe we would stay a second night, but an hour into it I could feel moss growing on my feet where I stood and I had to blow that joint. We may change some of the trip and go back later, though, if nothing else just for the eggs. The farm has been in the owner's family since 1600, passed down from father to son but the agrotourism portion (hotel, restaurant) is 6 years old. 

We sat down for breakfast this morning at the farm restaurant (it was free!) and once again they brought us so much food I thought I'd burst. I normally try to have no more than 300 calories for breakfast. I lost count today after 3,000 or something. The farmers grow the food themselves,  butcher it, cure it/cook it, prepare it and serve you platterfuls saying "You like-ah?" so I feel like I need to say yes and clean each plate/platter. It was like being at my Ma and Pa's house- tons of delicious food and a bit of implied social pressure to consume a lot of it. This morning they first brought platters of smoked meat and Curtis sang the benediction. They also fed us yogurt made from their own cows on site. It was a lot runnier than the stuff from the store. I don't like yogurt but mixed with some of their apple marmalade it brought tears to my eyes, it was that magical. The milk was still warm from the cow. The eggs. Oh my goodness the eggs were cooked on top of the yummiest bacon I've ever had, and I'm no bacon lover. What an ingenious way to cook bacon and eggs! The heavens parted and angels sang. 

They gave us some mustard and pear jam to take home. You're supposed to dip cheese in it. I need to have my pants let out soon. We never eat out at home or in France but we eat out once a day or every other day on vacations and so far we are loving Italian food. We plan to go out some when Memaw and Aunt Laura come to France and then we can see how the food compares!

We saw the animals and saw their facilities (so nice!) and enjoyed the playground for most of the morning. Of course, being from Inola, we had to pose with the hay! The folks running the place dripped with hospitality and it was a great time there and very reasonably priced. 5 stars. 

Then we drove straight to Florence- 4 hours and never had to stop once! 

We all got settled in Florence and it was fairly late so we just went to eat (I had ravioli with spinach and the kids had pizza and Curtis had a hunk of meat) and then took a walk to find some dessert. We found some gelato across from a huge beautiful building that is famous here  (I think its called the Duomo) that we are going to see tomorrow but we were only focused on gelato tonight. I never eat ice cream but the last few times I've had it over the past few years it has made me sick. Curtis and I discussed it and thought somehow, magically, gelato would be fine so I ordered a cup and shared it with Abe (he had his own but mine was yummier). About 10 minutes later we learned I was wrong and I vomited all over the beautiful stone street in front of the pretty famous building in front of about 200 people! I just bent over and wretched right where I stood. I didn't feel it coming on and I had nowhere to run and so I was literally in the middle of the courtyard in front of the building. Oops! At least I wasn't inside it!

We plan to spend tomorrow in Florence and hope to make a short day trip to Piza (about an hour away) and then will spend one more night in Florence, after that, we aren't decided yet!

Even with vomiting all over a tourist attraction, this still beats my night in Marseille!