Some photos from the weekend and the last few days.

These tiles were in the forest. Honestly.

"Key Clinic" or maybe "Key doctor"

Lydia’s tavern in Kaisariani, Athens

"Vraziliana" in Petralona, Athens

"Kappari" in Petralona, Athens

At "Rakaki" in Kaisariani, Athens. It was M’s birthday

Your Hand in Mine: An amazing greek band. Listen to them here.

Monika: She is really lovely, also Greek. Listen to her here.

The recession? Does it scare you? It scares me seeing people losing jobs and homes. Here’s a song I thought very appropriate.

Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill
And while we still have the chance
Let’s face the music and dance

Siena

Sam Gimignano

Duomo, Florence

Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Certaldo

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

The lavenders and butterflies outside our door

Siena, Cathedral

Siena

Restaurant in San Gimignano

Bagno Vignoni

Our house

Tuscany does not look like it’s real. It looks like it is painted or handcrafted. The first morning, when I went in the garden and saw the butterflies and the lavenders I thought: "This is photoshopped".  There were bunnies, squirrels and partridges in our garden and as city people we were amazed.

I have seen beautiful landscapes but there, everything is in perfect proportion. The sun is bright but not too bright, the skies are the perfect blue, the hills are not steep nor are they bare, there is always a castle, a church or a farmhouse on top, the cypress trees look like guards, protecting you in the dark. Endless sunflower fields, fragrant olive groves, lavender everywhere, harvest fields filled with hayrolls, the grass smelling so fresh, vineyards everywhere, everything tells you this is the land of abundance.

My Tuscany top 11

The villages: Monteriggioni, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Certaldo, Colle di Val d’ Else, San Gimignano

Siena, the Piazza del Campo

Pienza, one of the most romantic towns ever

Gelato, especially the one in San Gimignano

The cheese, the red wine, the fresh pasta, truffle oil, porcinis  and the thin-crust pizza

The castles, cathedrals and farmhouses

The place we stayed in, the wonderful views from there and the huge garden

The Duomo in Florence: So huge but so divine

Plazza dei Miracoli in Pisa

The Ufizzi: Renaissance art that touches the soul

Leonard Cohen in Lucca. He was the sweetest

What I did not like

Florence: It was too crowded, too dirty, too smelly

The bread in restaurants

The fact that you can’t ask for tap water anywhere.

People were often rude, or rather, blunt.

I am glad to be back. I walked so much I need a vacation to rest from this vacation. I will leave again at the end of the week for southern Greece first and a northern area then. Before that I am going to check all your blogs. When I got back and checked my email and found all your messages and comments I thought "It’s great to be reading nice emails first thing when you return home". I’d like you to feel the same way when you get back from your holidays too.

My son is at my mother’s on vacation, near the sea. We had a little conversation on the phone as we do twice a day. He said he was busy. Apparently he is selling rocks to people in the neighbourhood. "How much?" I asked. "I sold a really big one for 95 cents" he said. "It’s good for stopping doors from shutting".

These had been left on the beach by someone. I thought it would be nice to take them home but my sister freaked out. So I only took a picture. You know, to remember.

Do you need all that on the beach?

As I was buying cheese at the supermarket, I realized I was listening to a minimalist composition probably by Philip Glass. Someone confused it with muzak and chose it for supermarket music. Either that, or someone at the supermarket is really into minimalism.

The 200.000 word translation is over. It is OVER. I feel like I am born again. I feel like I have all my life ahead of me. I feel free. I am never doing a similar thing again.

 Cathy, you must be very worried for me to suggest smoking. But yes, you were right. I also had champagne from the bottle and it was surprisingly medicinal. Thank you friends. The blues come once a year like the flu. Then they go and there’s a little coughing and sneezing but then I am okay. How have you been? Did the sea bring you any new shiny things?

* I am. And this is the title of a White Stripes song.

The Doric temple of Hephaestus, Agora of Athens

You know what this is

Temple of Hephaestus

Stoa (arcade) of Attalos, Athenian Agora

Byzantine church of Holy Apostles in the Agora. More than 10 centuries old and still standing.

Thisseio area

The cafe in Monastiraki had great music and 100 different kinds of coffee. Also, the kindest waitress ever.

My son was mortified because I bought this parasol and kept parading it around. Everybody carried one on Sunday, the weather was so hot and the parasols were so cheap.

There is a little store in Monastiraki that sells beads. I bought a couple and made this in the car, on the way home.

I got some old postcards too. My son bought some old German banknotes and now we are rich.

 The unavoidable flower

The main reason I decided to post my Sunday walk photos was that last night a fear of imminent death came upon me and the first thought in my head was: " If I die tonight my last post will have been the one about James McAvoy. I am going to be remembered as the girl who had a crush on an Scottish actor. " So I posted the pictures. I don’t know what is worse; Fear of death or internet angst.

We celebrated Greek Easter on the 27th of April. We mainly eat lots of food somewhere in the country and crack eggs which are mostly red. They symbolize Christ’s blood (I think). Read more about Greek Easter food and the food I found in Nafpaktos here. For new readers there are other Easter posts (from previous years) here.

We stopped at Delphi first. Did you know it’s the centre of the earth? And the Universe? That’s what the ancient world believed. This is the theatre. It’s an amazing place. Truly sacred.

This is the Treasury of the Athenians in Delphi. It was built after 490 B.C. with spoils form the Battle of Marathon.

We spent Easter in Nafpaktos, a beautiful seaside town about 3 hours away from Athens. However, door knobs are scary in Nafpaktos. Maybe they don’t like visitors?

Monastiraki, a small fishing village near Nafpaktos

Nafpaktos, the harbour

The statue of Miguel de Cervantes at the harbour. Cervantes was wounded in the naval Battle of Nafpaktos, serving in the Spanish infantry, on Oct 7 , 1571.

The castle

Castle gate, one of many

Good Friday -a usually solemn affair- in Nafpaktos is even bigger than Easter day. They celebrate with fireworks, they light the sea wall and they hang a cross above the sea which is later set alight..

I went to the open market in my neighbourhood (it is held every Wednesday) and I bought these plates for 1 euro each. They were so beautiful I felt sorry for them waiting there to get picked up. I don’t intend to eat in them. However, I did make some nice campanelle with aubergine and zucchini here.

I also bought this silly apron for 2.50 euros. I want to wear it all the time. The school bus driver saw me wearing it while I was waiting for my son to get off the bus (I was out on the balcony, not in the street) and he made the gesture with his right hand that means " What’s the deal?"  Or maybe if he wasn’t so kind, it would mean WTF?

You don’t say

My son sharing a dirty joke with his friends at the local Pizza place. His teeth are okay now. The doctor said it was a strange reaction to the antibiotics probably made worse by all the ribena.

My son has devised this character, who brings bad luck to everyone. He is something like an anti super hero. My son makes his own comic strips starring the jinx  that all end in tears (for the other characters).

 New highlights. Well a week old, but I hadn’t had the chance to post anything apart from scary medical scenarios. So you see some very light streaks along with some chocolate ones. Or don’t you? Actually you shouldn’t. My theory is that highlights should not be seen but felt.

A lake, a tiny inhabited island in the lake, a fortress, mosques, old churches, nice restaurants, wonderful villages 20 minutes away, this town has everything. It is in the North-West and it is called Ioannina. It’s like Disneyland for grown ups who are interested in history and medieval times. I could live there for a couple of years. We went to see friends -so nice that they gave us their bed and slept on the couch- and it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Our friends have a sweet little girl who would comb my hair into pigtails and follow me in the bathroom to look into my make up bag. It was very exciting as I live with males who consider my make up bag a load of junk. And the mushrooms. The place is full of mushrooms and there were tavernas where all the dishes had some kind of mushroom in them. I felt like a princess (although Greece has lots of mushrooms restaurants and especially tavernas don’t use them much).

I was thinking I should start writing here more often and also reading you more often and generally having a better internet schedule. Not because I have to, but because it makes me feel good and creative and more interesting. I collected all my recipes from my old and abandoned food blog here  where I intend to post all the food issues that occupy my mind.  I thought long and hard about why I had neglected my food blog. Especially because I cook all the time and I take pictures of food non-stop too. The part I did not like about the food blog was writing the recipe and mostly, writing quantities and how much of this or that you need (I am lazy). I seldom follow recipes (only when cooking, because sweet things are a different thing), and if I do I do it to deconstruct them. So, no more quantities and detailed recipes from me.

Some great things are going on work-wise, some new opportunities that came unexpectedly and also our deli is going from strength to strength. There was a small mention in a british paper and we had many many orders and were really busy this week. This is why I neglected this place but don’t we all say that? Life gets in the way of the internet but I will not let it. Especially because a big part of my life and work IS the internet at the moment.