First things first; I just got back from the USA/Canada and oh my God why am I still awake? I didn't really sleep last night but my body is adamant that it's only 6pm in New York right now so we're going to stay awake until it's a decent time to go to bed. In New York. Hmm.

I spent most of this evening going through pictures with my family until they literally started falling asleep (I guess 2,500 is quite a few to get through but hey, I was there for a month!) As my computer is out of action and currently in my cousin's trusty tech-xpert hands, I'm assuming it will be a while until I can start spreading the Canada love. Sob.

So for now, I'll share a few pictures of food from our little trip to Le Marche that I'd already got online. You might have seen my Puglia posts from this summer; we actually drove down from Milan (North Italy) to Puglia (tip-of-the-heel South Italy). It was no mean feat, especially in the summer heat.

But luckily we have friends in all the right places (or at least Michele does!)


To break up our journey, we spent one night in the town of Civitanova in the Le Marche region where some of Michele's friends were spending the holidays. I hadn't seen them since their wedding two years ago before they moved to Germany to pursue their careers. It was so fun being able to finally chat to them as my Italian had picked up enough for me to be able to understand!

Although admittedly I spent most of the night in silence, staring in wonder at all of the food before me.

If you like seafood, this ain't a bad place to get it.









The promenade is lined with restaurants serving up fresh fish from the sea. We were only a few steps away from our home from the night and happily watched dusk settle over the waves whilst we feasted on their mixed antipasti - my favourites were the charred, garlicky anchovies.

You can probably tell that there was more food than we could ever have hoped to finish. I was a little bit shellfish-ed out by the end of the antipasti and was so grateful for having ordered the anchovy pasta (although in Michele's words, the shellfish stew-thing that they ate was so good, it would still have been delicious "if you shat in it"). Even so, I struggled to get through even half of my pasta but doggedly persevered like a true glutton.

It's lovely evenings like this, spent chatting with friends in beautiful locations and eating delicious food that are my absolute favourites. Now that summer is well and truly upon us, I'd like to get out and do it more often. Picnic anyone?