Hot Springs

The past couple of days we have had long days at school so there has been less time for adventure during the day. Monday night we ended up going to the hot spring on the island. We piled into the vans and headed off with our wine bottles to go. We stopped at the top of the hill and had to walk down a bunch of steps to the ocean that was almost secluded by a little cove. The view was gorgeous with the moon and stars out and the waves lightly crashing into the rocks below. I didn't bother taking a  picture because it was so dark there was no way to capture the beauty. The combination of the darkness and us having too much wine at dinner made it hard to see where we were walking and some of us stepped into small pockets of water that were scorching hot. I stepped in one of these holes twice with the same foot and I swore I was going to wake up with third degree burns the next morning. The hot spring in the ocean was really cool. It wasn't a consistent heat, it was really hot up agianst the rocks but then a little further away it was quite cool so we had to constantly stir it up so we stayed warm. 

Taryn making her beloved gnocci

Yesterday, we had cooking class and we learned about how to make gnocci, limoncello, rabbit, which is traditional to this region, stuffed artichokes, an eggplant boat and tiramisu. It is so fun being part of these classes but also torture because we get so hungry. We also did an olive oil tasting between the Colella family's olive oil and extra virgin olive oil from the store. Before tasting it you could see the difference in colour, theirs being a dark green and the stores almost a light clearish yellow. Doing an olive oil tour in Arizona this past November I kind of remembered some of the things to look for when tasting and the one thing I really noticed that showed how much better theirs tasted was the peppery taste that hit the back of your throat when you ate it. Apparently that peppery taste really shows the quality of the olive oil. 

Amanda peeling lemons for limoncello.

When we were learning about the gnocci we learned that the reason they taste so differently in Canada and from the store is because of the potato content. Sometimes stores or companies cut costs by using more flour than potatoes or using potato flour, whereas here or when they are homemade they use a higher ratio of potato to flour. We got to eat them for dinner with smoked buffalo mozzarella, which is my favourite.

It was so cute when Giuseppe was translating for us when they were making tiramisu and he said "now we cover it in caca" and we all laughed and said cocoa? and he looked up and said ahh yes the cocoa.

Today we didn't have class until 1 so we decided to hike the mountain, I think it's called Santa Maria but we are not really sure. It wasn't that strenuous but since we have been doing a lot of hiking lately uphill our calves were killing us. 

When we turned the corner this puppy jumped up on the fence and was wagging his tail so much wanting us to pet him. It was one of the best parts of the hike. The boys were getting annoyed at me because I had my high pitched, puppy voice going.

It was love at first sight. His paws were still too big for his body so when he would run to the gate to greet us it was soo cute. 

-A