How did the Chick Cross the Road?: Last Visit to Italy

For 9 days in June I attended a "Dance Retreat" in Tuscany. It was a dance camp for adults that also included cooking lessons and italian lessons. I was massively excited because here was an experience to combine all of my interest - dancing, Italy, eating, and talking. Yep: a dream come true!

Well it was a great time though not exactly what I expected. I was amping myself up for 6 hrs of solid dancing every day and it ended up being a lot more laid back then that. Some days we just enjoyed socializing and a single class or two and rather than leaving the lean-mean fighting machine that I had hoped, I ended up leaving with good friends and a belly full.

We did get to try yoga outdoors, interpretive dance in public spaces, modern, ballet, old school jazz, step dance, musical theatre, and lyrical jazz. This sounds like rather a lot of dancing but it was more of a sampler platter rather than a full out buffet. That's talking about the dancing. The eating was a full out buffet for sure! Food and wine were beautifully priced in the town of Livorno where we stayed and I enjoyed my fair share and then some. Our cooking classes consisted of a wee bit of cooking (I love the simplicity of italian cuisine) and a whole lot of eating. I have already tried making a cannellini bean recipe that we learned and it is scrumptious (and easy!). I am happy to pass on the recipe to anyone who wants.

Our fun week ended with getting to perform in a local dance school's recital. We learned a piece on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning, cleaned it up on Thursday, and performed it that night. It was quite a treat to get to dance on stage and something I would absolutely enjoy doing again. Dance camps and recitals are not just for kids. As a matter of fact I think we could all benefit from revisiting a lot of things we enjoyed as children. As a matter of face, right now I am currently yearning for a good game of tag. Or red rover. How will I find anyone to play with me?!

Okay, off topic...so following the dance retreat, I took a train down to Rome to meet up with Scott. We had a real surefire plan in which we would just "meet up somewhere in the train station". Okay fine except upon arrival each of us separately discovered that a) the place was huge, b) the place was full of thousands of people. So imagine each of our surprise when we did in fact find each other after not too much looking at all. Ah the good fortune that follows the naive and uninformed. This appears to be a common theme in my life thankfully!

We had two great days in Rome wherein Scott got to eat the best pork products known to man apparently and I of course got to once again enjoy more cheese, pasta and wine than is sensible. We did our own "best of" tour according to our guide book meaning we tried the best gelato, best cappuccino, best outdoor market, best coffee, etc. We also did a little shopping and visited a Leonardo exhibit but for the most part we just walked around took hundreds of pictures.