Italy photo collection

Here are some final photos from Cinque Terre, before we move on to Barcelona.



This photo is from the marina in Manarola. they are lifting a boat out of the harbor.








The photo above was from a little bar in Manarola. Jo and I hung out for a while. It was interesting to hear an Italian take on American Blues. Very different phrasing, but fun. The band took a break and our host, Nichola (guitar player in the white shirt on the right) and his cousin from LA (bass player in the hat on the left) and his friend (female singer) did some numbers. Nichola is planning to go to the conservatory for classical guitar next year.

The original band had a harmonica player (he wasn't very good, lots of notes, no real playing, and he was often using the wrong key harp) I almost ran back up the hill to grab a harp and see if I could sit in.

Too good to be true

Dinner was at Billy's tonight, which luckily is not far from the apartment. So it was a short walk for Charmelle. I had made reservations earlier in the day so we had a great table looking out at the sea.
We ordered our wine and heard the specials. Then our server came in to show us three fresh sea bass and explained if any of us would like that special he would hand pick a fish for the number of people that wanted the special. They were beautiful fish and it was tempting, but I was looking for pasta and seafood, not just fish.
We all went back to looking at the menu and chatting. Suddenly our server appeared with three small dishes. He explained what each one was, left them and was gone. One was polenta, the other two had different types of seafood. We happily started eating. We commented on how nice it was to get a sample like this. Our server was very rushed when we arrived and had apologized. We all assured him we were fine. So we figured this was a thank you for being patient and nice.
Then he appeared again with more dishes, explained them and darted away. Again, we thought, "this is really nice" and dug right in. By the time he came back a fifth time, we started to think maybe I had accidentally ordered something when I made the reservation. We started looking in the menu for something like this. He came back again to take our order and then it all made sense.




Even with a language barrier, the look of "oh shit" on a person's face is understood around the globe. About then is when we found this feast in the menu. He had just given us something that was meant for another table. He began to apologize and got a little stressed for a couple of reasons.

1. What he gave us was a €15 per person starter.
2. There was a table some where that was waiting for their order.

The photo above is the aftermath of this starter. We told him we would happily pay and to go deal with the other table. He was off like a shot. Through this process of food arriving and the server leaving, we were all thinking, "this seems a odd," however we were too busy trying all the samples to really worry about. By the time all of this was done, we had eaten a lot, so we had to go back to the menu and rethink what we were having for dinner. We finally did order and enjoyed a truly wonderful meal. Great wine, desserts, amazing seafood and pasta.