We met the rest of the group and our guide for the day outside our place early for some trekking. Our guide took us on a 12 km walk to the nearby town Turbone. This was one of my favourite activities so far. We would walk for a while, then stop and chat, and then keep going, so I didn’t get bored and it was easy to concentrate. We talked a bit about slow tourism and sports tourism, and our guide pointed out some cool plants, including one that used to be used as a coffee substitute. The walk took us through beautiful fields and vineyards, and I saw lots of cool critters like geckos, bugs, and spiders. I saw an interesting bug with red wings with black spots, similar to lady bugs wings. It was nice to slow down and appreciate the scenery. Anne and Kaleena shared some travel stories with me which was lots of fun.
After a few hours we arrived at Trattoria Palmenti and had some lunch. We got melon with prosciutto, bruschetta, something similar to bruschetta but with zucchini, onion, and pesto (so good) and toast with chicken liver. I gave my chicken liver to Jackson. He seemed to really like it, until he found out what it was and didn’t touch the rest of it. Next, we had salad, potatoes, and a bunch of meats. I stuck to the veggies, but Anne gave me a little piece of one of the meats and it was really nice. After lunch, I wanted to walk back to Montespertoli because I enjoyed the walk in so much, but no one else wanted to because it was so hot out, so we took the bus.
We had a couple hours of free time while Adam and the culinary students prepared dinner for us. I went to relax in my room for a bit and then went to Farmhouse and watched an episode of Departures, a Canadian travel documentary, with Jackson and Nathan.
For dinner we had a Canadian Indigenous dinner with Italian ingredients, and it was incredible. We had a salad with berries and prosciutto, risotto with salmon and deer meat from home – this was probably the best salmon I’ve ever had, and bannock with fruit and cream for dessert.
A few of us went back to hangout at our room for a little bit before bed.
