The Scrabbled: Making Fun of Each Other since '99

• Photos from Rome. I’ve been having some difficulty uploading complete photos so we’ve only got this first set up so far. The internet connection keeps dying and I have to keep re-trying photos. It gets expensive. So I bought a shit ton of internet in advance and hopefully I can get at least a few key photos up.

• The village our first hotel was in had a market the next day. We walked around and was unsurprised to find that most Italians don’t speak a lick of English. However! As soon as they saw me break out the book and try to speak Italian, they all seemed absolutely delighted, laughing and reaching over the counter for the book to help me out. We actually managed to pick up an excellent bottle of vino rosso recommended by the seller, a new power adapter, and some mini cigars. We felt quite accomplished.

• The hour drive from our hotel to our villa in Tuscany took us three hours but, in all honesty, it was some of the most fun driving I’ve ever done. Apparently, we could have taken a highway most of the way there, but Gosia did the best she could with our confusing maps and got us there via treacherously winding mountain roads which I took at 90 km an hour. It was amazing. It felt like those really nuts Grand Turismo tracks, but it was just us and no other racers. We got some video of the roads that hopefully I can get up later.

• Kitchen highlight: bought fresh lardo from a local grocery store. Cut up a baguette and sliced the lardo thin on top. Broiled for 15 seconds in our oven. It was so good I had to text Luke.

• I had a bisteka alla fiorentina for dinner. It was amazing. Then we sat in our garden and drank wine and took photos. The view out our front door and bedroom window is unbelievable. Photos later.

Time for breakfast than we’re off to buy meats from Dario Cecchini. It’s a national holiday tomorrow so we have to stock up on food and wine this morning before we’re unable to get any. More to add later, and hopefully photos.