Monday 1 October 2007

Birthday Parties and Wine Fairs

Antonia went to a friend's party on Saturday. As you can see she had lots of fun! As I didn't know all of the kids there I've tried to pick a photo that only shows Antonia! I'm not sure how I would feel if she turned up unannounced on someone else's blog. It's a difficult one in this day and age. Anyway, she had a ball at the party. New friends were made by both of us. It was really exhausting, and all I did was watch and eat peanut butter and chocolate fudge :)! It was a safari theme, hence the binoculars. She also decorated a white safari hat and made a bracelet!
To recover (!) I went on to the Piazza Pitti Florence Wine Event. This started on the Friday evening and finished Sunday. For €10 you received a glass and a card allowing you to taste up to 16 different wines, some white, but most red. It was a really good event. I went back on the Sunday to try a few more - 16 is a little too much even for me in one evening! Some stands gave you the equivalent of a small glass rather than a taste as well! I bought a couple of bottles from the stand in Piazza Santa Spirito from Fattoria Dianella Fucini. Bizarrely the wine I bought wasn't the wine I had tasted, but I thought they were worth the risk as the one I had tried had been really good. Many of the wines were not available to purchase which I thought odd, the selection on the sales stand was very small compared to what was on offer. Of 42 producers, each having 2 or more wines per stand, only 11 had wines available for purchase on the sales stand! And not all of those were the wines included in the tasting. Anyway, it was still an interesting event and I have discovered wines that I will now try to find in the shops here.

We finished Sunday off with an ice cream from the gelateria near Ponte alla Carraia. People rave about Grom - I can only assume they have never visited this one! I had strawberry cheesecake and yoghurt with Nutella! Fantastic! Their fig with ricotta is another gorgeous combination. Antonia had ciocolatta, most of which is soaking off her t-shirt in the sink. All in all a good way to finish the weekend!
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4 comments:

erin said...

oh how fun! We thought about going to this event but didn't make it - sounds like fun though.

Now that we're in Florence, we've been trying tons of gelatarias...Grom and Gelato dei Neri are our favorites so far - but please tell me the name of the one you like so we can try it too :)

Alyson said...

I'm sure someone will correct me but I think it is Gelateria alla Carraia! It's the only one on the Oltrarno side of the bridge anyway so you can't miss it! Last night (Sunday) people were queing out both doors for gelato! It's very popular with residents and tourists alike. My local one is pretty good too, but not sure it is worth the journey just to go there:)

Eryn said...

i've heard so much about Grom.....where is that exactly??? fig and ricotta, YES PLEASE!!!!!

Alyson said...

Grom is off the main pedestrianised street and near the Duomo. I'm not a big fan - natural is nice but I prefer the ice cream from Carraia and a little one near me on the dual carriageway - Petrarca? It's near the Pennymarket and their chocolate mousse is great! The Fig and Ricotta was from Carraia. The nutella and yoghurt is great too!