IL Dolce Far Niente..... The sweet life of doing nothing

AM Bike ride to the fish market! Not a bad way to wake up......

Bonjourno! Seaside life in Santa Alessio is a dream. The saying here "il noche far niente" is so perfectly fitting for the summer monthes on this island. Since we arrived here on Saturday our days have consisted of waking up at 6 am, getting espresso, running along the ocean, going
for a swim and laying out, eating breakfast, more swimming, eating lunch, siesta, eating dinner and drinking ourselves silly from their never-ending supply of home-made wine and passing outon our balcony; only to wake up from the most gorgeous sunrise and do it all over again.

Conchetta is the most amazing cook; she cooks with entirely ingrediants that she grows, a lot of eggplant (aubergene), tomatoes (pomodor0)and anchovies (actually good here, they prepare them a million different ways), peaches, pasta.... the list goes on. Yesterday we went canoeing in the ocean around to see the different caves with Guiseppe and Brandon went snorkling to look at all the fish and coral. The beaches get super crowded by 11 am here, because that is all anyone does here during the summer; no one works. We eat a 3 course lunch, drink a bottle of wine and pass out for 3 hours. (*brandon just brought me out a plate of mussels to try that conchetta is making for lunch, keep in mind we just finished breakfast. deliciouso!) After our siesta we walked down the water front to uncle Pepo's house where we had dinner on his balcony above the pizzeria with the whole family. Pizza, eggplant 3 different ways, stuffed tomatoes, and semi-freddi for dessert. There are outdoor markets here that are only open at

night so after dinner we all went for a walk, looked around, said ciao to a million people (this family knows everyone here, Uncle Tino used to be the Mayor) and tried to learn more italiono from Chiara.

This morning we woke up early, went and got cappucinos and were off on our 4 mile run by 7 am. Its already so hot here at that time, you have get straight in the water in order to cool off. After laying out and practicing our francais on the beach, we caught Conchetta just in time to grab a couple extra bikes and go pick out our lunch at the local fresh fish market. 600 meters away, amazing selection of fresh fish...... we left with a huge bag of mussels and swordfish.

Right now she is boiling the mussels, and sauteeing with garlic, lemon and tomatoes- all from her garden. She is going to mix that with pasta, then season and bread the swordfish with homemade bread crumbs, garden fresh thyme and then grill it up! Going into town, Toarmina later this evening for dinner and drinks with everyone. Ciao!

Dinner at Pepo's

The fish market