Happy Independence Day Frenchie!!

So who would have guessed that my first Independence Day spent outside the country would be in France? I mean of all the places, France!! To be honest, it was actually a really great day and I didn’t receive a single ounce of French attitude. I enjoyed a lazy day lounging on the beach of Cannes and swimming in the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. I also took a stroll through the town and saw the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival. The French Riviera is slowly but surly winning my heart.

For the evening festivities, a fellow American, Ron, and I decorated the crew bar with red, white, and blue. I have to say for the limited supplies that we had to work with we did a bang up job of creating American Pride. We found out that there are only 14 total crew who are from the U.S. We were all in the bar later that night making ourselves heard with rousing renditions of The Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, and every other patriotic song we could think of. The expression on all the foreigner’s faces was priceless. It was pretty ironic as none of us really support or are proud about the current situation of our country, but we still felt it necessary to honor our nation.

Today I had a lovely tour through the Etruscan countryside that is around Rome. It was a lovely tour and a part of Italy that I had never been to before. We went to the Villa Lante which was built in the 1500’s and has a magnificent garden. There was an intricate water system that worked solely by gravity, no re-pumping involved, and even had a cooling system for the guest’s feet and the food. That really makes no sense, but hopefully you get somewhat of an idea.

The highlight of the tour was the lunch that was served by the largest crater lake in Europe: Lago Bolsena. It was divine. The Italians certainly know how to eat – I guess it never ceases to amaze me! For antipasti, we had bruschetta with olive and red pepper spread, fried zucchini and artichoke hearts, and of course prosciutto (yes I ate meat). We then had 2 courses of pasta. The first was in creamy mushroom sauce, and I’m not the biggest fan of mushrooms, but this was magnificent – oh so creamy! The second pasta was a very basic tomato and meat sauce (I think it was veal – I know, I know) and fresh sage. For my main course I had a white fish that is actually native to the Great Lakes but has been introduced to Bolsena. It was the first fish I ever ate that was completely whole – head, eyeballs, and tail! It was rubbed with rosemary and served with fresh lemon. Simple, but divine. The contorni consisted of roasted potatoes with rosemary and a mixed salad. For desert, we had homemade hazelnut and cherry ice cream. A local white wine, Est Est Est, was accompanied with the meal and we began with a glass of prosecco. Coffee on the terrace overlooking the lake capped a perfect Italian meal. Mmmmm…

I am now exhausted as I only got 3 or 4 hours of sleep from the late 4th partying and early touring. Tomorrow I will finally bite into my first pizza in Naples…happy eating!