We have struck gold again as tonight is the annual Snail food festival - just how lucky can one be! More on that later.

Our little villa is set on the highest part of town in the grounds of the original fortress and is within a walled village . The fortress is called La Rocca del Brunelleschi and was built in 1434. The main villa and our little out-house was built in 1724 so just a pup. Brunelleschi is a famous builder as a project after this one was to build the Basilica in Firenze, if you look up Florence it it will be the main structure featured, our castle tower which is right in our back yard has guided tours each weekend so we walked out the back door and joined the tour climbing up and up to the top of the castle like tower.

Today is R & R day, I call it thong day, in fact the next three days are to be thong days so soaking up the Tuscan way of life being our main game. This part of the world suits me very well but would live lower down as see no reason to climb steps every day just to get to the front door. Massimo visits during the morning and takes us a back way past his grandmas old place where he grew up and then onto the village market. We go crazy buying up all the fantastic produce, the fruit and veg are better quality than in Aust . by a long way. We decide to graze on Parma hams, salamis, cheeses and fruits plus (naturally an Italian beer and the no. 1 Vat) this arvo but making sure we leave room for tonight's Chiocciola !

Meet at the wine bar where the lads shout a vat number or two and then we join in with the locals on the roller skating rink for the food festival. You line up and fill out an order form, that is all your courses and beverages. The women of the village prepare the general part of the meal and the men do the men stuff - aka cook the BBQ food. All the meals are served by the males of the village and it is a way for the locals to raise money for the community. We order a little of everything! We are joined by a young couple on their honeymoon from Dubbo, they too are staying with the lads. We have invited them to join us in the cooking class as well. The meals come out practically all at once in what can be best described as home style.

Snails - they look like the garden variety and will take a lot of convincing me that they are not - when Massimo does not partake it is a very good sign in my mind but when at a snail festival one must do what one must do. Actually they tasted ok, sort of like an oyster but I see no good reason to eat too many more. We had a great time although it may have been better if we were right among the locals more. I went in and around the people that were cooking and they had some fun with the non local with the camera.

Wandered home the short long way that Kathy wanted to show us, it was along the perimeter of the village wall and then at our tower straight up, how much fun can one have in climbing steps and then add in darkness for added degrees of difficulty. M-L is how's your father (again) so straight to bed for her in disgrace. We played with our electronic toys for a while and bedded down after we heard twelve bells. All in all a great day in our secret little Tuscan village.