Easter Break!

As the end of March draws nearer, so does Easter, which means that school this week has only three days and then begins our week-long holiday! 

Monday was just any old day of school and as I wasn't feeling too well, we decided I wouldn't go to swim that night.

By Tuesday I was feeling much, much worse and left school early to go to Chiara's office. After a brief nap Chiara took me out to have lunch with her and two of her colleges at a restaurant I had not yet tried called "Mamma Pasta". And I had for my first time in Italy Pasta Carbonara!

That night, Mago began the Easter celebrations by bringing us each a beautiful Kinder surprise! For weeks now the supermarkets have been stocked out with Easter chocolates although I've noticed that while in Australia you see an over-abundance of chocolate bunny rabbits, with smaller chocolate eggs, here there is only really one kind of egg that comes in many different sizes; an easter egg rapped in extravagant cellophane, with a gift inside!

I won inside a Tweety Pie bracelet! Woohoo!

Fra and I in full Easter spirit

On Wednesday then I spent the day at home resting up in front of the fire, watching some movies that my friend Catherine had leant me; Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth and Elizabeth The Golden Age.

When the family got home that night, they brought me something certain to make me feel better

Although Thursday was the first day of the holidays for us kids, Massimo still had to work, so Chiara took the four of us, Me, Alice, Filippo and Francesca, to have lunch at Guzzafame - the restaurant I have officially decided is my very favourite restaurant in Italy.

Freshly baked Guzzafame bread

My view out the window from where I was sitting, of an unfortunately rainy day outside

This here is the best dish I have eaten in Italy to date. Without a doubt in my mind.
It is a kind of Ragù, made with all fresh ingredients from Guzzafame's farm.

Second course, as there always is in this country

Looking over before we left I saw that Filippo had found himself a pen and used the paper placemats to entertain himself during the lunch. Not half talented!

Being the last to leave, I managed to get a few photos of my beloved restaurant

Afterwards there were some things we needed to buy for dinner that night so we spent the afternoon at the local shopping centre, Milanofiori.

Fra and I in Zara

Filippo, oh the fun things you find

Alice

Fra

That night family friend's Cri, Luca, Mavi and Carletto came over for a "start of the Easter break" dinner!

Left to right; Cri, Luca, Mavi, Alice, Carletto, Filo, Fra, Me and Chiara

They brought along with them the traditional cake of Easter called "Colomba"
Whilst the ones I had at school had been the miniature version "Colombina", this one was huuge!

Cri and Luca, as after dinner we sat around the fire looking at photos of Sardegna (where we will be spending a month this summer)

On Friday we went to have an early Easter lunch with Massimo's parents, who live in another town of Lombardia on the famous Lake Iseo. We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant which in fact was on the property where Mago's mother grew up, a beautiful piece of land covered in vineyards.

The restaurant was very warm inside, with both the floor level and a little loft where there were more places to sit.
This is the view of our table from the loft

Another view from the loft

The loft!

This is the pasta dish I ordered, unfortunately I don't remember its name

And this is the dish Fra ordered, although on tasting each other's we decided to change them, and this was excellent!

Second course

The view out of the back windows of the restaurant

A beautiful painting on the wall

Dessert!

And finally, being the day before easter, the ever-famous Colomba arrived

The best Colomba I have yet tasted

Yeah, this monster is actually edible chocolate
And actually has a present inside

The biggest easter egg I've seen in my life

Always being the last to leave, I snuck in some shots of the empty restaurant

We then went for a walk through the vineyards and down a road to a gorgeous house where Massimo once played tennis.

It's all too Italian!

Complete with a castle on the hill

A stunning house with a stunning view behind it

We then drove away from the vineyards and to the small town of Iseo, leaving the car at Massimo's parent's house to spend the afternoon seeing Iseo and it's famous lake.

This time Louise rode in the back seat with me

The view driving to the town

For some reason (possibly Easter-related) that day there was a fair in Iseo, so to arrive at the lake we walked past carousels and children playing and loud music of all kinds
Here I particularly enjoyed the patriotic flags on the bumper cars; flags of Italy and Ferrari

The mountains you see behind me are in fact and island; the biggest lake-island in Europe!

Where there's a gate and some water, there's locks of lover's eternal love
Welcome to Italy 

Beautiful houses overlooking the lake 

A small square in Iseo

Sadly, it then started raining, so we hid away in a small cafe to have some coffee, or in my case, as always, a hot chocolate.

Easter spirit everywhere 

Pure, thick, melted chocolate and cream
I was not able to finish it 

The rest of the afternoon was then spent wandering through some interesting shops in Iseo before we headed home.

Some pricey fake designer hair accessories we found

Finally, Saturday was spent inside hiding from the awful rainy weather and resting up for tomorrow's chocolate intake, as tomorrow is Easter Sunday!