The Me-me-link.Amsterdam (written in English): (1) Lovely Italy

It was during a very special New Year's Dinner with friends at a small castle in Belgium (see picture above) when my new boyfriend (of just 2 months) suddenly sprung on me that we were going to spend a week in Italy with some of his friends in May.
I was really excited. I'd been wanting to visit Italy for ages but I didn't want to go alone and I was never able to 'sync' my holidays in England with those of my friends in Holland.
Behold! Here was my knight in shining armour suggesting the perfect holiday to me. "Molto Bene", I chirped and gave him a 'thank-you-kiss'.
It is now the second of June and we got back from Italy two days ago.
It was good. It was so good that I suggested we'd go back at the end of August and see more of the area.
Eric's friends have their own house in Italy which seemed to make sense to me when I was there and it makes even more sense now.
However, those are plans for the future and we'll see how it will pan out.
For the moment though, I'll share some of the Italy-experience.
The friends were fabulous, the house how I would want it, the food fantastic, the wine wonderful, the laughter loud and lots of it, the weather warm (even the torrent rain), the landscape lush and picturesque, the people passionate, the atmosphere I can only describe as amazing.

My favorite photograph

Even the way the Italians display their food in the supermarket is done with passion and pride.

There is a custom in Italy which is like a national wine-tasting-day. Each year, on the 31st of May, all the wineries open their doors to give the people a chance to sample their best for free. Anyone is welcome and many people make use of this generous offer. The only thing you need to do is buy a glass at one of the wineries, once for 5 Euros. You then get a (in this case) bright orange, small 'bag' around your neck in which you carry your glass from vineyard to vineyard.
We went! We tasted! We conquered! (I think)