A b&b for food lovers

This was a while ago I’m afraid. But the trip was fun. Pretty fun. Here’s how it went.

We took our first trip as a family of four to La Tavola Marche in the region of Italy called Le Marche. Like most of Italy, the people here love their food and the specialties in this region include things like truffles, wild boar ragu and lentils. Plus several other things that I just don’t know enough about. That’s where this B&B came in. Paul found it online; an American couple transplanted from New York (sound familiar yet?) bought an old villa and turned in into a B&B that offers a “culinary experience” to travelers near and far.

But first we had to get there. By car, the trip took about six hours. These were six very long hours. Estelle was one month old then and as you may have heard, not a fan of the car. So there was crying. Then, just as we were finally starting to see the finish line on the GPS screen, I decided to give it a little extra gas to shave off a few minutes. That’s when Phoebe got car sick. Twice.

By the time we finally arrived, we were greeted by Ashley and Jason, our hosts, who were totally welcoming and even better…had prepared dinner for us. Beleaguered but pleased to be there, we ate, slept and woke up the next day to the start of a gorgeous weekend.

There were swings and a slide.

And hikes. Each day we took a different route.

Not everyone was pleased.

Up we went to the ruins of an old home.

A nice little spot to rest.

Estelle was just happy to be out of the car.

And back to the playground.

One of Phoebe’s favorite parts of the weekend.

And the other.

Panna cotta that I made during a cooking lesson with Jason.

All in all, it was lovely–not without a few hiccups (and other bodily functions)–but lovely. We’d go again. And I think we might! Truffle season runs October-November so we’ll see.