Sleep, Surf, Seafood

We've been here 2 days and it has been fucking Ottimo! Sleeping in till midday and then living a life of decadence and relaxation.

After a hardcore power session on Lore's board of justice, the psyche is high for the trips to Amiata and/or sassofortino.

I've never known such hospitality and have enjoyed attempting to learn Italian along with Tom, with the help of Valentina, whilst Lore is at work busy reading the Bible (aka North Wales Bouldering!).

Today was a rest day, so we went to the beach and started to work on our sun-tans as well as hacky sack skills before Magic Wood. After a couple of cans we thougt we had best burn the extra calories off and hiked back to the Villa. Twenty minutes later Lore rocked up and we were travelling back to la Spiaggia, armed with sickeningly strong shorts and a board adorned in the colours of the best football team in Europe!

I had never surfed before and Tom had about 4 sessions of experience, so we did not hold high expectations. The sea was nice and not too aggressive, whilst being far from placid. After becoming acclimatised to the 'fucking freddo' temperature of the Sea we got fully stuck in, with both of us managing to stand for more than a second or so and catching some sort of wave (with some expert coaching from Lore the resident Guru!). My horrendous cardio system was fully overloaded and whilst getting stood up was not too bad, the art of not swallowing gallons of Sea water may take some time to master.

We finished off with a team photo adorned in garish Primark shorts and made haste to the best restaurant I have ever been to. Lore was pretty much related to everone we met and the service and food was simply amazing. Octopus in Humous, mussels and espresso mussels (miniature with a very strong taste). followed by a platter of every fish in the Mediterranean with 3 bottles of locally sourced wine. Just as we thought it was over, they bring in 3 incredible deserts and some imported vintage Scottish whisky! I think this meal would have cost about a months wages for me back in Britain and I think me and Tom both felt privileged to be so welcome here.

Tonight we will sleep well for sure.