Katie Caldesi's Diary of Italian Living, Food & Culture.

At last arrived in Tuscany at the end of last week after long but good journey here. Drove through hailstones the size of golf balls and had to stop, so scary, like the car was being pelted with stones. Stayed in the lovely Hotel Majestic in Lago Maggiore, what a beautiful place, it took my breath away looking over the little private beach and the lake. Our children, Giorgio and Flavio collected clams from the lake. We had to throw them back but if we had had a stove Giancarlo would have whipped up Spaghetti Vongole.

We put a tomato, basil and garlic salsa on top of ours, it goes so well and means I cant stop eating it.

Today we had the fifth day of our cookery course with some really nice guests. We have ten people and we took them to our friends house Livia and Nello to learn to make apricot jam the local way. They bake it rather than spend hours over a hot stove stirring it.

One of our guests wanted to see how to skin a rabbit so we watched Nello kill one and skin it. It brought tears to our eyes but we reckoned if we were going to eat it we should be prepared to partake it all parts of getting it to the table. I must admit however gruesome it is we are looking forward to rabbit ragu with rosemary and local white wine on homemade tagliatelle tonight. And I used to be vegetarian. I think I would eat less if I had to do that each time I felt like meat.

Well the cool glass of Prosecco calls and the sun is setting over the Tuscan hills so I must go and serve supper. The guests have arrived downstairs looking smart and smelling sweet. Instead my fingers smell of onions and I still have my pinny on.

Until tommorow

Katie