Question: How long does it take to eat a twenty-course meal for Sunday lunch? No really, this is a serious question.

You will find the answer in my recent post to the food section of my blog…You are not going to want to miss it! Lots of pictures are there, too.

Yesterday my family and I left Triora in the Argentine Valley and drove over the top of the mountain into the next valley to the east. (If you are really curious, you can map it on Google Maps using Trioria, Imperia as the start and Cosio d’ Arroscia, Imperia as the destination.)

Along the road we saw beautiful scenery as well as endless trees surrounding us making it as if we could only see the road.

Thankfully, my dad is an awesome driver and knows how to handle the five speed on the curves and inclines because much of the road is very narrow, only allowing for one car to pass at some points at a time. There were lots of curves called switch backs. Sitting in the back seat was tough because at times I felt motion sickness – but then I had some potato chips and my mom let me sit in the front. That really made me feel better.

We headed for Pieve di Teco which is an old trading village from a long time ago. It was an area where people from the Valle Argentine (where Triora is) would meet with people from the other valley to trade goods. People in our valley make incredible olive oil and I think they would take it to trade for grains (like wheat) which are grown on the other side. Anyhow, we then went to Mendatica which was just a small village and then arrived in Cosio d’Arroscia at just about noon.

We had a quick walk around the village looking at the old church and a huge stack of hay with a stick sticking out of it which had an Italian flag tied onto it.

Then, we walked over to the local restaurant and got a huge surprise (check out my food section.)

After lunch, we headed down the valley to the coast and went swimming in the Med before going to run some errands. Out in the sea, there are large piles of rocks that break the waves before they get to shore. Some people like to relax on them and some people like to jump off of them into the water (mostly teenagers.) Teenagers like to do crazy things like jumping off the rocks from the middle of the pile (and they also smoke cigarettes) whereas I found a rock close to the edge and took my first jump ever into the water. I have been going to this beach ever since I was one year old and I never jumped off the rocks before. I felt pretty proud of myself but also a bit cold.

We got back to Triora at around 8pm, and then I beat my mom at cribbage before going to bed. Today was even better than the last.