I met a gal named Marta on an app called Couchsurfer. It is an app where local people open up their homes to host you and you become new friends! There are references and you get to chat before so I was very excited to meet Marta after learning about her and talking with her briefly. Marta is a doctor in Palermo and also loves horses. Every experience I have with couchsurfer makes me so excited (Austin too) to host once we are settled down wherever we end up settling!! :)
Marta had plans already to go horseback riding with a friend and invited me to tag along! She mentioned that all of the horses were booked so I was planning to hike around while they rode horses. On our way out of town the morning of, we did as every Italian does and stopped at a cafe to slam an espresso. Italians mean business with their coffee! Typically you walk into the cafe, order your espresso at the counter, and then drink the espresso standing over the next minute. No dilly dallying here, ha!
We then picked up her friend, Roberta, and headed off to the mountains about 1 hour outside of Palermo, where Marta lives. Once we got to the farm, a couple that had the horses booked ended up not wanting to take the horses so a horse opened up and I jumped aboard! I did have some flashbacks from riding the camel a couple of weeks ago and how painful that was but thankfully the saddle was a little more comfortable than in Africa. It was a beautiful 2-hour ride through the mountains on a blue sky, sunny day, what a dream - it didn't feel real, ha! During the ride, Marta and Roberta branched off with one of the guides to gallop fast while us beginners trotted along back to the farmhouse. I don't know much about how fast horses can go but Marta and Roberta went 80 km/hr which is about 50 miles/hr. That is fast!
After the beautiful ride, we met up with 3 other friends of Marta's and had lunch at the farmhouse's restaurant. The lunch was mind-blowing, my goodness. I added photos below but it was all so fresh and farm to table all made/growing at the farm! It has taken 1st place for my "favorite meal on the whole trip!". It was such an amazing day out in nature and also with some new friends!
Slamming espresso:
The view from the farm:
My horse: Perseo
Hello from up top!
Marta (on the right) and Roberta :)
Some neat old photos within the farmhouse restaurant:
The starter (doesn't that look like a full meal?):
The pasta course (the pasta was sooo fresh - and yes, that is truffle ravioli):
The main course, wow:
A cannoli for dessert (I didn't know I liked cannolis until this day, it was so delicious!):
