Dinner in Monterosso!

Since we are renting apartments at most of our stops, we do most of
our big meals at our 'home'. It is super expensive to eat out,
Italians typically don't eat until 7:30, which is super late for the
kids, and it can just be generally difficult to eat at nice
restaurants with the 3 kids in tow. But tonight was an exception and
we thought we'd try a seafood place here in town. The kids chose
ravioli with shrimp, (you can see the big pot for it behind me), and
before it came I talked to them about having good manners even if
their food turned out to be different than they expected. Then I
ordered my stand by- grilled shrimp. Little did I know...

Not only were my shrimp whole- eyes and everything- 2 of them had some
major claws! It was almost more than I could handle!
J's dinner was pretty interesting too. He ordered the 'mixed fried
fish' and it sure was mixed! It had calamari, WHOLE baby octopus,
some sort of sardine or anchovy, and of course some whole fried shrimp.

The kids were great sports. Afterward M said to me, "Mom, did you
like that, or was it a little TOO different?"