Colourful Kinsale

My mother was over from Italy for a week break, we always welcome her visit, not only because I love spending time with her, but for the sense of order that she brings ... while she's here the boyfriend and I try to pretend (admittedly not very successfully) that we lead a regular life, with proper meals and decent sleeping hours. Mums must be fed or they get grumpy so I cooked my not-so-little arse off, and thank god we left Dublin for two days as my recipes can be counted on one hand and I was running out of ideas!

We took the train and went to Kinsale on the West Cork Coast, not quite Paris, but charming nonetheless. I loved this little town, colourful and full of uppy-downy streets, lovely little shops, plenty of pubs and restaurants. My mum and I are all about the food when we travel together (we are Italians after all!) and Kinsale didn't disappoint ... it is renowned as the gourmet capital of Ireland.

We had dinner at the Jim Edwards, which in October was totally booked out, but we managed to wrangle a table, the shittiest one: right beside the door, which I had to keep closing after people came in to the restaurant!
To my delight the menu contained many fish dishes, we both ordered the salmon and the portion was so large that, although it was delicious, we couldn't finish it, but we did manage to eat dessert afterwards.

We spent the night at Desmond House, a charming B&B in the heart of Kinsale. I slept in an enormous bed and took advantage of the fabulous whirlpool bathtub.
In the morning we had a small breakfast, as we're not use to the full Irish, much to the chagrin of the lovely owner, who was rather amused by our lack of appetite and my Dublin accent (That's a reaction I get a lot in Ireland!).

All in all we spent a lovely two days and would wholeheartedly
recommend Kinsale for a break away.