Rome. I must admit that I was skeptical when Deb said we
should just bring carry-on bags for a three week trip to Italy,
but that is what we did. From the Rome airport we took a
high speed train to Florence. The Train was quite nice
and in first class, you have reserved seats. It even includes
a snack and a beverage. We chose prosecco. Deb is not
real fond of this picture, but we had been traveling for
more than 24 hours at this point and she is still happy!
That is why I like it.
In Florence, it was a relatively short walk to the hotel
Deb had picked based on reviews in Trip Advisor
and it's proximity to both the train station and the car
rental we would be getting a car from in the morning.
It had been a long "day" so we quickly got cleaned
up and went to dinner at a Florence favorite,
Trattoria di Guido which did not disappoint. Deb
had spaghetti carbonara and I had porcini stuffed
ravioli in a black truffle sauce.
The next morning we carried our bags down the
street to the car rental and picked up our little white
Fiat 500, which was fun to drive, but more about
later. We made the 40 minute drive out to Greve in
Chianti to Terre di Melazzano where we would be
staying for the next ten days.
Apartment Chiara (named after the owner's daughter)
is really bigger than we need, but is such a private
space with beautiful views, that we decided to stay in
it for a second time. Here is the private patio and yard
with a charcoal grill.
It has a very well maintained pool, overlooking the hills of Tuscany.
Check out our Chianti clothes dryer.
There were a few interesting things about the apartment that I liked.
One of them was the on demand, gas fired, heat and hot water unit
mounted on the wall in the kitchen. No tank of water being kept hot
around the clock, like most of us have.
Another, and this is very common in Europe, is the dish drying
rack over the sink area. Washing dishes is very easy and they
drip dry.
The kitchen had everything we needed and I enjoyed cooking there.
For the most part we ate breakfast and dinner on the patio and had
lunch on our travels during the day.
Breakfast on the patio.
Dinner - Deb made a big pot of sauce early on during our stay.
Sometimes, just a little bruschetta and a glass of wine hits the spot!
Here is another restorative snack.
Here are a few pictures that I took from upstairs one morning.
We met a nice couple from Tennessee who were staying there and
had a good conversation about places to go and things to do. They
mentioned going on the tour and tasting at the nearby Castello
Verrazzano Vineyard and when I asked them if they had tasted the
finocchiona salami at the meal after the tour. His eyes lit up and he said
it was the best tasting salami he had ever had. We had done the same
tour, years earlier and I had had the same reaction. I have been a big fan
of that salami ever since. He was pleased to know that the Coop, down
the hill, sold that very salami.
They also told us that earlier in their stay,
a bottling plant on a big rig had spent the day bottling up the wines from
last year, that had been in the tanks, pictured above, and more from
inside.
The reason we booked the apartment at this time of year was to attend
the Chianti wine festival that was taking place the first day we arrived,
which was a Friday and went on through Sunday. We had provisions to
get and were both still pretty jet lagged so we opted to make a trip to
Figline instead. The road to Figline is an especially steep and winding
one with many switchbacks and narrow turns. There were a few places
on this road where the outer lane had gone down the hill and was under
repair. I am not sure if this was related to earthquake damage or not.
The Coop in Figline is a sight to behold. It has everything
from camping gear, household items, a wonderful deli, fish section, butcher
shop, bakery and everything in between, including great priced wine and beer.
It is an experience just to walk around in. I like to try out my Italian in the
deli, and walk away happy if the transaction goes well, which it did. I always
have to visit the fish section and here are a few pictures I took in there
(I have no pride when it comes to food).
The way the wine festival works is that you buy a ticket for 10 Euros
and you get a commemorative wine glass, a little cloth holder
that goes over your head, to carry the glass, while not in use, and
a ticket with several punch holes that the vendors are supposed
punch if you sample their wine, but most just winked and waved
the ticket off. It took us both Saturday and Sunday to fill up our
"dance cards".
In addition to wine, there are also olive oils, sausages, tapanades,
salamis and more to sample and buy. We learned on previous trips
that bringing wine back is a pain. I still remember seeing wine
dripping from more than one checked bag as we all waited in line
to go through customs. You have to wonder what kind of havoc that
creates on ones clothes.
Here are a few shots from the festival.
Here is Deb rinsing out her wine glass.
It was not too far from here, in Panzano, that
I had my first taste of olive oil that I really
liked. I like the fruity (robusto frutatto) oils
that you can drizzle on a piece of Tuscan bread
with a sprinkle of sea salt and eat like a delicious
meal.
We had fun. and bought some good olive oils
that would be hard to find and super expensive
at home.
At the festival we met Marienela Hodaj, a sommelier
student who works at the Savignola Paolina Vineyard,
not far from where we were staying. She invited us
to come to the vineyard during the week for a tour and
wine tasting, and later on in the week, we did. When we
arrived, Marienela was there to greet us. She took us
around the vineyard, into the wine cellars, the fermenting
areas, and then the bottling and labeling room. The
Savignola Paolina Vineyard is small but has been in
business for over 200 years. Marienela then took us
inside for a wonderful tasting. Marienela was a gracious
host and made it all so interesting, and it was great that
it was just us and free. We did purchase two bottles of a
great Chianti, to bring home for a special occasion!
My one regret, is that I did not take her picture to post here.
This is an olive oil press that the original owner
would hitch a donkey up to, to crush the olives. We
were shown how the walls had been curved by the
donkey rubbing up against them as it walked around and around.
Our rental car:
Meet our transportation for this part of the trip. It was fun to drive and
the perfect size for the small winding roads. It was a snap to park. One
of the places we love to visit is a town about a half hour away,
Castallina. The public parking lot is very steep and when you first
pull in off the road, your heart is in your throat because it feels
like you have just driven off a cliff. The last time we were leaving,
we had to stop on the steepest part of the hill because the car in front
of us stopped for pedestrians. Short of smoking the clutch, I just could
not get rolling forward again, so we rolled back into the lot and had
another go. Once again we were thwarted just shy of the top by more
pedestrians. As we made our third attempt, a group of onlookers had
gathered, some of whom were chanting "gas, gas, gas, gas". If only
the window had been rolled down, I would have raised my fist,
Rocky style, as we cleared the summit to a small round of applause.
One night we had reservations that we made months earlier at Solociccia,
a restaurant in Panzano, a few miles away from where we were staying. It
is owned and run by Dario Cicchini, known as "The Butcher of Panzano".
We were first introduced to him on an episode of Tony Bourdain's No
Reservations on The Travel Channel. Dario owns a butcher shop in Panzano.
He is a colorful guy who has always been gracious on the few times we
have visited his shop, in the past. We were looking forward to having dinner
there and spent the day around the pool and decided to have lunch on the
patio with spaghetti and sauce that Deb had made a few days earlier.
When we made the reservations on the internet, they said
they would call or text to confirm a few days prior and they
did. Dinner is served family style. It is called the butcher's
menu. We arrived and were greeted in Dario's butcher
shop across the street from the restaurant with wine and a little
spread of crostinis, salami and olive oil.
Meet Dario, the butcher, in his shop
Here is Dario chatting with a local outside his butcher
shop. Check out the red and white striped pants and
red clogs! I did say he was colorful.
Diners getting acquainted over snacks and wine in the butcher
shop.
Here is the little spread we all enjoyed
The little dish on the far side of the salami, is crostinis
spread with a spiced pork fat. It sounds terrible, but
I bet you can't just eat one. The dish in the foreground
is Tuscan bread pieces drizzled with local olive oil and
a sprinkle of sea salt. Simple, but outrageously good!
Dario puts on the same little spread on Sundays, open to the
public and it was here, a few years earlier, that I had my first
taste of olive oil that I loved and suddenly knew what I was
looking for in a good olive oil.
It got a little crowded in the shop and several of us moved outside
and the wine came with us.
They rang the dinner bell and we all filed into the
restaurant across the street from the butcher shop.
Dinner was served family style and you could take as much, or as
little as you wanted. The first course was a thinly sliced delicate
salami that I had never seen before. It was very good!
I quickly lost track of what was what, but you
could tell why they called it the butcher's menu.
Dario comes from a family with several generations
of butchers and over the years they have developed
many ways of making the most with cuts of meat
they were left with at the end of the day.
It was all good! If you chose to spend an extra 20 Euros, you could
get a large steak, but only one member of our group did.
He and his wife (seated to his right, who's face I managed to blur)
had both had good jobs in silicon valley. She worked for Google and
he worked for Luminosity. They had both decided to quit their jobs
and travel the world. They had been at it for 3 months, at this point
and had another month to go. We had a very interesting conversation
during and after dinner. They had lived in a Google compound where
their housing and meals were all provided by the company. They
sheepishly admitted that neither one of them knew how to cook anything.
In another month, they would return home (to his parent's house) and
look for new jobs. Pretty hard to fathom!
Dario enters the room with a little set of Italian horns blaring and proceeds
to work the crowd.
It was a fun night, but the road home was dark, steep and winding, so we
were happy to get back to the apartment in one piece.
Driving around Tuscany is an experience. The views can be breathtaking.
There were places that I know we have stopped and photographed before,
but we couldn't resist stopping again, just to take it all in. There is a new
and spectacular vista around just about every bend.
The roads are steep and winding and there are bicyclists and
motorcyclists who often seem to be competing and will take
daring chances that you must be ever vigilant of.
One of the day trips we made was to Volterra. During the Tuscan
wars, towns up on high hills, that were easily defended were
desirable and Volterra is one of those towns. It is a fairly long
drive through several towns, big and small and through quite a bit
of farm country. Sunflowers were everywhere.
For some reason, on the day we visited, all the parking up on the
hill was full and we worked our way down the back side and
finally found a place to park, way down the hill and in a spot
not intended for parking, I'm guessing, but with the little Fiat,
we squeezed in. Then the loooong climb up the stairs began.
Just give me a moment to collect my thoughts.
As you can see, Volterra is ancient and the residences
must be interesting. Most of the shops are near the main
entrance, which we didn't come in by. There are a few
shops scattered about and several open courtyards.
We had lunch under a tent in a courtyard restaurant.
Deb had tortelli stuffed with fresh pecorino
and pears in sage butter and I had tagliatelle
with porcini sauce.
Both were very good. We headed off to the shops so Deb could
buy a few gifts, but first we stopped at a little shop for gelato.
The grapes were going to be picked late this year
because of some bad weather earlier. Last year was
one of the worst years for wine in recent history, in the region
and everyone was crossing their fingers and praying for a better
season this year.
Grape vines are as common as corn is back home.
Sometimes we would stop and have a few grapes on the way up
the hill. Sweet and delicious. It's hard to stop after just a few.
Deb found a blog a few years ago written by a woman who spent
a year living in Greve. We got quite a few good tips from that and
one of them was about a little family run restaurant just outside of
town, La Castellana. There are only a handful of tables inside and
just a few under a pergola across the narrow little street. The first
time we went, on this trip, it was a warm and sunny day and we sat
outside.
I am very partial to good bruschetta and this one
was one of the finest I have ever had and will
remain the gold standard, against which I will
measure my own efforts for years to come.
We shared it and ate every last bite, right down
to the little trail of Tuscan olives. It was a
masterpiece with great fruity olive oil, wonderful
Tuscan bread, tomatoes, a hint of garlic and
whole sweet basil leaves that had surrendered their
delicate flavor to the mixture . Deb had tortelloni
stuffed with lemon and ricotta in a Gorgonzola
sauce, which she loved and said she wanted to
lick the plate.
It is a good thing she took took these pictures. I was
so taken with my ravioli stuffed with porcini and black
truffles, in a cream sauce and covered with a zillion
shaved black truffles that I forgot I owned a camera. I
have had countless people try to describe the flavor of
truffles to me, but earthy is just not that compelling a term.
I was never sure I would like them, but the first time
I got close enough to smell warm truffles, I knew I
was going to love them!
The second time, on this trip, we went to La Castellana,
it was raining and we ate inside.
We each had the exact same meal, but got our own
bruschetta and it was better, still! In the 7 or 8 times
we have eaten here, we have never had anything we
didn't love and as we looked around at the other
tables inside on that rainy day, every one of them
was talking about how wonderful their food was.
How often do you see that? The Bruschetta was even
better, the second time around. The kitchen must
have recognized that if you order two, you must
really like it. They were each even bigger!
http://www.ristorante-lacastellana.it/en/
Most towns, at least in Chianti, have a "Market Day". On market
day, traveling vendors roll into town and set up shop, selling
everything from from fresh fish, produce, sandwiches, fruit,
plants, flowers, shoes, linens and just about everything else.
Two of my favorite kitchen knives were purchased on market
days in Italy. In Greve, market day is Saturday and takes place
in the same piazza as the wine festival, a week earlier. It is
always fun to look around at the various wares on market day
and this day, I was looking for porcinis to have with a chicken
I had been marinating overnight. Italians take their porcini
mushrooms seriously and I quickly found the porcini guy by
the crowd gathered around him. They were going fast!
I felt lucky to score two good sized ones and my mission was
accomplished. Deb, however had other plans. She had to see
EVERYTHING!
There used to be a leather factory in Greve, with a sales room
and in the past, every time we visited, I would buy a new belt.
This time we discovered that it had closed and I was in need of
a new belt, as mine was a little worse for wear. We stayed so
long at the market, that I pulled the trigger on a new one there,
with the help of a local, who helped me get the price down to
one I was comfortable with.
I quickly noticed the bonanza of herbs planted around the
pool on our very first visit. I have used these to make
vinaigrette salad dressings over time and nicked some
to marinate a chicken for our last meal on this visit.
Here are some pictures of the rosemary and sage plants.
I stemmed the rosemary, combined them with sage leaves, crushed
garlic and infused olive oil with it on the stove top, cooled it down,
added red wine, onions and salt and pepper. I covered half a
chicken with it to marinate overnight.
Here are the porcinis I bought on market day.
The porcini guy peeled back that little strip to show me that it was
clean and not infested. Insects like porcini too! Here they are,
cut up and ready to cook with sage leaves and butter.
It is hard to believe that such a rough looking fungus can turn into
such a delicious indulgence after just a few minutes in the pan!
While this was going on in the kitchen, the chicken was cooking
on the charcoal grill.
To be honest, the chicken tasted great, but was as tough as a pair
of sandals. I think Italian chickens have a mystery to them.
They need to be simmered all day on the stove in a pot.
Before we knew it, our ten days in Greve were up. We packed
up the car, dropped the bags off at the apartment we had rented
in Florence, drove the rental to the airport and dropped it off. We
got the free shuttle to the airport proper and took a bus
back into Florence.
TO BE CONTINUED
