Three Tuscan Towns

11/8/2009

Today was our first official day at Villa Gaia. We woke up at 8:30 so that we could be down at the restaurant at 9:30. Our room is great. It is the perfect temperature and the shutters on the windows black out all light. We literally slept for 10 hours straight. It was glorious. The shower has great water pressure and someone turned the heat on in the morning so that we didn’t have to get out of bed into a freezing cold room. Isabella had laid out an incredible breakfast spread for us. We had yogurt, cornflakes, fruit, ham, cheese, bread, jam, orange juice, coffee, and left over cake from last night. I ate entirely too much and I have a feeling that is going to be a reoccurring situation for me this week.

Francesco came at 10 to pick us up so that we could begin our dial excursion. Yesterday we had talked about how since we were the only two people doing the course, we could be flexible with the schedule. As a result, when we started off this morning, we had no idea what we were in for. The weather looked ominous for today’s forecast and we only saw the sun try to peek through the clouds in the morning. Right around the time we left the villa, the rain started.

Our first stop for the day was at a local grocery store to pick up some ricotta cheese for tonight’s dinner. Francesco said that this was not their normal grocery store, but it was the only one open on Sunday and it would have to do. I still thought it was pretty impressive with their spread of meats and cheeses. We looked around for a while and eventually came across the wine section. There was a bottle of wine for .99 euro. Francesco said that wine was pretty bad, but he did pick out a bottle for 2.50 that he said it was very good. Ah yes, you have got to love Italian wine and how good and cheap it can be.

Then we started driving around the Tuscan countryside. Francesco told us that we were over a dead volcanic area, but because a volcano used to exist there are now mineral water springs. We could see the steam all over the countryside from where geysers were running. Francesco also drove us past a Buddhist temple, which seemed very out of place but was cool nonetheless to see. The fall colors are out in full force in Tuscany now. Even on a day with gross weather, the fall foliage was beautiful. We saw some dead sunflowers and Francesco told us that now they are used to extract the oil from. I really like that idea of still using something, even though it is dead.

Our second stop of the day was the town of Sorano. This town is particularly cool because it was built into the rocks. The houses are all built into the side of the mountain and don’t really resemble the class look for a house at all. Mom said that Sorano was exactly what she imagined a Tuscan town to look like, but Francesco said that there is not another town in the entire world that is built like Sorano. Walking down the streets was almost like walking partly thorough tunnels. You could see the stone work changed as people built onto houses as the years went by. The town is older than Christ and is constantly changing. It was extremely cool. It is also a place that many artists gather and live so the shops are pretty unique. If we were to come in the summer, we would not have been able to walk throughout the town. The silver lining to the bad weather was that due to the rain we did not have to pay the fee to go to the top of the city because nobody was in the booth collecting on such a nasty day. Francesco said that everyone in the town is very close to each other. Can you imagine being a teenager and growing up in a community like that? We also saw the last remaining part of the oldest Roman church in Tuscany. It was just a bell tower, but kudos to it for being able to stand up through all of the elements for all of these years.

The next town we stopped in was Sovana. This town is known for a very old abbey that it has in it. We stopped and took pictures of the abbey, which is so old it is not in use anymore. There was a pomegranate tree in the abbey courtyard that was pretty cool. Pomegranates are ready to be picked after the leaves fall off the trees, so that they look like the barren tree was decorated for Halloween with little pumpkin decorations on it. It is a cool sight. The best part of Sovana to us was we got to stop into an olive oil press production site and see the first press of extra virgin olive oil. This was on Mom’s to do list and she was thoroughly entertained by the whole process. It is pretty cool to see how they do it all. Francesco told us that we were very lucky to come to Tuscany at this time because everybody is working. So when you come and are interested in what they are doing, they will treat you like family and invite you to eat and drink with them. That is exactly what these olive oil people did and we were able to sample to fresh product. Of course we bought a tin for a souvenir. It was a very cool experience.

Our last stop for our daily excursion was another town, Pitigliano. This town was similar to Sorano but much bigger and more out in the open as opposed to in the rocks. Pitigliano is famous because it has a section in it called little Jerusalem. There is a pretty famous synagogue there. By now the weather had cleared up a bit and the rain had stopped. There was still a grey misty look over the Tuscan countryside, which made for some really cool views. We ate lunch in this town at a small restaurant. I ordered a vegetable soup that had a poached egg in it and mom had a wild boar stew, which we shared both of and both were native to Tuscany and extremely good. Tuscany has a lot of wild boars and rice fields in it. For the appetizer we also had crustinis with truffle and mushroom pate on them and then for dessert we had panna cotta. Whew, it was a lot of food, but after lunch we walked around the town for a while, which helped with the digestion. We admired the views, popped into shops, and just enjoyed the unique nature of the town. There is really nothing like it in the United States.

On the way back to the villa, we both took a little nap. I think the jet lag is starting to catch up with mom and it was so warm and comfortable in the car compared to the damp cold outside. When we got back to the villa we rested for an hour before out second cooking course began at six. On tonight’s menu we made two different types of gnocchi, a regular potato one with a ragu sauce and then a pumpkin one with a butter sage sauce, veal cutlets with a creamy Dijon sauce, sautéed carrots, and then for dessert some excellent lemon flavored, potato based fried dough. As with everything I have eaten at Villa Gaia, it was incredible. Surprisingly, the carrots were my favorite. The way we cooked them was so easy and actually made a vegetable that I don’t normally care for, delicious. I have decided that homemade food is always three trillion times better than what you normally eat when you go out. We had limoncello with dessert and it was a perfect way to end the night.

Francesco emailed me some recipes he had typed up, which is great especially because some of the recipes will be for things we wont cook. I will type up my notes from tonight’s menu and post them along with this blog!