Tuesday- Cooking Class in Tuscany

Tuesday morning Dave and Justin headed off to a cooking class.  Bridget, Spencer, Matt and I hung out at the villa for a bit in the morning then drove over to Montepulciano again for a quick walk around before heading to the cooking class to eat lunch. 

When we arrived at the villa where the boys were at class, they were still rolling pasta.  We were greeted with a glass of prosseco and some appetizers while they finished up preparing lunch.  We played with their beautiful white shepherd named Bella and walked around the property admiring all the fruit trees. 

Lunch was delish and Justin picked up a few good cooking tips for pasta and such that we will be using at home!

On our way home we detoured to visit Pienza, another small town a few miles from our Villa. 

Then for dinner, we got a great recommendation from the chef that taught the cooking class, in another tiny town called Monticchiello.  We sat out on the patio despite the chilly temperature.  Food was yummy and we had a surprise visitor from a little cat that almost jumped on Spencer's head! 

Tuscan Winery Time

Before we came out here, Justin did a bit of research on wine country, the types of wine each region is known best for and the wineries available.  In our past winery touring, in other countries, we've been able to drive from winery to winery and walk in for a tasting or a tour.  This is not really the case in Tuscany.  Justin emailed a few to see what we could do in terms of tastings and we booked two on Tuesday. 

The first one we saw was Camigliano near Montelcino. This winery is in a tiny little town with total inhabitants of 32 people, one restaurant and a doctor that comes once a week.  Once again situated on top of a hill, the views were just as stunning as everywhere else we've been.  We got a private tour of the winery and afterwards had a quick tasting. This region in Tuscany is most well known for their Brunello wines, which is a bold red wine.  They had about three or four different levels of wine, from their basic Rosso to a higher-end Brunello Reserva.  We actually liked all of the wines we tried from this winery.  We ended up buying a case to bring back to the villa that we could drink the rest of the week! 

While Dave did the purchasing we walked around the corner to the only restaurant in the town in search of some food.  We had another tour appointment to get to so we did not have much time to sit down and eat.  Instead, Spencer and Bridget sweet talked the chef/owner into making us prosciutto and cheese sandwiches to go.  Once he finished up the sandwiches he handed us the bag of food with an uncorked, unmarked bottle of red wine with a huge grin on his face.  He gave us the wine on the house! Then, all together, the sandwiches were 17 Euro with a free bottle of wine! The sandwiches also happen to be superb and the wine was surprisingly excellent! We had a great lunch before heading off to the next winery.     

The second winery we stopped at seemed a bit more modern.  Certainly their tasting area was.  The wine however was not as good as the first place we visited.  We did not do a tour at this one, just had a tasting and walked around their grounds a little bit.  We opted not to purchase any wine, however, the guys all bought bike jerseys!

After our wine excursions we drove up, down, and all around to this little Abbey right outside Montelcino that was recommended to us by my Aunt Kim.  There are a few monks here that chant a few times a day, and I really wanted to see them. 

I have previously mentioned that my favorite church in Italy is in Florence, on top of the hill.  Well, this one is a close second, if not tied for first.  It's not a grand ornate church like most cathedrals in the area.  Rather, it is small, quaint and minimalistic.  It had this great, welcoming, homey feel and has to be in the most beautiful setting possible.  We happen to have the times wrong on the chanting, so we were unable to see the monks, but Justin promised we'd return later in the week. 

On our way back home we stopped in Montelcino to take in the little town.  

A Sunday in Tuscany

Sunday we woke up with very little in the house food/coffee wise.  I had found tea I wanted to try in Ferrara, so at least I had a little caffeine fix to hold me over.  We headed out mid-morning to find a market or store to buy some food for the week, but what we found was that aaaallll the little towns around us pretty much shut down on Sundays! We drove to a few of them in search of food before settling back at the same pizza place that helped us out the night before.

One of the little tiny towns we stopped at was called Montefollonico…

After our lunch at the pizza place near the villa we headed off to Montepulciano.  This town is a bit bigger than the first one we visited, but still quite small.  We really liked Montepulciano, it's quaint but not tiny tiny.  The main roads have some cute little boutique shops and cafes and it has some great views from the outer walls.  We quickly found that, in this part of Tuscany, all the towns are on top of a hill.  The driving is a lot of ups and downs and twisty turny switch back type roads which are fun for the driver, but not as fun for the people in the back seat!

We were hit with a tiny bit of rain when we were finishing up our walk through Montepulciano.  Apparently when it rains here all the snails come out to play!! Big ones!!!

Montepulciano…

We found a small grocery store and grabbed some goods for Dave to make us a nice home cooked meal and ended the night with wine and cards! 

The Villa

The place is great, fairly well appointed with beautiful views.  The rooms are all brightly painted with their own bathrooms, and the property has a vineyard, an olive grove, fruit trees and herbs! 

We've done a fair amount of sleeping in with lazy mornings of coffee and toast and evenings outside on the patio with wine.  We’ve played a ton of cards and done several day trips to small towns near the villa. 

Bologna and Ferrara:

On Friday night we took the train to Bologna to meet up with the rest of Justin's family.  We had dinner reservations at Dave's favorite restaurant in Italy, this little place called Da Fabio's.  It was preeeetty yummy! There are no menus, they just bring you a bunch of appetizers, then they read you the pasta and meat options and you order from there.  One of my favorite appetizers was a celery salad, which is sort of funny since I typically don’t like celery!  It was thinly sliced at an angle, tossed with a bit of lemon and olive oil and shaved pecorino cheese.  Now, since pecorino is one of my favorite cheeses, there is a good chance I would like anything that has pecorino on it.  Either way, it's definitely a recipe that I plan to re-create when we get home. 

The next day we did a little bit of walking around bologna before heading to pick up our rental cars.  We stopped in a few shops and drooled over the fruits and vegetables in the store fronts near our hotel.

Justin's parents rented a villa outside Montepulciano that we will stay in for a week.  On the way to Bologna we stopped in Ferrara for lunch.  Ferrara was a cute little fortress town, lots of narrow cobblestone streets. 

By the time we got to (or rather, FOUND) the villa, it was over an hour past check in.  It was dusk, the doors were locked and we had no cell service! We ended up piling back into the car and driving back to a pizza place we passed.  We borrowed their phone to call the villa owner to come let us in. Since it was rather late and we had no food for dinner, we ordered pizza to go and a few scraps of food that they happen to have at the counter.