The mosaics of Ravenna--looking down

Some of the mosaics in Ravenna are on the floors of the various UNESCO heritage sites they were created in. I especially liked some of the border patterns and the occasional duck or bird sprinkled throughout. The amazing thing about these works of art and antiquity is that they let you WALK on them. 

Rainy day reward

We had a miserable morning on Wednesday. So wet and windy we waited until all was clear before venturing out for the day. Of course we muttered about the weather. Muttered about lost time and experiences that could have been.

But our muttering was rewarded with the best of all possible prizes: 

The rainbow ended in our yard in Radicofani. I felt like I should go out to see if the pot of gold was to be found someplace. The rainbow hung around for a long time, then faded away. Ten minutes later we were putting on our coats and getting ready to head out. 

There was another one, now further up the hill: 

The mosaics of Ravenna--looking up

Ravenna, back in the day, was the Byzantine capital of Europe. During the 5th and 6th centuries many sacred structures were created and filled with art rendered in tiny shards of colored glass. To see the work and to imagine its creation with primitive hand tools is mind-blowing. The color is as vibrant as the day it was executed and the patterns are full of complex mathematical calculations. Lucky for us modern-day travelers much of the mosaic work still exists more than a dozen centuries after the artists walked on the earth. The churches, baptistries and mausaleums are all open to the public for the cost if a cheap ticket. think I will just let the work speak for itself.

Foods of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna

So after our week in Tuscany, we drove about three hours to the town of Ravenna, which is known throughout the world for its Byzantine-era mosaics--most of which are UNESCO heritage sites.  More about that in another post.

The region of E-R is also known for some wonderful foods that are particular to the region, which also includes Bologna, Parma and Modena.

Our first stop in Ravenna was at the bustling enoteca Ca de Ven, which must hold several hundred people at once. We had table number 161! Many of the tables held 20 or more and most folks were sitting at communal tables of 10. We were happy to have our own end of a long table without anyone sitting right next to us.

The atmosphere is classic with dark paneled walls, frescoed ceilings and a Beaux Arts vibe.

My favorite meal when we visited Bologna last year was tortellini in brodo so I ordered it again. Delicious! Joe had saffron ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach topped with a duck ragu. Yum!

We also ordered a piadina, which is the local favorite late-night or afternoon snack. Its a fried flatbread, opened up and filled with any one of dozens of options. We tried the spinach and parmesan and it was served warm and gooey--comfort food!

Later that night we tried La Gardela an old-timey restaurant with a local crowd and a professional waitstaff of people who have likely been there for upwards of 50 years in some cases.

I loved the swordfish carpaccio, and for dessert I had an affogato, which is a cup of espresso with a ball of vanilla gelato floating in it. Is that a great idea or what?!

The next day we stopped for wine and bar snacks at I Capelli Enoteca, a great corner to sit outdoors and watch the busy people traffic. Then we finished our night at Osteria Boaria, where we consumed some fabulous crostini topped with sauteed veggies.

We couldn't stop and eat all of the wonderful things that were there to be consumed, but it was fun to enjoy all the smells and the window eye candy during our short visit.

Arrrrggghhhhh! A tangled mess of technology

Four days without Wi-Fi does not make me a happy camper. Joe and I tried to fix it, but it was a multi-national effort and doomed to fail. Here's what we had to do as the wi-fi is shared with our neighbors and the modem is in their apartment:

We ( in Italy on US phone) texted Ale (Netherlands) to tell him of the problem. Ale (Netherlands) spent two days trying to call satellite company (Italy). When he finally got through, he relayed the instructions to us via text and we sent back questions and comments via text to Ale, who asked and got info from the Italian company and relayed it back to us. Since we have lousy phone coverage in Italy, all of the texts took about two minutes to send/receive, which was frustrating to say the least.

With no success on the first try, we gave up, then left Tuscany for our weekend in Ravenna.

Chiusi

Joe and I haven't been to Chiusi in at least five years. As much as we like this town, we never seem to remember it when we are planning our itinerary. Today we headed there for a pleasant stroll and a great lunch.

There's plenty do do to fill a half day including the excellent Etruscan Museum and the Museo Civico which descends down into the limestone caves below the piazza to see an ancient well and other artifacts. There is also a tour, starting from the Etruscan Museum, that goes underground to see a network of caves and tombs below the city streets. I can't do stuff like that, but I'm sure it's fascinating. We have already been to the museums so skipped them today.

Chiusi has several restaurants, two of which we have been to and can recommend heartily. One is Zaira, and the other is La Solita Zuppa, which means "the crazy soup." It was a gray day--perfect weather for soup--so we headed to La Solita Zuppa for lunch.

The cute and cozy restaurant has so many quaint, homey touches like lace doilies under plates and custom dishes like coffee cups with tiny lids.

The soup menu changes with the seasons and offers at least five choices per day. I had the cauliflower and orange zest with parmesan; Joe tried the chick pea with porcini mushrooms--both delicious!

For the main course, I tried the rabbit stewed in a fresh ginger and lemon sauce and Joe had guinea hen in an orange sauce. Yum!

The family business: part 2

We left Montalcino on the Grosetto side so took the road through Monte Amiata to get back home. It's a long ride that way, but with some stunning scenery you really don't notice the time.

After a bit I remembered the Frantoio Franci and thought it was pretty close by.  As we had just finished the final drops of our April oil purchases, the timing was perfect to pay them a visit. We headed to Montenero.

The small frantoio has an international reputation as they have won the competition for best olive oil in the world several years in a row.

We had already been there, but they took us up to the tasting room where we sampled again to see which oils we wanted to procure this time. We didn't taste the lower priced oils last time, the ones best for cooking. Even though it's priced about the same as the big name US brands, the Franci Fiore was far better in taste and freshness than anything available at home.

We chose two of the high end oils for drizzling on salads as well as some of the cooking oil and put together a mixed case to ship home.

While we were waiting for the office staff to calculate the costs and shipping, the owner Federico Franci came over to meet us. At 87 he still looks great. We talked about oil. I asked him if he drank it. He said he has a cucchiaio every morning, then drizzles it on his pasta and chick peas for lunch.

He said he wished he had learned to speak English, and never got to America because working was too much fun and he didn't want to leave the company. So, while it may not be THE secret to long life, I think loving and believing in your work coupled with a healthy diet certainly can't hurt.

When our complicated transaction was finally complete, the entire office staff came out to shake our hands and wish us well.

When does that ever happen in America??

The family business

Sometimes we make appointments to visit high end wineries with stellar reputations selling products that appear in the pages of esteemed magazines. And that's a good thing to do occasionally. Then there are times when the thing to do is to visit the little farmers to see what plain folks are doing in their garages with little money and little help. That's what we did today. 

To say that Podere Il Cocco is off the beaten track would be like saying the moon is just down the street. The white road rambles miles through the woods and just when you can't imagine anyone in their right mind living in such a place, the road opens up to fields of grasses and waving wild flowers. The views in every direction compete for attention and then after another distance, a tiny sign points the way.

Let me back up a bit to say that we read about Il Cocco and were curious enough about Giacomo Bindi, winemaker, and one man show. He personally responded with tour options, apologizing for having to charge us for a tour, but he couldn't afford to lose the work time. He said his brother ran the restsurant, which seats twelve at one table, and wondered if we might like to have lunch too.

So we made a date for a tour, tasting and lunch.

Il Cocco is an agriturismo, a camping site and a stopping off point for hikers on their way from Montalcino to San Antimo Abbey, which is about 18 km round trip. We saw campers coming into the bathrooms for a shower. We saw hikers with their ridiculous walking sticks (????) stop in for a coffee and a grappa. There were dogs--Ballou and Cookie--milling about. 

Giacomo was a half hour late to greet us for our appt, but Paola explained he was chest deep in grapes picked just yesterday and trying to get them in the tanks before giving us our tour. He sent his younger brother Stefano to chat with us and gave us a glass of cloudy cabernet sauvignon juice that was pressed this morning. It was sweet, fruity and life-giving. Stefano, who was in his early 20s, was clearly bored and preferred to live in the family's winter home in Siena. He said he liked to work in a lively local pub there, but still he was polite and told us some family history including that his father is an oncology surgeon in Siena, also a Buddhist and a vegan, which I thought was interesting for the owner of a winery.

Paola, the chef, popped out to ask what we wanted for lunch. There was no menu so she gave us a list of the ingredients she had on hand and let us say what form they would take. We decided on a salumi and bruschetta plate to share, a dish of tagliatelle with fresh porcini for Joe, then we each had a piece of chicken grilled under a brick with grilled radicchio on the side. She took our requests then went back to the kitchen to make them.

When we finally met Giacomo he was smiling, but slightly ruffled from the immediate nature of the work. He half grumbled to himself about being foolish to make tour appointments on harvest days.

But, he grabbed three unopened bottles and some glasses and led us into the cellar where all the magic happens.

We had full glasses of the wines for the tasting and walked through different parts of the small production facility learning about each phase as we drank.

We had lots of questions and he patiently and passionately answered them all. It was very clear that  this young man, all of 34, who had been in the winery since he was 19, was curious and open to learning more about the business with every harvest. He was primarily making wines from Sangiovese grapes, but also used cabernet to make an IGT blend. He was experimenting with using red grapes in Vin Santo, which is traditionally made with only Malvasia and Trebbiano--both white.

After more than an hour with him, Giacomo led us back to the dining room where Paola's delicious feast was waiting for us. Stefano poured wine and attended to every need. By the time we left, they were all friends.

The wines of Il Cocco may never make it into the 90 point realm of Wine Spectator, but today's experience wasn't about that. At his remote vinyard, in the middle of noplace, Giacomo Bindi is churning out fine wines with his hands and his heart. 

Salcheto

Just below the town of Montepulciano, in a lovely valley filled with ripening grapes, is one of Italy's most forward-thinking vineyards. Salcheto has been making wines since the early 1980s, but in 2011 they made a major investment in organic and sustainable practices. They claim to have one of the lowest carbon footprints of any winery in Italy.

Their fermenting and aging facility is built partly underground and uses the earth above it as a cooling mechanism. The exposed sides of the round building are covered in coir fiber and completely planted with vines to disguise the structure so it blends into the surroundings and also to help maintain the desired temperatures. All of the lighting is done by the sun via solar lighting tubes. Even two stories below ground, the space was brightly filled with sunlight.

To mix wines, most places use an electric pumping system, but Salcheto has found a way to trap the naturally-occuring carbon dioxide gas in tanks below the grapes and they release the gas--as big bubbles--back into the wines at various intervals. These bubbles passing through the wine naturally stir up the contents of the tank without using energy or manpower.

All of the hot water used in the kitchen of the enoteca comes from the burning of all the discarded grape stems. There were so many interesting innovations here.

After our tour, we sat at long lovely tables, each made from a single plank of an ancient tree, and chose our lunch to accompany the tasting of their wines. Five different wines were poured, all made from grapes grown organically on the 56-acre property.

Lunch included a cream of chick pea soup, a plate of salumi and formaggi, then some vegetables from their gardens. It was all good and gave several different flavors to pair with the wines. We enjoyed the wines, but opted not to buy any bottles on this trip.

After lunch we drove to San Quirico, one of our favorite towns. There we walked around the streets looking to see if there was anything interesting for sale. There was. We finished the afternoon at the Bar Centrale, which is where all the locals hang out. It's a great people-watching spot.

Feed the hungry

When we are hungry and tired there's no better place for good food, good service and a good price than La Grotta.

Primi: whole pot of ribolitta for me, pici al tartufo for Joe

Secondi: arrosto di maialino for Joe, tagliata al rucola for me

Dessert: cantucci with vin santo, café

Wine: a bottle of young morellino di Scansano

Cost: 53€

Boh!

Here we are sitting in the parking lot in Cortona on the tailgate of the "macchina," which was "guasto" and we were waiting for the tow truck to arrive. 

So we had a great day then the car just wouldn't start. We called the roadside assistance number for Hertz and told them about our problem, which we believed to be a dead battery. The woman dispatched a tow truck that came very quickly. In the interim, we reminisced about the day in Umbria when our car was completely guasto and a tow truck came and took it away--leaving us on the rainy sidewalk with our luggage and no way to get another car. Now that was a bad day!

Anyway, this driver took the keys and got in the car. He turned it on. It started. "Come la facevi?" I asked him with incredulity on my face. He waved his hands across the dashboard like Merlin: "É magia," mi dica. 

Well, not sure I buy the magic stuff, but whatever dust this guy was sprinkling it was worth a 10€ tip and we were back on the road.

Domenica in Toscana

We slept a bit late to shake off the jet lag, then headed up to Arezzo for the monthly antiques fair. It was fun to poke around the booths, but I have to admit that there are no longer any bargains to be had since it's mostly tourists who visit the stalls. I heard far more Inglese than Italiano spoken there today. 

The one item I was interested in buying was a small enamel sign from a grocery store that listed some of their offerings like "pasta all'uova" "latte intero" and other staples. I might have paid 25€ for the sign, but the guy wanted 100€--typical of the prices we saw. Beh!

We found a new wine bar, which just opened in June, and spent some time with the couple that owned the place. They specialize in wines just from the area around Arezzo and Cortona. The guy was a great host and gave excellent suggestions on wines to try.

We decided to drive next to Cortona, since it was close by and found the town packed with people as there was a medeival archery and jousting festival happening there. Most of the folks wandering around were dressed more or less like Robin Hood--pointy toe shoes, feathers in hats, cell phones, brown tunics, etc.

Down one small, and quiet, alley we were beckoned into a tasting room by a woman from the Romeo vineyard in Montepulciano. I asked her why she didn't sell her wines in Montepulciano and she replied "troppi, troppi negozi di vini." We tasted all five of her products and were especially blown away by the Lipitiresco 2010, a wine that rated 94 in Wine Enthusiast this year. It was extraordinary. Their Vin Santo was also one of the best I've tasted. Gabriella Romeo was our gracious hostess and we enjoyed every minute of our impromptu tasting with her.

After some more strolling, we found a wine bar with a great view towards Lago Trasimeno and sat for a pleasant glass of local wine with a plate of typical bar snacks.

Siamo arrivati in Italia! And a brush with fame . . .

Buona sera from Radicofani, which Joe and I have taken to calling "Windicofani," since the wind never stops blowing here. Not a problem though.

Our travels yesterday were without incident--boring, in fact--and we arrived in Montepulciano in time for a stroll up the hill and a pleasant lunch at La Dolce Vita. 

We were enjoying our meal and realized that people kept stopping at the table behind us and fawning all over one of the English guys sitting there. They were asking to take selfies with the guy, getting autographs, etc, and I kept turning around to see if I could figure out who he was. I asked our waitress  "Hey, who's the famous guy?" She didn't know either, but was obviously very curious. So I took a good look at his table, saw a luggage tag on his case that said Madden and googled "UK actor Madden" on my phone.

Well, this guy Richard Madden (who I've never heard of) is wildly famous now as he's a star in Game of Thrones, and was Prince Charming in the recent remake of Cinderella, featuring Lily James of Downton Abbey.

Here he is: 

After lunch, and seeing no additional celebrities, we waddled back down the hill and procured some groceries for ourselves.