day 5 :

thursday, 18 may

After being on-the-go since we arrived in Italy, we wanted some downtime today to relax and enjoy our surroundings. Dawn read some novels, while Eric spent much of the day sitting outside in the comfy chairs or under the grape-vine-covered pergola, reading our Italian language book, learning some new phrases and verbs. The setting couldn't have been more tranquil — clouds drifted lazily across the vivid blue sky, birds sang and sailed over the vineyards, bees pollinated the wildflowers around us, and we could hear the distant drone of tractors tilling the soil between rows of grapes. It invited us to simply sit, look, listen, absorb.

Elena and our fellow guests highly recommended a little restaurant called Vecchia Osteria not far from where we were staying, so we journeyed down there for lunch today. The restaurant is run by a husband and wife — the husband cooks, and his wife runs the front of the house. After some deliberation on what to order, we both decided on the lunch tasting menu, so we'd get to try a little of everything. Eric had one of the most memorable pasta dishes in his life at this meal — ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta, covered with an intense saffron cream sauce speckled with poppy seeds. This dish was great on many levels: it was unique — we've never seen something like this before; the flavor was wonderful, probably because every ingredient was local — the wheat for the ravioli was grown just down the road, the saffron was harvested in the fields just outside of San Gimignano, and the poppies grow wild all over Chianti; and the rich, velvety saffron sauce was a vibrant yellow-Peep color that stood out boldly on the white porcelain plate. The rest of the menu was excellent, as well — stuffed chicken necks (a local specialty) on a bed of greens with a dollop of pesto; home-made tagliolini with pancetta, tomatoes, cipollini onions, white wine, parsley, and walnuts (the last of which really made the dish stand out); veal with red wine sauce, pine nuts, and almonds, with a stuffed mushroom and a fennel and zucchini flan on the side. We were full by the time the trio of desserts rolled around, but we found a few empty corners to fill in.

Our lazy afternoon of reading on the terrace was followed by a perfect dinner at the one Michelin starred La Bottega del Trenta. Today was the first day of the season that the restaurant seated people in their outdoor patio, and our table was facing the semi-circle picture window framing the huge reddish-orange Tuscan sun setting into the rolling hills. We were disappointed that we hadn't brought our camera, since it was a scene we wanted to remember. Once seated with a glass of Spumante in front of each of us, our choices were limited to what kind of water we wanted (frizzante o naturale), what bottle of wine to have with the meal (we chose a local Val di Suga 2000 Brunello di Montalcino, which had a nose reminiscent of a vintage armagnac), and which of five main dishes we'd like. For the wine, our very helpful multi-lingual waiter selected a pair of beautiful, hand-made wine glasses that had a unique feature: an indentation inside the glass that helps the wine oxidate (open up and breathe) more quickly when swirled in the glass. The idea is that the wine hits the ridge, splashes off of it, and absorbs a few more air molecules than it would in a conventional glass. We don't know if it helped appreciably, but it was certainly entertaining to try! Then the meal began. The first course was a mixed appetizer plate of escargot in pesto, fresh fava beans with shaved pecorino, and asparagus with an egg on top. Next, we were given different plates: Dawn had an eggplant flan with prosciutto crisps, while Eric enjoyed an asparagus flan with a parmesan crisp (impressively shaped like a wooden spoon) and balsamic. Our meals rejoined their common path and we were served “naked” ricotta and spinach ravioli — that is, pasta filling with no pasta wrapper! This was served in an alfredo truffle sauce, and was one of our favorites of the meal. Since you can't go through an Italian meal without pasta, the next dish was spaghetti with a porcini mushroom, tomato, and nettle sauce, sprinkled with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. We were starting to get rather full at this point, so we were fortunate to arrive at the main course — crisp duck cooked for several hours, beet flan with a beet crisp, fagiolini beans with a bread crisp, and a small mâche salad with cherry tomatoes. After finishing the duck, we had the final delicious course: crème caramel semi-freddo with homemade caramel, a chocolate mousse covered with a coconut milk latte (think of it as the best recreation of a Mounds candy bar you could ever find), and a mini chocolate cake served with a crisp pineapple slice. Now, just top all of that with an espresso, and call it a night!

Sadly, our visit to Tuscany was drawing to an end. If there's a next time, we'd like to see these things:

• Southern Tuscany's high mountain fields of wildflowers
• Pienza
• Montalcino
• Montepulciano — this town has the best enotece for tasting the local wines
• Monks chanting at the Abbey of Sant'Antimo