I am working on the next segment of our Tuscany report but, in the meantime, wanted to post a link that we just put up on our website. We are incorporating recipes adapted by or inspired by Italy (and all our travels) on our website. I just put up the first one: white whole wheat pasta with dried porcinis. We missed Italy while we were eating it. If you are interested, you can check out the post here:
http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/it...tawithporcinis

Here is day 6:

day 6: tuscany

happy stomachs

See

I stood in the parking lot of the bus station with my arms in an awkward position, my elbows touching each other, the wrists jutting out, and the tips of my fingers meeting together at the top. Patrick was behind me, shaking with laughter, as I tried to explain to the portly gentleman (and his flock of hens) exactly what I wanted. I had begun my conversation with him, slowly and carefully. "Avete uovo?" Do you have eggs? The man, dressed in the uniform gray pants and button-down shirt of every farmer in the Montepulciano market, looked at me curiously. He responded, "No. Pollo," turning and pointing to the cages and cages of chickens behind him. "Si," I struggled to find the words to explain that eggs came from chickens, "pero uovo descendente desde pollo." I had combined Italian with my college-level Spanish and left this poor man even more confused. I tried again but with visual help by fixing my arms into an egg-like shape, and asking him again, "avete uovo?" "No, no. No! Pollo," he said roughly pointing to all the chickens behind him, "No uovo! Pollo." I walked away shame-faced, certain that I had not improved the image of the American tourist by this encounter with the Montepulciano citizenry.

But, our excursion to the Montepulciano farmers' market was not a waste. Patrick found thinly-sliced prosciutto and pungent pecorino romano from the butcher wearing white in the white cart filled with meats, cheeses, and one dark brown roasted pig. Why is it, I wondered, that the merchants with the bloodiest, messiest products only wore white to sell their goods? The mountains and valleys of the Val d'Orcia stood behind the fruit merchant as he handed us a bunch of green grapes telling us that they were "dolce." Those grapes were the closest I have tasted to the ones C.S. Lewis described as being grown by Bacchus and the Maenads: "[A]nd whatever hothouses your people may have, you have never tasted such grapes. Really good grapes, firm and tight on the outside, but bursting into cool sweetness when you put them into your mouth."

We bought red, red tomatoes and porcini mushrooms larger than my hand. The mushroom merchant gently lifted two giant handfuls of apricot-colored chanterelle mushrooms, placed them in a bag, and then charged us the appallingly low sum of 3 Euros for this slice of wonder. After our egg-buying fiasco, we walked to the neighboring Conad grocery store and searched high and low for the eggs, unable to find them anywhere in the refrigerated section. Then, finally, we found them --- unrefrigerated and sitting on a shelf like we would find loaves of bread. Perhaps it was this lack of refrigeration that led to the vibrant color of these eggs The yolks were not yellow, nor even orange, but an orange-red to rival the sinking sun. They were delicious in the morning, scrambled with onions, chanterelle mushrooms, and topped with slivers of pecorino cheese.

Our morning venture to the market left us hungry. So, we made our way to Pienza. Lovely, lovely Pienza. We could not get enough of this town --- the cobblestones, the fading yellow houses, the miniscule shops filled with multi-hued pasta and wine, and the flowers peeking out from every window and door. We ate a truly sensational meal at Latte de Luna, the popular trattoria, and then made our way through the Val d'Orcia following the famous itinerary of Fodorite Stu Dudley.

We strolled through San Quirico and Montalcino. In Montalcino, we drank wine in a little taverna and watched groups of retired men play chess. We carefully timed our arrival to the Sant' Antimo Abbey but missed the chanting by just a few minutes. We did not quite make it to Monticchiello before the light grew dim, so we turned around and made dinner in our apartment. All in all, a lovely day with two very happy bellies.

Eat

Latte de Luna sits at the corner of a street with ivy above the doorway and flowering shrubs lining the patio area. Oh, the food. Wonderful, wonderful food. We both started with the tagliatelle with truffles. It was our first time eating fresh truffles and we were not quite experienced for the culinary sensation. When we placed a sliver of the truffle on our tongues, it felt like cardboard and had no taste. But, mixed with the perfectly al-dente pasta and truffle paste, the truffle imparted a strong flavor. The flavor was not quite mushroom-like, but more intense and earthy. The pasta was luscious, indulgent, and everything we expected and hoped of our first truffle experience.

For his main course, Patrick had the roast duck with the olives. He practically licked his plate clean. The duck was tender and succulent, and the purple olives were plump and oily. I had the zucchini souffle which was soft and light; however, the zucchini flan at Osteria dei Cavalieri was a bit better. We finished with a very sweet cantucci con vin santo. One of the best meals of our trip - a must eat destination.

For dinner, we tackled the produce we found at the farmers market. We had a tagliatelle with tomatoes, onions, and chanterelles and we sauteed porcinis to a golden brown for our side dish. We sat back in our little apartment and patted our bellies while drinking glasses of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.

I forgot to post the link for the last segment with pictures. Here it is:
http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day6tuscany

You were in Tuscany about the same time as we were. We got the car the morning after we arrived at the same garage. Fortunately we asked about reverse in the garage. We also found Florence just jam packed with people. I've been there several times and have NEVER seen it so crowded. It was also HOT HOT HOT and was a bit ruined for me.

Great photos!

Thanks grasshopper - glad you liked the pictures! It was actually the opposite when we were in Florence and we both were freezing. Our first purchase was one of those "pashmina" scarves from the San Lorenzo market and a cheap hat.

I have a pix of Montepulciano ("Montepulciano View") at the following flickr address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32219995@N07/

It was takent between the bars of a fence at a cafe near the main square. So beautiful. Thanks for "taking" me back there!

TDudette - What a beautiful pic! I am so glad I brought you back there. I just never wanted to leave.

Here is the next post on our wine-filled adventure to the Avignonesi winery and Cortona:

Pictures and post here: http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day7tuscany


day 7: tuscany
the vino, the vino

See: Cortona Etruscan Museum & Avignonesi and Poliziano wineries

In the morning, we drove to Cortona, the town made famous by Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun. The town stood perched on steep hills with a carpet of vineyards below it. We found respite from the dark gray fog floating over the town and the rain splashing on the cobblestones in the Cortona Etruscan museum (Cortona MAEC).

The bottom floor of the Etruscan museum contained one of the---for lack of a better word---coolest exhibits we have ever seen. The museum recreated the archeological process using life-size visual displays behind glass windows. We learned about how to find an archaeological site, then the careful digging process, and the preservation of the small household and clothing objects discovered at the sites. The upstairs rooms were a hodge-podge of Roman, Egyptian, and many Etruscan artifacts recovered from farmhouses and barns in Cortona.

And, then, we finally got to the vino. The wine tour at the Avignonesi winery was simply a steal. For 15 Euros, we were given a two hour tour of beautiful grounds and the stunning rooms in the winery. We focused on the rooms the winery used to make their famous vin santo. Vin santo is a very sweet, almost syrupy Italian dessert wine, often served with cantucci --- an almond or hazelnut biscotti.

We walked through a room filled with aisle after aisle of green and purple grapes hung on their vines and laid across shelves. Because we arrived in November, the grapes had been just harvested and looked so plump and round that I immediately wanted to pop one in my mouth. The room had the residual smell of sugar and sweetness, like a kitchen that had been used to bake sugar cookies the day before.

The grapes are dried for many months until they become raisins. The raisins are pressed and the resulting must is placed into a cask with a bit of the madre, the dark jelly of concentrated wild yeasts developed in their 50 years of making vin santo.

Then the casks sit, sealed and unopened for years. Six years later, a 40-liter barrel is opened to produce only 10 liters of vin santo. Avignonesi only sells its vin santo at Easter for several weeks.

We were six months too early to try their vin santo. But, we enjoyed several Nobiles and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and brought home a wonderful 1997 Grappa de Vin Santo, made from the reduced musts in the vin santo barrels. Afterward, we drove to the Poliziano winery and kept drinking the fine wines so carefully extracted from the ubiquitous Tuscan grapes.

Eat: Caffe la Saletta, La Grotta
We had lunch at Caffe la Saletta, a small enoteca, in Cortona. Patrick had a prosciutto pizza and I had a crepe with mozzarella, tomatoes, and olives. We shared a crostini with pecorino and balsamico. The food was fine --- nothing to write home about but reasonably priced and in a convenient area in Cortona.

We splurged for dinner at Ristorante La Grotta in Montepulciano. This gorgeous restaurant sits immediately before the Sanctuary of San Biagio, one of the most recognizable sights in the Val d'Orcia. We walked through a beautiful garden but the rain kept us from sitting outside that night. Our amuse bouche was warm ricotta topped with sauteed spinach and tomatoes. Patrick's fried porcini mushroom starter, sauteed to a golden brown in butter and garlic, simply highlighted the earthiness of the mushroom. My pecorino cheese soufle was creamy and soft and complemented by spinach and fresh tomatoes. Patrick's primi, a fettucini with rabbit sauce, was made with homemade fettucini pasta and a delicious rabbit sauce. My vegetable lasagnette was our only disappointment. Vegetables and tomato sauce were layered between thin slices of potato "pasta" was slightly bland. Patrick's secondi, a steak, was perfectly cooked (and coming from Patrick, that is high praise indeed). The grape must sauce that coated my pecorino cheese ravioli was so good that I wanted to lick the plate. We finished with excellent chocolate napoleons, light but, at the same time, dense chocolate cakes with homemade pistachio gelato. A fantastic meal in a beautiful location. If you are willing to spend the money, you won't regret it.

The grape shots were great! The food, the food! Making a note of the restaurant.

Thanks TDudette. You definitely should go to Ristorante La Grotta. It was wonderful.

What a wonderful trip report...I'm really looking forward to our upcoming trips to Pienza and Montepulciano, at the same time regretting my reluctant agreement to spend one night in Florence.

I vowed I would never go back the last time I went and being reminded of the crowds made me realize why I don't want to go back.

Unfortunately our reservations are non-refundable.

Maybe we'll go late in the day and get out ASAP the next morning...ugh.

akila - very much enjoying your trip report. We spend a month or more in Tuscany and Venice each year, always staying in apartments so that I can cook and my husband can pursue his interest in choosing the appropriate wine to go with the meal. We'll be in Montepulciano in October, studying at Il Sasso, the Italian language school there, for the 5th time. We never miss La Grotta - probably our favorite restaurant in all of Italy. Please keep the recipes coming on your beautiful website!

Thank you nina and roamer! Nina, we felt like the crowds were much less in the evening. In fact, because we were staying near the Duomo, the entire area emptied out around 6:00 p.m. If you head there around 2 or 3, you may miss the worst of the crowds. Roamer, I can't believe that you get to spend a month in Tuscany every year! I am so envious. Thanks so much for the kind words about the recipes and our site. I am getting ready to post a new recipe in a few days, so I will post the link here as well.

I will be looking for the link - thank you!

For roamer (and any others who liked our recipe posts), our most recent recipe post is up: http://www.theroadforks.com/offthero...tuffedtomatoes
It's also featured on Tastespotting today. I am working on our next post regarding Orvieto and should have it up in the next day or two.

Okay, I am finally back with our next post on Orvieto: http://www.theroadforks.com/trips/italy2007/day8orvieto

orvieto: walking in sunshine

See: Orvieto Duomo, Orvieto Underground Tour
The gray dissipated overnight and we awoke, for the first time in seven days, to a sky void of gray and filled with light. We stood at the doorsteps of our Montepulciano apartment unwilling to leave the bit of simple luxury that we had found. We wanted to bask in the glow of the warm sun, surrounded by the olive trees and rosemary hedges, above the Sanctuary of San Biagio, but knew that we had to move on.

We were not expecting much from Orvieto after the vistas and cobblestones in the Val d'Orcia. Those suspicions were initially confirmed as we dropped our car off in the mundane village of Orvieto Scalo, a town filled with fast food restaurants and gray townhouses. We boarded the modern funicular to climb the steel hill to reach the city of Orvieto.

The imposing Duomo reached above every store-front and every street. The Duomo recalled the designs of the Moors and Arabian kingdom in the glistening stars, flowers, and turrets. The reds, greens, blues, yellows, and gold shone against the black and cream stripes.

The Saturday afternoon passagieta enlivened the town. Women in clinging jeans and tall fleece topped boots walked hand in hand with black-haired men wrapped in scarves and leather jackets. Children scampered through the streets as their parents sedately walked behind.

We savored our gelato as we walked to the edge of town to take the Underground Orvieto tour. The tunnels beneath the city revealed honeycombs of gray concrete, used in medieval times to farm pigeons, a delicacy of the city. Etruscan wells and rooms used to house World War II refugees pulled away from the tunnels. When we emerged from the underground, the sunshine greeted us as a long lost friend.


Sleep: Bed and Breakfast Valentina
Our room in the B&B Valentina, at 60 Euros, was an acceptable accomodation with a large clean room, comfortable bed, and bathroom. At night, the walls did nothing to buffer us from the near-constant wailing of an infant. We would consider staying here again but would not highly recommend it due to the paper-thin walls.


Eat: Trattoria L' Orso, Il Setti Consoli
We had lunch at Trattoria L'Orso, an acclaimed restaurant. However, we were the only ones eating lunch and our two plates of fettucini with porcinis, a half-liter of wine, and bread, came to an appalling 38 Euros. We would not recommend this restaurant for lunch.

We were unimpressed by the decor of Il Setti Consoli until the waiter brought me a small knee-high stool to place my purse; why don't more places do this? We began with half-glasses of a Veneto champagne and an amuse bouche of fried pasta dough. And, then, they brought us the best bread of our trip. Have I complained about Italian bread yet? These Italian bakers --- gifted with the ability to produce pizza and ciabatta as light and dense as one should expect of any baked good --- make bread that would be best used for pounding nails with a flavor little better than wood. But, at Il Setti Consoli, we received a basket of soft, sweet bread, with holes that marked where the yeast had bubbled. We dipped that bread into olive oil, the fluorescent color of the Kermit the Frog dolls we had as children, that tasted spicy with fresh overtones of green grass. The restaurant purchased that olive oil directly from the farm that had pressed the olives a mere two days before.

Patrick and I shared an eggplant parmigiano with a smoky Marolo cheese. I was unimpressed with my tagliolini with asparagus in a wine sauce but Patrick found his canneloni with rabbit in cream sauce to be an interesting and unusual presentation. Marolo cheese unfortunately overwhelmed an otherwise creamy and rich herb risotto. Patrick's pork fillets were well-cooked. We ended with pears and apples in phyllo topped with a spicy gelato and cinnamon cream. We somehow managed to eat all of this, down a bottle of wine, drink a grappa de vin santo and a limoncello. A very good meal (though not our favorite in Italy).