Amen. I think I have adjusted. I slept in until 7:30 without a Tylenol P.M. I even felt pretty good. I was going to go for a run but Gary was just getting up so we decided to go for a long walk. We headed down the big hill to the main road and then up to Monti. The hill was a challenge, but we powered up past Monti di Sotto into Monti proper. We immediately began trying to figure out which apartment we wanted to buy. Should it get morning sun or would we want to see the sunset? How much would it cost? Could we get a two bedroom and two bath for $200,000? There were a couple of great signs about new developments and we thought we needed to call the number on it. We walked past a church Marcellini which dated from 1000 and even hear\d the bell ring at 8:30. We turned around at the crossroads and walked back through mini Monti (saw a snake) and even checked out where the apartments were that were run by the people who owned Isodi (the last winery we went to yesterday.) It looked pretty good for €800 per week and a pool. We made it back to the Borgo after a total of just a little more than an hour, but it was a great workout.
Christine was still pretty much asleep as having the shutters closed really kept the room dark–pretty good as it was well after nine. We got ready for breakfast and Gary was on his tatuffo mission. He was going to eat that truffle for breakfast no matter what.
Tartuffo man loves truffles
He wanted us all to smell it after he cleaned it. “Look at this! I think it’s a truffle scraper!” he exclaimed as he was looking through the kitchen drawer. At breakfast he got a knife from the server and proceeded to thinly slice the truffle which he then put on the top of a hard boiled egg. I even tried one and it really had surprisingly NO flavor. Now we’ll just wait to see if we keel over or anything.
Tantalizing Taste of Tartuffo
We lingered a bit and talked with Patrick and his wife who we found out is named Andrea and then we came back past the lavender plant covered with bees and have been relaxing and writing and reading since about 10.
Relaxing in Villa Oliviera
We plan to leave about 12 and move over to Fattoria Tregole. The big question remains. Can we get all our stuff in the car?
Elena came by a little before 12 and I gave her my €80 for last night’s dinner and I got her to give me one of the recipe books that Peggy had. We packed and loaded up and somehow we did get it all into the car. Peggy and my suitcases from Costco did fit between in the back seat. Christine and Peggy sat in the back with Christine on the right and Peggy on the left. We headed out at almost exactly 12 and went on the dirt road toward Monti as we wanted to get some phone numbers to call about the properties we had seen there. The shortest route to Castellina was to take the dirt road by San Santo, but we quickly realized and Peggy demanded that we only drive on paved roads the whole way there. It was tough for Gary but he finally resigned himself to the idea that dirt was out! After getting our info in Monti we headed to Castillina via Radda and it really went quite quickly.
Fattoria Tregole near Castellina
We got to Tregole, which is about 4.5 K from Castellina, right around 1:30. We knew that check in wasn’t until two and Edith wouldn’t be back until then, but one of the workers let us in and showed us to our rooms. Gary and Peggy took the one down stairs with the sitting room and we went up to the smaller one with the Jacuzzi and the squeaky bed. It would be great because it will be darker and easier to sleep in I think.
Lunch at Il Tinello
After we got settled in we went to a restaurant called Il Tinello right on the 222.
Ummm Ummm Good
We almost left when the waiter got a little weird when we asked to move into the shade, but it turned out all right except for the two times the wind came up and blew water onto Gary’s back from the tent above. It was pretty crazy really.
The food was spectacular though Peggy had the Bambardone con Melanzane e Provola which was pasta with aubergine and soft cheese; Christine had the Penne Tinello with panna, piselli, funghi, proschutto and crema tartuffo which was pasta with cream, cheese, peas, mushrooms, ham and truffled cream.
Penne Tinello with panna, piselli, funghi, proschutto and crema tartuffo which was pasta with cream, cheese, peas, mushrooms, ham and truffled cream.
I just had a big bruschetta and Gary had a big meat and cheese tray. We had three cappuchinos and an expresso and the bill came to €35 each.
When we got back, Edith was there and we checked in, paid and got a whole bunch of great travel information. The billed amount for four nights was €530. So apparently this will be cheaper for four nights than three at the Borgo. There was an initial problem at first when Edith claimed we were supposed to arrive yesterday, but we got it worked out when Gary showed her the emails we have. She had tons of great information and she helped us get a good handle on what we are going to do while we are here. We also plan to have dinner here on Friday night after going to Vignamaggio in the morning, Lamole for lunch, Tenuda Ricosoli and Greve in the afternoon.
After we got back to our rooms Christine and I took naps and Gary took a dip in the Tregole pool.
Quick Trip to Siena
We left Peggy and Christine to read and relax and we decided to head out on a new adventure. At first I thought we’d do a couple of wineries, go into Castellina and maybe be done with it, but we decided to see how long it might take to get to get to Siena instead. The sign said it was only 14K away but Edith said it would take about a half an hour to get there. We figured it all out quite easily and by God’s grace even found a place to park pretty close to Il Campo near the Fortezza. Gary asked one guy and got us pointed in the right direction and after about 100 meters I saw the little bus station area where Christine and I had been in 2003 when we took that van tour of Chianti. So I immediately was pretty sure I knew where Il Campo was and how to walk there. Even though Il Palio was three days earlier the streets were still pretty crowded. Too many ill clad teenagers. It seems all the streets in that area will get you to Il Campo especially if you keep walking down. Soon I saw a set of stairs which turned out to lead right to the center of Il Campo.
Jim on Il Campo
My original interest was to see if the dirt from Il Palio was still there but it wasn’t. for some reason I am very fascinated with this place, probably because it looks nearly exactly as it did 500-600 years ago. Seeing Il Palio is definitely on my list of “things I came close to doing that I never quite got to do but still really want to” list. We took a couple of pictures and then got out of there and back to the car. Gary figured out that you had to pay your parking fee at this little booth we had passed earlier before you tried to exit (just like we had done in France). The cost turned out to be €1.60. We easily figured out how to wind our way out of the lot and then headed out of town. Gary was positive he knew where to go but as we funneled down the hill nothing looked familiar and I thought we were heading for Rome. Eventually with the help of the map we got on the A2 to Florence wich eventually connected with the 222 the famed Chiantigiana. Also as a bonus we had passed by all the Siena traffic so we got back to Tregole pretty quickly.
Sunning near the Pool
Immediately after getting out of the car we hear Christine and Peggy laughing, we thought at us, but actually they were laughing at the sun chairs they were setting in. They have cute little pieces that could either be sunshades or head rests. We figured they had to be sunshades if they were positioned just right, We sat out there with them, positioning our chairs right next to the edge to get the best of the spectacular view.
Gary mentioned something about seeing birds and in a moment a hawk of something soared by at eye level. We went back in and got that bottle of wine that Marta from Isolde e Elena had given us that was made by her son and they sat and enjoyed it.
Dinner at Antica Tratoria La Torre.
It was already about 7:15 so we went back in and got ready for dinner which was scheduled for 7 at Antica Tratoria La Torre.
We had a little trouble finding a place to park. For a moment we thought we had a good one but it was right next to the police station. We finally found a bunch of parking down the hill which worked out great. Most of these towns have plenty of parking you just have to find it and walk a bit. On the walk up we found the wine shop where Gary bought the little glass wine jug in 2005. We thought we were eating out side, but it really was in a tent attached to the front of the restaurant. We had a reservation made by Edith and were seated right away
Gary had a Caprese and also the best proschuitto and melon ever.
Christine had a bread salad and a crunchy polenta dish with mushrooms. I had a dish with pasta and veal and pork sauce. Peggy had the chinghale with papperdelle much like I had at Rana in San Santo. The most amazing thing though were the fresh porcini mushrooms. They were advertised as a special in the front of the meny. Before they were cooked the waiter (Italian Pee Wee Herman) brought them out to show them to us. (Christine had this once before at Il Ritrovo in Florence). Really one of the most amazing flavors ever. Grilled with olive oil and salt and pepper. Amazing. For dessert we had the tiramisu and it had little crunchy chocolate balls which made it a little different. We had espresso and capucinno-another amazing meal although it too forever to get the conto. I think we paid about €36 total for each couple.
As we walked out of the tent we saw a sign for a free admission to the Museo Archeologico del Chianti Senese for what I think was called Le Notti dell’Archeologia which my guess id various museums around Tuscany offer free admission on specific nights. This was a nice little one that gave us a good intro to the Etruscans in Tuscany. We were there a good half an hour and then strolled around Castellina. There was a very cool walk that allowed you to walk in the actually city walls in a kind of tunnel. And there we found the restaurant Al Gallopappa that we had been hearing about and reading about. By the time we got back to Tregole it was probably after 11.
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