A fantastic vineyard where we went for a "tasting" and were treated to a 6-course Italian feast with LOTS of wine!
Nectars of the Gods? You bet. Especially when you are staying in a rustic B&B on an organic vineyard in the hills of Tuscany. Which is what we did last May. They made their own wine, olive oil and honey on site, and we consumed generous quantities of all 3. I will never forget those tastes: straight from the rich, green countryside. Now that the brief warm spell in Colorado has vanished and we are once again plunged into low temperatures of 18 degrees and highs in the windy, chilly 40’s, I’m dreaming of Italy more than ever.
It is truly the land of food and wine. Olives, kale, artichokes, rosemary, lavender, fennel, thyme, basil, tomatoes. And that’s just what was growing in people’s gardens and out of the cracks in their country roads. In May. The actual cooking there was a daily revelation for me. How just 3-4 ingredients could taste so incredible is still something I marvel at. The rich soil, sun, and – must be – all that love really do create foods so innately luscious and dripping with flavor that they need no further embellishment. In Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun, she has two chapters of ultra-simple, elegant recipes that I fell in love with as I was both eating and reading about the native cuisine – things like marinated bell peppers or a basic polenta. It doesn’t get much easier than that, and it sure doesn’t get any better.
An old stone wall along a Tuscan roadside. I found fennel, thyme and other herbs growing in between these stones. It was like walking through a giant pantry!
Just a few of the typical Italian goodies lining the shop windows in towns.
The drive leading to our old stone house B&B on an organic vineyard, 5 miles up a long hill from the town of Greve in Chianti.
What would a visit to Italy be without gelato? The incredible flavors tasted as fresh and tangy and luscious as they looked.
Most of our days consisted of walking for miles through countryside like this, eating unbelievable food, and finally collapsing into an exhausted heap at night.
A touristy food shop in San Gimignano. The Italian wild boar is the source of some supposedly incredible 'salumi,' though I did not consume any myself.
I think more food blogs should focus on settings - where food is eaten. This picture is one reason why. We ate dinners and liberal quantities of red wine, cheese and salumi here with a view of the distant hills and sunsets. I have to pinch myself sometimes to remind myself it really happened...
Here's one of those sunsets, as seen from our dinner table.
The extremely charismatic Sienese pig - the source of some very fine prosciutto.
Parting shots, for now: produce at the Saturday market in Greve...
...and il Duomo in Florence, under construction, at night. Not a postcard shot but worthy of my wonderful memories nevertheless.
Green Colander 