Tuscany Travails continued....
We spent the next few days exploring Tuscany in the Bambino and relaxing. A couple of games of golf, four course meals of home cooked pasta and other delicious food at the Castello, wandering through the medieval villages that are scattered around, lazing by the pool, sampling the local wine and chatting with our hosts and comparing stories with fellow guests about how much we've eaten in the last week or so travelling in Italy.
Our hosts Beatrice and Andreas make it their mission to ensure everyone has the benefit of all their local knowledge; everything from the best restaurants around to where to park the car in Sienna to avoid high charges. Andreas is also a fabulous story teller (or loves to spin a good yarn as Aussies would say). For example... Al asked why their black dog is called Fetz. The answer began back in 1836 (I kid you not) with the formation of the Bersaglieri, a corps of the Italian army famous for running everywhere (i.e. instead of marching). We learned of their role in the First War of Italian Independence, through the First and Second World Wars, including some of the funding problems of the war effort, the role of the communists, and - with some further prodding and reminders - finally to their ceremonial uniform which includes a fez, or 'fetz' as it's pronounced in Italian. Seems this fez has a bunch of feathers or decoration that hangs down over one ear. Aha! And - you guessed it - the dog has one ear that's a bit more floppy than the other. The story spanned several centuries and a bottle and a half of rose´.
The sort of thing that probably drives his three sons crazy but makes for a fascinating few days as a visitor.
Incidentally, Al asked Andreas what he did for a living before running the BnB. We were there for a week and never got to the end of the story - I think the furthest we got was his father dealing with the Russians and the Italian government back in the sixties...still none the wiser as to Andreas...
Some of our highlights were drinking Nociello* on the terrace in the stunning Tuscan twilight, learning to cook an Italian meal and sharing it with Andreas and Beatrice, and simply driving the back roads of Tuscany and stopping for a wine tasting or wandering through a 600 year old village or enjoying a gelato.
But the best experience we had by far was a day organised by Andreas to visit his friend's winery. On our second night we met some fellow guests over dinner at the Castello (Aussies Melinda and Michael, and their two boys who all live in Bangkok). It took us about 3 minutes to collectively decide we liked the cut of each other's jibs, four minutes to join our tables together and within about 9 minutes we'd organised a wine and cheese tasting day together. From memory we may have already had a bottle of wine open at that stage as well.
The next day as we were undertaking the somehow challenging task of getting 7 of us into the family wagon, Michelle asked if the boys got car sick, to which Melinda replied cheerily, "Oh yes, Ryan does, every time - but it's OK, we just give him a bag". Alrighty then. So we set off with the family and Andreas for the 20 minute drive through winding country roads. And yep - the inevitable occurred. 'Tie the bag up, honey, and just hold it til we get there.'
At the Campriano vineyard we were met by Rannuccio, said friend of Andreas. We started with a visit to the beautiful Romaneseque church on his property, then into the wine cellar to explain production in 9,000 litre concrete barrels. We then sat down to a 'light lunch' of fresh wild boar (!) which they had shot the day before. We wiled away several hours as we chatted about everything from Italian bureaucracy to the 'great cold snap in 1985' that led to the loss of large numbers of 300 year old trees.
We then went on to a cheese maker where our lack of knowledge of Italian cheese was revealed as we thought there was only one type of Pecorino cheese. The lovely Vittoria tried to kill us with cheese, serving big hunks to taste of all the different pecorino cheeses: fresh, fresh with truffles, semi aged in walnut leaves, fully aged in a fridge, and fully aged in a cave. Then it was home to another 4 course meal of delicious home made pasta with calvo nero, crusted salmon for the next course and then 'chocolate salami' with home made ice cream.
She didn't have to wear those funny shoes - only the tourists
We were really happy to have gone wine tasting with Andreas, because one thing we discovered is that wine tasting in Tuscany is a little different to other parts of the world (We have invested many hours in the research of these traditions). Generally it seems that visits to wineries must be booked well in advance, and are often booked out by large bus tours. Not to be deterred we did manage to find a few roadside shops where tasting was possible, and did manage to try a few wines including Chianti (surprisingly, not bad), Nobile (quite nice) and the apparently famous Brunello (hmm, how can we say this politely on a public website...let's pretend I'm a dog and I'll say 'Ruf! Ruf!').
Feathers after a big day of tasting Chianti
Having said that, we did discover the best place for tasting on our last day in the region. Travellers Tip #103 for the wine lovers among you: head to Montepulciano. It is a gorgeous town (surprise surprise - tthe gorgous nature of every town in Italy started to grate after awhile) and it has loads of wine tasting shops including one where they have self serve wine tasting of about 50 different wines. Here's a picture of Al handing over the keys to the car...
Things we learnt:
- You can make liquor from just about anything, including 'Nociello', which is made from unripe walnuts picked on precisely 23rd June and soaked for 60 days on the balcony (this is not an official name, but Andreas' own special 'moonshine - see note above about Nociello)
- Ricotta is made from the whey and tastes amazing when truly fresh (Michelle may go into withdrawal next week without her morning ricotta fix)
- Italians are ridiculously generous when giving cheese tastings. I've never hit the wall with cheese before, not even in France.
- Sienese white bread has absolutely no salt as it is usually eaten with cheese and ham which are salty enough. The locals eat it dipped in red wine (or this may have just been Andreas pulling our leg)
- There is such a thing as eating too much Prosciutto (or it may have been the wild boar....)
- Every family used to have a few rows of vines for their own wine (Andreas' wine he laughingly called 'amusing', because it's basically undrinkable - so awful he needed to cut it with some strawberry grapes he also grows). These would be scattered through the fields of wheat (which were hand-harvested). The introduction of the wheat harvester in the mid 20th Century, whilst much more efficient, meant that the vines had to be pulled up due to the harvester not being able to get between the rows. This has changed the 'classic' Tuscan landscape, at least as Andreas remembers it.
Nocello!
Ridiculous songs heard on Italian radio
1. 'I Can't Feel My Face When I'm With You (But I Love It)'. Have you heard this song in your country?? Only in Europe, surely. Oh wait, turns out it's the 2015 summer hit by a Canadian band!!
2. 'Where Have All The Gay Guys Gone?' We have no further details on this song.