Letter from Firenze

Thursday 16 October 2008
The days are all blending together - where am I again? I didn't get in contact with Wendy. I rang about four times and left messages - the first time it obviously got passed on to the wrong person on the tour - so in the end I left it. I guess she would be very busy anyway.

Tuesday I went on my tour of Brunello country with Angela. What a fabulous day. 

Montalcino

There were only three of us on the tour with Angela, our guide. We went to two small wineries, the first owned and run entirely by women Prime Donne where we tried three different reds - the rosso di Montalcino was nice and their Brunello was a standout. Unfortunately, I didn't buy anything ‘cos it would be too hard to get home. Next, we visited another small winery, I think it was called like Piombaia, and there we had lunch. 

Lunch at Piombaia

Wow, what a lunch, it was the best food I have tasted in Italy so far. Platters of prosciutto, salame, bruschetta, a black cabbage leaf with ricotto and truffle mixture, tomato and mozzarella, onion pie and more. For desert we had semi-fresh and aged pecorino with chestnut honey, pear and quince jam, spectacular! Then, we had biscotti and meringue. We tried two wines with lunch. One is a quick-drink red - very young, called Black Cat (Gatto Nero) and the other a Brunello, which was absolutely wonderful. 

Piombaia wines

We then had caffe. What a fabulous time. From there we went to Sant'Antimo monastery just in time for the monks' chanting. This is a beautiful monastery - a working one too, they even have their own wine label. 

Sant'Antimo 

Next we had a visit to the town of Montalcino. The scenery along the way was wonderful, changing from each district. My photos definitely will not do it justice. Angela was a terrific guide - really friendly and knowledgeable. Coming home, she dropped me off just a five-minute walk from the apartment.

Wednesday - well, it kind of drifted though I was dead tired at the end of the day. I took the No.13 bus up to Piazzale Michelangelo - much easier than walking. I met some Americans halfway down and told them the bad news - they had a long climb ahead of them. I was really lucky I had already been up there and got my photos ‘cos Wednesday was dreadful, I think there were fires about, the smog was awful, so the views weren't much. I also visited Santa Maria Novella church and cloisters - very beautiful church. In the room where they sold postcards I bought one of that particular room and asked the man serving me if I was correct. He asked me if I liked the room and I said that it was beautiful. He walked over to these humungous cupboard doors and opened one for me. Inside were gold and silver busts, monstrances and other religious objects. He did it just me for me! Isn't that amazing?

I started off slowly today and got to the train station too late for a train to Pistoia. Instead I took the little electric bus to Santa Croce to do some banking. There is a Marino museum there – and a friend once bought me a framed print of “Horse and Rider”, so I wanted to visit the museum .So with Pistoia the backburner I went shopping - yes, I know, girls and boys you don't believe me. I took so long in one shop the girl told me it was okay as they were open until 7pm that night (it was only about 3 in the afternoon). The lingerie here is fantastic and some of the shoes are pretty speccy too but the prices - oh, oh and oh!

I went out to Da Ginone for dinner again last night with the best part being the dolce - chocolate and pear torta. I had pappardelle and wild boar sauce that didn't do much for me – I thought the taste pretty ordinary and it was a bit tough. For my primo, I had ruccola, grana (cheese) and pinenuts - that was pretty good. Week 2 is coming to an end and I still haven't visited the Duomo of Florence but have pretty much covered all else, although must see Uffizi again.

Oh, PS - went into the food markets today. Just too, too big for me, my brain went into meltdown. Meat, cheese, wine, oil, fruit, veg, everything everywhere. I was going to taste some balsamico,15 yrs old, then I saw that the miniature bottle cost 30 euro, that is $50, for a teeny weeny bottle.