Fall 2021- Day 12

Where do I start?

I guess how I do everyday... with cappuccino & croissant. This time at the train station. We had to catch an 8a train to Castelfiorentino to meet cousins. So now I've got to learn how to say that in Italian so I can explain to my friends at the Cafe tomorrow why I missed our breakfast date today.

It's about a 45 minute train ride through some pretty landscapes, so it went quickly. I have to stop here and tell you something before I recap the day... Our Italian family is wonderful! They are so loving, welcoming, accommodating, and just absolutely fantastic! I love them all so much!

From Castelfiorentino we took a drive to San Gimignano, which is a medieval hilltop town with many towers. It felt like we'd gone back in time about 600 years. What an adorable little town, and oh my goodness, the view!

Bellisima Vista!

Roberta, the mother of Frank's cousin Linda lives there and she and her brother run a shop with meats and cheeses. The brother gave us both a large piece of parmeggiano reggiano, which is pretty much edible gold. My family being from Wisconsin, I'm accustomed to good cheese. The best cheese I've ever had until now was 15 year old aged cheddar that melted on your tongue and was so rich you only needed one bite. That cheese costs about $30/lb. This cheese was similar in richness and bring-tears-to-your-eyes delicious, but it was different in that the cheddar just tasted like cheddar (amazing cheddar, but just cheddar), and this had so many flavors going on. It was almost like when people describe local honey, and say they can taste all the flavors of the regional flowers that the bees used to make it. I could taste all the flavors of the region that went into making this cheese. So so delicious. I have no idea what this cheese costs, but I'd give them all my money for some any day of the week.

Roberta also gave us some sandwiches to share. They had porchetta in them, which is the local specialty - it's pork butt or pork loin roast (depending on fat content), sliced into deli cuts. So you get the richness of the fat and the flavor of the meat and spices used to roast it. I believe there was a little bit of mayo on it, but nothing more, and it was served on a giant brioche roll that was in and of itself delicious. I am amazed at how good these sandwiches were, and a little ashamed at how busy we make our sandwiches in the states, instead of just relying on the combination of good ingredients and natural flavors.

Before we left, we stopped in to a little Cafe for some coffee. They make these gorgeous cakes there and had some fun ones for Halloween, so I took pictures for y'all.

From San Gimignano, it's about a 20 minute drive to another hilltop fortress town called Monteriggioni. The town limits now extend down to the base of the hill (or maybe they always did, I'm not sure), and we stopped at this adorable restaurant called Bar Dell'Orso (Bear Bar) for lunch. We all shared a meat and cheese plate to start, and this one came with a small bowl of apricot preserves, and a larger bowl with sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. I love sun dried tomatoes and I can typically take or leave artichoke hearts, but not this time. The tomatoes were delicious as always, but the artichokes were amazing! I typically find them to be a bit sour, and tough in texture. These were neither - they were light, creamy, and full of flavor! I was told that the preserves were to be spread on the cheese, and typically I'm not a fan of sweet mixed with savory, but this combination was amazing. The flavors complemented each other so well, but also enhanced the flavor in the other.

We all had pasta, each with a different sauce, but the pasta was house made and the type was called pici, which is a variety native to Tuscany. It's like very thick spaghetti-about the thickness of a drinking straw (more or less), and while of course, the sauces were amazing, this pasta added so much to the dishes. It's thickness gives it a soft, chewy texture, and because it's thick, you taste so much of the flavor of the pasta instead of it simply serving as a bed/carrier for the sauce. With the meal we had the Casa Rossa (house red wine), and it was one of the best wines I've ever tasted. You don't typically get a description of the house wine, so I couldn't tell you what it was but I'm pretty sure it was a sangiovese based on the flavor, and I can definitely tell you it was fantastic. Two thumbs up for Bar Dell'Orso. Add it to your list.

After eating we had coffee (espresso-here the stuff we refer to in the states as coffee doesn't exist. The closest you can get is what they call "Caffe Americano", which is a shot of espresso with hot water added. Here, coffee in any form starts and ends with a shot of espresso), and I learned a new term... Caffe corretto. Directly translated, this simply means corrected coffee, but what it means here is coffee with a little alcohol in it.

Italians take digestion very seriously, and they have lots of traditions /rituals /etc. to aid in this. One of these is a selection of liqueurs referred to as digestivo. Typically a meal is followed with a coffee and a shot of one of these. I opt for sambuca, because to be honest I don't love any of the others - they're typically bitter. Sambuca tastes like black licorice, so it's pretty tasty.

A few nights ago, it struck me that the combination of espresso and sambuca might be a good one, so I tossed a bit of the latter into the former and I really liked it, so I've done it every night since, but on the sly when no one was looking so I wouldn't be deported for breaking a food rule. Turns out, I could have been ordering my coffee this way the whole time by simply saying caffe corretto con Sambuca, because that's a thing... So now I don't have to worry about getting deported and I can enjoy my Sambuca in my coffee from here on.

Also with our coffee we were treated by the family to Vin Santo e cantucci (like mini biscotti). Buono.

After lunch, we headed up the hill to Monteriggioni proper, and again were treated to the most amazing view. Here's where I ran into trouble in true Krista fashion...

Frankie has this amazing translator he brought. It's got two buttons - you hold one side down and speak in English and it says what you said into it out loud in Italian. The other button does the opposite. What I wanted to say to the family was "this is a magical place!", which is what I said into the stupid machine, but when it was spoken back by the translator they had very puzzled looks on their faces.

They asked where (dove), Frankie said Monteriggioni, and I said actually really, all of Tuscany. They looked very relieved and all agreed that Tuscany is magical, and I handed Frankie back the translator.

Puzzled by the interaction, he looked at the translator, and what it heard me say (and the message conveyed to the family) was "crystal meth is a magical place!" Oye. Vey. How embarrassing...

So we had to immediately correct this and explain that the translator heard me wrong, and tell them what I really meant to say.

We all had a good laugh and now at least they don't think I'm a Meth addict or drug dealer trying to sell Meth to them by describing how wonderful/magical it is...

From Monteriggioni we went on to Siena and spent about 4 hours literally getting lost there. The first place they took us was the main square, where every year they have a horse race called the Palio. We've seen a few shows about it (of course Rick Steves has done an episode or two about it, among others), so we knew a little. It goes back to the late 1500s. Siena is divided into 17 wards (Contrade), so each year there are 10 entrants- the 7 who did not get to run in the previous year's race and 3 additional chosen by lottery. The race is held twice /year in July and August. Something very unique in all of horse racing about this race - whatever horse finishes first wins, regardless of rider. And this happens more than you might think because the race is bareback so people fall.

The one thing we've never really quite understood is why it's so dangerous. It's not uncommon for horse and/or rider to be injured (sometimes gravely) during this race, but other races don't seem to have this issue.

One look at the Piazza del Campo and we understood why. It's huge - definitely big enough for a horse race, but it's on a ridiculous incline-the top section is about 10.5 degrees higher than the bottom. Additionally, it's not perfectly round, and has 2 very sharp turns. I've provided a description in the pictures which I got from Google.

As with so many other things on this trip, you have to see it in person to really grasp it. This race is crazy and the people who run it are crazy and I want to come back here and see it!

From there we walked on to the duomo (in Italy, cathedrals are universally referred to as the Duomo of whatever town they're in, for obvious reasons...). It's similar in color scheme to the Duomo in Florence, and beautiful in it's own right, but I still prefer Santa Maria del Fiore.

We started to head back to where we parked (about 3 miles from the Duomo and through many winding roads of a town built and designed to make it difficult to find and keep your bearings), and soon got lost. Lol

After asking a few people for directions back to the street we parked on with mixed and confusing responses (I don't think the locals keep their bearings much better than visitors), we finally got smart and retraced our steps from the Piazza del Campo, and were soon back on track. We stopped off for aperitivo near the car before heading back to Castelfiorentino. Once there we visited our cousin Linda's house and met her beautiful children, Vittoria e Gregorio. They are very excited for Halloween, and Gregorio was eager to show us all the spooky decorations he had.

After that, we went with Alessandro (Linda's father) to see his home in a tiny town called Castelnuovo that is picture perfect - I swear the place is fake. Disney wishes they could create a place so adorable (pictures below-Alessandro knocked on the brick walls to prove to me it was real and not a movie set).

Alessandro lives in a house attached to the local church (it was previously the convent), and he's just had it renovated. It's so beautiful and we were very happy to be able to see where he lives.

Alessandro saved us from a late train ride back to Florence and drove us instead, gifting us at the end of a perfect day with a set of three bottles of wine - two bottles were a wine native to the region of San Gimignano. It's called Vernaccia, and is neither a white nor a red, but a gold. According to Google it's dry, and to be served chilled. I can't wait to try it! The third was (of course) a bottle of Vin Santo.

My knees hate me and I may never walk again, but if I don't, that was a perfect last day of walking.

Much like Crystal Meth, Tuscany is a magical place! Lol