they're a great cultural experience!"
In researching activities for her days in Italy, Mary McAndrew discovered that on Thursdays, the nearby town of Montepulciano has its Market Day. Since tonight is the night she and Paula, Jesus & Gladys and I are preparing dinner for our Week 1 friends, we decided to venture over to Montepulciano and check out the market. (Hank & Carolina were heading to Castiglion del Lago and Cortona; Skinners, Beaulieus, Gladys & Jesus to Civita di Bagnoregio for the day.)
At the market, we found some very good buys on beautiful fresh asparagus, green beans, red peppers,
cherries, apricots, lemons, biscotti and more. If we'd needed them, we could have ALSO purchased kitchen & cleaning supplies, dog food, shoes, clothing or furniture ... they had it all! There was also a long line of really interesting food trucks ... more sophisticated than the ones we have in Raleigh: Their entire sides folded down to display a wide variety of cooked foods such as you might see in a cafeteria! At the end of our market shopping, we tried to get into someone else's black SUV ... but the Italian owner came by, smiled at us and was very pleasant in the face of our embarrassment. (Our black rental car is constantly covered with serious dirt and dust from driving on Tuscany's "white roads"!)
Situated close to the market, we found a brand new CONAD super mercado where we each rolled a little orange plastic basket around and collected the rest of the items needed for our dinner. Fun to run into our friendly La Porta waitress Cristina in the meat department! As we were heading back to Sassaia, we stopped to check out Castelluccio, the castle formerly owned by La Foce 's Origo sisters, but recently sold and undergoing renovation to become a luxury hotel! Also stopped to fill the car with (diesel) fuel ... always an "interesting" experience. The gas station was closed, but a friendly Italian man offered assistance, donning a disposable clear, plastic glove, filling our tank, using Paula's credit card to make the payment. All the while, his young son smirked at the scene from the back seat of their car ... perhaps his Dad frequently helps out clueless Americans! Also stopped to visit the beautiful little family cemetery on the La Foce grounds where Iris & Antonio Origo and their young son are buried, along with other family members and workers from the La Foce estate.
Paula suggested that we stop for lunch at La Foce's little restaurant Dopolavoro (which means "after work" ... it used to be the La Foce social hall for the farmers and their families in the 1920's & 1930's). We sat outside in their lovely courtyard and our waiter was the very friendly and always-smiling Filipo who remembered us from 2015. Yummy salads with Bibb lettuce, pine nuts, pecorino cheese, raisins ... and then we were off to Sassaia to begin our dinner prep.
As I prepared the Chicken Francese, Mary prepped the fresh veggies and smashed potatoes and made a lovely wildflower arrangement. Paula set a beautiful table and an hors d'oeuvres tray of Italian meats, cheeses & fruit to take down to the pool. We also made a pretty Caprese salad and Jesus & Gladys brought extremely delicious chocolate and fruit tarts for dessert.
After dinner, I walked outside to see the sunset, took a walk around the grounds, sat down at the outdoor table to check my emails. I was sitting there, gazing up at our pretty farmhouse ... when suddenly ALL the lights in the house went OUT! Oh, oh, I thought ... THIS is a problem. All three of our resident engineers (Mike, Lary and Hank) came pouring out of the house ... heading for the various fuse boxes located around the exterior. Since the internet router went out with the electricity, we couldn't call Lorena to ask for help. Jesus, Hank and I drove over to Dopolavoro where the very kind manager, Asia, dispatched the maintenance man who flipped a hidden breaker switch ... but as soon as he left the property, OUT went the lights again! In the end, it was Mike Skinner, fix-it-guy extraordinaire, who solved the problem ... disconnecting a floor lamp that seemed dangerously hot and had been tripping the circuit breakers. Yeah, Mike .... and mille grazie!
At the market, we found some very good buys on beautiful fresh asparagus, green beans, red peppers,
Situated close to the market, we found a brand new CONAD super mercado where we each rolled a little orange plastic basket around and collected the rest of the items needed for our dinner. Fun to run into our friendly La Porta waitress Cristina in the meat department! As we were heading back to Sassaia, we stopped to check out Castelluccio, the castle formerly owned by La Foce 's Origo sisters, but recently sold and undergoing renovation to become a luxury hotel! Also stopped to fill the car with (diesel) fuel ... always an "interesting" experience. The gas station was closed, but a friendly Italian man offered assistance, donning a disposable clear, plastic glove, filling our tank, using Paula's credit card to make the payment. All the while, his young son smirked at the scene from the back seat of their car ... perhaps his Dad frequently helps out clueless Americans! Also stopped to visit the beautiful little family cemetery on the La Foce grounds where Iris & Antonio Origo and their young son are buried, along with other family members and workers from the La Foce estate.
Paula suggested that we stop for lunch at La Foce's little restaurant Dopolavoro (which means "after work" ... it used to be the La Foce social hall for the farmers and their families in the 1920's & 1930's). We sat outside in their lovely courtyard and our waiter was the very friendly and always-smiling Filipo who remembered us from 2015. Yummy salads with Bibb lettuce, pine nuts, pecorino cheese, raisins ... and then we were off to Sassaia to begin our dinner prep. 
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| Cozy Sassaia ... before the lights went out! |
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