At home in Tuscany

Though we went on road trips galore during our 12 day stay in Tuscany, we did spend a few days closer to home in and around our villa in the little town of Montespertoli. You've seen some of it already, but even with all its challenges, it was a good home base. Every morning we had breakfast at the house before setting out for the day on our many adventures. Somehow, we didn't manage to discover the amazing world of espresso until 3 or 4 days before we left. Largely, this was because I was intimated by the espresso machine, and Geoff, not being a huge coffee drinker himself, was mostly just unaware of it. And so that left me to make American coffee almost each morning. In Tuscany. Which is so wrong somehow. I mean....when in Rome... (or Tuscany)...

So we finally discovered espresso. Our lives may never be the same. Now, we'd had it served to us at various restaurants and cafes during the trip, but to make it for ourselves...? Fortunately, my husband is a brilliant engineer. Not that it takes an engineer to run an espresso machine, but Geoff is so good at knowing how things WORK. He is incredibly gifted in that way, which has proved extremely handy in every possible way, from installing things around the house to knowing the best way to wind up your iPod headphones so they don't get tangled, and the espresso machine was a walk in the park for him. AND, we discovered that he loves espresso - even more than regular coffee. AND espresso proved to be the best way to get a little caffeine in the morning before setting out. Coffee, you linger and chat over. Espresso gets you going quickly when you've got to get on the road to an amazing Tuscan destination.


We occasionally had lunch or dinner at the house too. Which usually consisted of: wine, bread with olive oil, caprese salad and some sort of pasta bolognese (Geoff's favorite).


We even spend one day at the house just chilling out. We'd tried to go to a pool cause we'd had so many road trips and it was hot and we just wanted a day to relax. We tried the fancy pool, which was closed for the season (in the summer??) and then the town pool, which was packed and at which Geoff had no cell service, which wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't needed to be on call for work (which is a whole other blog), so we were stuck. I took control and determined that our day of rest would not be ruined, since i knew we could go home, where food and wine and bathrooms were accessible, sit in the front yard with our books and use the hose if things got hot. Genius plan. And it finally caught on. This is how we came to recognize that, one of the many amazing things I bring to the table in this marriage is the ability to come up with a Strong Plan B.


So we sat out in the yard, listened to music, read, ate lunch, drank a bit too much wine (the only downfall of my Strong Plan B) and enjoyed the day.


(Don't worry mom, we didn't really drink this many. Not in one afternoon, anyway.)

Keeping up with the Neighbors

In our welcome packet at the villa there was, as you can imagine, plenty of information about wine tastings and local vineyards. There was also a very interesting piece of news about one of our neighbors. Apparently, the guy up the street makes his own wine and will sell it to you for 4 euro with his own label, and 2 euro if we dont care about it having his label. And that this was a very cheap way to drink a lot of local Italian wine. Which of course, we intended to do.

One day we drove past the house and saw this lovely woman leaning in the window. She was amazing and I couldn't stop taking her picture. Even made Geoff back up so we could drive by and I could take more. Well, she caught us taking pictures, so Geoff very quickly turned it into us being interested in the wine. The lady of the house (not her friend whose picture I couldn't stop taking) said that yes, this was indeed the place where we could buy wine but that they were all out, and only had enough for themselves. She asked how much we wanted and we said just a bottle to try and she told us to come back in 45 minutes when her partner would be in from the fields and she'd ask him. First of all...he had to come IN FROM THE FIELDS. Which was so rustic and Italian and old school and "Little House on the Prairie" only better, we could hardly stand it. So we headed home and came back at the appointed time.

When we arrived and walked up to the window, the family was sitting down at dinner in the kitchen. The lady recognized us and greeted us, explaining that she'd told her partner about us and apparently he'd said that if the wife or the girlfriend was really pretty, he'd give us the bottles for free, but he wanted to see me first. (Made me wish I'd done my hair and put on some makeup). So he came over to check me out. He was probably in his late 60s easly 70s, thin, white hair, suntanned face and wearing a thin white tshirt and cut off demin shorts. I loved the look of him instantly. He took one look at us and started talking very quickly in Italian to the woman. Apparently he said Geoff was so handsome that was enough to get us the wine for free. Whew! Thank God for my gorgeous husband! Really takes the pressure off a girl. They asked if we wanted red or white and we said we'd love to try one of each if they could spare them. They did and we thanked them profusely and told them we were on our luna de miele (honeymoon). At that, the woman shared the news with her partner and promptly pushed another huge bottle of red wine into our hands and with a very knowing look told us to really enjoy ourselves.

It was by far one of the most memorable and just....really Italian-feeling moments of our trip. That and when another couple in the neighboorhood stopped us on our way back from the bakery one morning. They just stopped us to chat, even though they barely spoke any English at all. We had about a five minute conversation with them, even though neither of us really spoke the other's language. I think we talked about the weather and we told them we were on our honeymoon and they (we think) asked where we were from. It was completely lovely even though I mostly have no idea what they said. Another favorite Italian moment was when the guy at the gas station asked if we were on vacation, and we said, "si - la luna de miele" and he got very excited for us and wished us "multi figlio"- many sons. Please. Does it get better than that?

Anyway, back to the neighbors wine. We promptly went home and cooked ourselves some dinner at the villa. Geoff made a very impressive Caprese salad.


Geoff's reaction to just how good it was...

We had pasta bolognese and tried the neighbor's wine. This is my reaction.


We think maybe it had gone bad. We tried all three bottles, just in case it was a fluke thing. But all three were pretty bad. The only bad wine in all of Italy, I believe. But a great story.

Our favorite locals - Part 1

There were so many awesome people to take pictures of in Italy. Besides the amazing history and countryside, it was awesome to take pictures of the locals. It was maybe one of my favorite things to do.

You've seen some of them already....our waiter in Venice, the old couple on the bench in Bellagio, the lady at the bus station in Pisa. here are some more of our favorites. Furry, or otherwise....

This couple may well take the cake. There was a lot of looking out the window that happened in in Italy. We spied these two in Pisa...


This guy seemed to live on this bench outside a winery in Montespertoli just five minutes from our villa where we bought several bottles of wine and some lovely olive oil on our first full day there. I loved him.


I loved this couple at a cafe in Venice - they were making out long enough for me to take their picture several times.


This was in Lucca. This is the walkway across what used to be the moat around the city, I assume. Now it's all grass. Love this man in his suit. What amazed me most is that Italians walk around in three piece suits in the crazy heat and never seem to break a sweat. How do they make them that way? I don't get it.


Venice. Is it clear yet that I have a thing for older Italian men? I'd love to join these four for a cappuccino.


Possibly almost the same group of guys, but at the overlook in Monteione.


I mean, please. This was Montepulciano. On possibly the hottest day ever. And there he is, in his suit. Really enjoying some chocolate ice cream. And I'm really enjoying him.


A mom in Montalcino on her cell phone, tending to her baby in the stroller. Moms have to multitask in every country.


A leather vendor at an open air market in Florence.


More to come. We haven't even scratched the surface...

Our Italian Furry Friends

Anyone who knows us, knows how much we love animals. Well, our love affair continued in Italy with a few very special friends.

When we were in Tuscany, we found our way to the Castello Gabbiano, where our friend Robert Norman (more on him in another post) was going to be shooting a wedding. It was gorgeous (shocking, I know) and we were there at the perfect time of day.



As we looked around the place we met two dogs that we instantly fell in love with. One was super friendly and wanted to be our friend instantly. He had an injured back leg but that did not stop him from from bounding ahead and showing us the way. We named him Guisseppe.


His brother, who looked just like him, was much more introverted and extremely mistrustful of us. He didn't want to come anywhere near us, but barked up a storm because we were clearly SO dangerous. You could see it in his eyes - he was scared and slunk away from us every time we came near him. We named him Alfredo. He would not even let us take his picture. But we loved him in spite of all that.

Just because it wouldn't seem like a complete blog post if I didn't talk about food, I have to say that I had one of the best, if not THE BEST dish of my life at the ristorante at the Gabbiano Castle. It was an appetizer. Arugula, proscuitto, and some sort of pan-seared pecorino romano cheese.


I cannot even DESCRIBE how good it was. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, it was, after all, fried cheese. But not the dirty, plastic fried cheese of your average American chain food restaurant (which is wonderful in its own way, make no mistake). This was a clean, and complex fried cheese with layers and layers of subtlety. It was so good, it made me close my eyes. It was SO good that it caused us to coin a new phrase. Now, i am pretty expressive with my hands, as many of you may know. Apparently, when I tasted this dish, Geoff said that it made me "hang up the phone". I closed my eyes, and, with my hand mimicking a phone (with thumb & pinkie extended), i brought my hand up to the inside of my shoulder...making it look like I was hanging up the phone.

This picture illustrates, even though it was taken at another EXCELLENT meal in Cortona several days later.


Our other favorite friend was a cat that we named Luigi. I don't really even much care for cats in general but Luigi won me over. We came upon him in the tiny town of Monteione, which we stumbled into after striking out on spending a day by a pool (as the pool was "closed for the season" - since it was summer we didn't really understand that). We walked through Monteione and came upon Luigi, sitting in the middle of this tiny almost-piazza all by himself. He was slow and sleepy and Geoff decided he had a deep gravelly voice and a thick Italian accent (of course). We also discovered that Luigi loved to have his picture taken....

Walls and Towers

One of our first outings in Tuscany was to Lucca, about an hour away from our Villa. We weren't planning to go there, but changed our mind after a very persuasive discussion I had with Geoff's friend Tim on the dance floor at our wedding. I wasn't sure how much of the enthusiasm in his argument was because Lucca was just that awesome and how much was coming from the beer in his hand. Could have easily been either cause Lucca really was super cool.

Lucca is known best for the the walls around the old town remaining completely intact - unusual for cities in the region. As the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which encircled the old town, so there is this awesome road around the top of the walls, looking down on the whole old city.

We got there and found a restaurant for lunch - Lucca is also where the composer Giacomo Puccini (Madame Butterfly & La Boheme) was born - and our restaurant had a bit of a Puccini theme. And they brought out bread in cute little galvanized buckets, kind of like what our wedding favors were supposed to be in (potted basil, which represents love), until they were destroyed by the multiple thunderstorms. But that's another story.


After lunch we rented bikes and rode all around the city. Which was awesome. I felt very much like I was on an Italian honeymoon (which of course I was), but in the 1950s. We look lots of pictures.


I liked the bread in the window...

In one of the town's largest piazzas

Down a side street

Yet another side street - i like the bug.

Mrs. Boka & her bike

Riding around the tree covered road along the top of the walls of the city was a moment I will never forget. So amazing.


Since Pisa was close by, we popped over there for dinner. Like you do. Everyone had said that the Leaning tower of Pisa was kinda boring, but we actually thought it was really cool. And we got there when the light was awesome.

A building right next to the place we had dinner.

Another building that looked awesome in the light.

Magic hour. The tower is out of the frame, but directly to the right of this shot.

I loved this lady, checking the bus schedule

A budding photographer...

The tower itself...



As you can perhaps tell, we were pretty worn out by the time this shot was taken. It had been a full day - first Lucca, then PIsa...and even with a trip to the beach at Viareggio in between that I didn't even mention (maybe cause it was a little Atlantic City-ish and I got hot and cranky so we left pretty quickly). I was pooped. But what an AWESOME day.

A Villa in Tuscany

The next phase of our honeymoon happened in Tuscany. We'd rented a little villa (not the one in the picture above. Ours kind turned out to be more like a townhouse) and stayed for about 12 days. A totally different cultural immersion experience. Especially when we arrived, were let in by the owner's mother-in-law who spoke no English whatsoever and after she left, realized we had no idea where the town was or how to find a grocery store. Thank God for Nigel.

We were staying in the tiny town of Montespertoli, which is about 30 minutes southwest of Florence. Cute little town with standard winding streets. Our villa was cute too. Not quite what we pictured from the pictures online, but still quite nice.


Great little kitchen where we made breakfast every morning - usually fresh bread from the bakery down the street that we toasted in a toaster that played the Mickey Mouse theme song ("who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me..." etc etc) when the toast was done.


I noticed our feet in the reflection of the stove and snapped this picture. (I think technically Geoff did, since he had the better angle. and also, we've discovered I am better at composition - he's better at the technical part of it).


The house had a front patio and little enclosed back yard. We didn't spend much time out there since it was sunny and HOT every day and we were gone on road trips almost every day. But one day near the end of our stay it was a little cooler and I popped into the back yard one morning at breakfast and realized... all the flowers were dead. Now, we'd not been asked to water them (there was nothing in the welcome packet and no sign language from the woman who greeted us the first day indicated watering the plants), and just hadn't been out there to notice. But all of these gorgeous blooming plants (jasmine & hydrangea and roses and a ton of others i couldn't begin to tell you the name of) were all dried and shriveled up. So, completely guilt-ridden, I wrestled with the hose and tried to right the wrong. Too little too late I think. So, the moral of this story is that you ever ask us to house-sit, be sure to TELL us to water any plants that you would like to be living upon your return.



PS- Tuscany is beautiful. Clearly. We found a gelato place in town that we liked and a couple of restaurants. And the locals were SUPER picture-worthy all over Tuscany. How am I going to post about this place? There is so much to talk about!! Here are some pictures for now, all of which were taken less than five minutes from where we were staying...

These are Geoff's trees. So stinkin' cool loking. Cyprus trees along a hill top


Wheat field and general gorgeous country side


Vineyard between our villa and the bakery down the road


Someone else's villa - also ridiculously lovely