Sunday
Sunday Morning: More shots are fired. There goes another one, followed immediately by a church bell and a chain saw. Symphony of sounds. We picked up a friend at Pisa airport in the late afternoon and had dinner at La Brilla again.
Saturday
Saturday: Two friends left for the Chianti region yesterday morning, another friend arrives this afternoon in Pisa from London.
It’s quite cold at night and I can’t figure out how to light the pilot light for the heating system, which seems to shut down nightly around 8PM. I love sleeping in cold rooms, but waking up in them is not so nice. The caretaker came by to re-light the pilot and brought me a bottle of olive oil made from the olive trees on the hill behind the house.
Made Spaghetti Carbonara for dinner. Amazing how long food stays hot here – compared to Santa Fe’s elevation at 7,500 ft. (2,286 m) above sea level.
Thought about Italian cuisine and what I like about it. I love that the cooking highlights the freshness of the ingredients as opposed to spices and sauces. Beans are served with a little olive oil, meats have a little lemon juice on them etc. Compare that with French, Chinese, or Mexican food. Chinese food is all about making lower quality meats taste better with sauces and spices. I was told the same is true for French food. Paris was a long way from the farms and slaughterhouses before refrigeration and even further from the sea. The wonderful French sauces were invented to hide the taste of meat that might have been a little less fresh…
Here in Tuscany nothing needs to be hidden as everything is fresh.
Friday Morning
Friday morning. Yesterday we had lunch in Lucca at a restaurant I walked into by chance 9 years ago. It apparently has been written up in several guidebooks now and one hears more English than Italian. The food is still quite good though. Afterwards coffee and a stroll in Forte dei Marmi, followed by watching the sunset from the pier. The sun fell into the Mediterranean and lit up the mountains in the East. Beautiful.
Small is beautiful
Check out these little cars. None of them available in the States, but maybe that will change now?
Thursday Morning
Thursday Morning. The house’s four bedrooms are full. I am up first and make the first pot of stove top espresso. Shots ring out – I think it is hunting season as I have heard shots every morning. There cannot be much wildlife hiding in these wooded hills anymore.
More friends arrived last night from Florence and 6 of us had a fabulous dinner at Osteria La Brilla, the restaurant of Villa La Bianca. This restaurant is a member of the slowfood association, symbolized by the snail. It means that everything is prepared fresh. Nothing is pre-made. Who cares if it takes a little longer when you are in good company and you have a few bottles of fabulous local wine. I forgot to take some photos, but we will be back during the next couple of weeks. Another shot, this one sounding fairly close.
I stayed at Villa La Bianca in 2002. A former factory has been beautifully restored into a bed and breakfast by a group of local people. Highly recommended.
Today is the first morning I did not wake up to lots and lots of rain. Shopping awaits in Lucca as I only have one pair of socks and discovered a hole in one of them yesterday. Maybe a new pair of shoes as well. I have only one pair of M3dium shoes, and the leather is drenched from four days of rain. Boom, another shot. Sounds amazing in these hills. 7 shots before 8AM. Did I mention we have a blue sky and sunshine?
