Here we are in Paris. The week at the villa was terrific, but we did not blog...we can sum it up in a few sentences: a lot of pasta, wine and gelato. We made daily road trips (and I mean down a dirt and gravel road to the main road and then about 50 kilometers a day at a minimum) in to the towns of Siena, Perugia, Deruta, San Giminagno and Radda in Chianti. We ate lunches, walked, saw Duomos and made purchases....pottery and purses. Our gelato choices ranged from wild berry to green apple to pear and peach. Ellen was partial to caffe and Isabelle to chocolate.
The true highlight of the week (as the temperature warmed from the 70's to the 90's) was the last night. We arrived home from Radda to a wine tasting by Emilio (Owner of the villa and vineyards who is also an protein chemist). And while we were wine tasting many of his fabulous wines the kids were all making pizzas in the pizza oven downstairs with "the pizza man". We never got his name, but were told by Emilio that he used to be one of the best chefs in all of Arrezo until he got head and neck cancer and lost all taste. The pizzas were brought into us periodically by Isabelle, Sarah and Emily. They were so simple and great: rosemary, tomato, lardon, zucchini and the last one: nutella!! What a great evening, but alas, all of us were too drunk to play one more game of dictionary. The villa was wonderful and large (essential for all 12 of us to co-exist) we were disappointed not to have use of the pool (the water never warmed up enough and there was no pool heater). But the villa itself was well equipped for all of us (including everyone practically having their own bathroom!).
Friday morning we woke up to a foggy sky that burned off quickly and the temperature rapidly rose to 90 F. We left for Florence at about 2pm and arrived in one piece at the hotel in about one hour. Marc dropped off the rental car (van...so glad to get rid of that huge thing we needed to manuever through the streets of italy!) The girls and I found the closest cafe we could (it was soo hot and we were thirsty and tired). We had a little lunch and a bottle of water and Marc met us. We walked back to the hotel via a bag store (both girls made purchases) and wandered around Florence in the heat....our train not leaving until almost 9:00, we needed to kill some time. We found a little place for dinner after awhile (one meal to the next) where the waitress could not have been ruder. She just couldn't understand that we wanted a bottle of water...no english at all? In the middle of Florence?? I had a farro salad and Marc had spaghetti and fungi. Em had gnocchi and Sarah had a caprese salad. We found a quiet, cool courtyard to relax in until it was time to go back to the hotel to get our luggage and a taxi to the hotel. We make it to the train station in plenty of time, but the train is going to be 35 minutes late in leaving. It's a secondary train station so there is no real place to sit and wait except right by the tracks. We sit on our luggage and feel like college students traveling through Europe. We watch other trains come and go and wonder which is our "sleeper car" we are a bit concerned, dubious that it is a cattle car for the next 12 hours. It finally arrives and we find our door. But our seats are not together..so the conductor person helps us switch so that we have two rooms adjoining (each with two bunks). The cabins are SMALL, but they have two bunks (one over the other), a closet, a sink and a place for shoes! We settle in: Marc with Em and Deb with Sarah. The girls watch three ILL episodes and we decide at about midnight to try to go to sleep. The train is noisy and has a lot of "turbulence" as Emily calls it. We wonder if we will be able to sleep?? Emily is on the top bunk, Marc on the bottom. Sarah and I cuddle in together on the bottom. I think we all sleep on and off throughout the night. It is very bumpy and lurches frequently. Then there are times that it is just sitting still. Sarah and I wake up at around 6:30 and open the shade to watch the small towns go by. We are all up by 8am and the conductor helps us fix the beds into seats. He also tells us that the train will arrive 2 hours late, at 10:30...which is actually better for us since we don't want to get to Paris too early. More about our arrival in Paris later....
The true highlight of the week (as the temperature warmed from the 70's to the 90's) was the last night. We arrived home from Radda to a wine tasting by Emilio (Owner of the villa and vineyards who is also an protein chemist). And while we were wine tasting many of his fabulous wines the kids were all making pizzas in the pizza oven downstairs with "the pizza man". We never got his name, but were told by Emilio that he used to be one of the best chefs in all of Arrezo until he got head and neck cancer and lost all taste. The pizzas were brought into us periodically by Isabelle, Sarah and Emily. They were so simple and great: rosemary, tomato, lardon, zucchini and the last one: nutella!! What a great evening, but alas, all of us were too drunk to play one more game of dictionary. The villa was wonderful and large (essential for all 12 of us to co-exist) we were disappointed not to have use of the pool (the water never warmed up enough and there was no pool heater). But the villa itself was well equipped for all of us (including everyone practically having their own bathroom!).
Friday morning we woke up to a foggy sky that burned off quickly and the temperature rapidly rose to 90 F. We left for Florence at about 2pm and arrived in one piece at the hotel in about one hour. Marc dropped off the rental car (van...so glad to get rid of that huge thing we needed to manuever through the streets of italy!) The girls and I found the closest cafe we could (it was soo hot and we were thirsty and tired). We had a little lunch and a bottle of water and Marc met us. We walked back to the hotel via a bag store (both girls made purchases) and wandered around Florence in the heat....our train not leaving until almost 9:00, we needed to kill some time. We found a little place for dinner after awhile (one meal to the next) where the waitress could not have been ruder. She just couldn't understand that we wanted a bottle of water...no english at all? In the middle of Florence?? I had a farro salad and Marc had spaghetti and fungi. Em had gnocchi and Sarah had a caprese salad. We found a quiet, cool courtyard to relax in until it was time to go back to the hotel to get our luggage and a taxi to the hotel. We make it to the train station in plenty of time, but the train is going to be 35 minutes late in leaving. It's a secondary train station so there is no real place to sit and wait except right by the tracks. We sit on our luggage and feel like college students traveling through Europe. We watch other trains come and go and wonder which is our "sleeper car" we are a bit concerned, dubious that it is a cattle car for the next 12 hours. It finally arrives and we find our door. But our seats are not together..so the conductor person helps us switch so that we have two rooms adjoining (each with two bunks). The cabins are SMALL, but they have two bunks (one over the other), a closet, a sink and a place for shoes! We settle in: Marc with Em and Deb with Sarah. The girls watch three ILL episodes and we decide at about midnight to try to go to sleep. The train is noisy and has a lot of "turbulence" as Emily calls it. We wonder if we will be able to sleep?? Emily is on the top bunk, Marc on the bottom. Sarah and I cuddle in together on the bottom. I think we all sleep on and off throughout the night. It is very bumpy and lurches frequently. Then there are times that it is just sitting still. Sarah and I wake up at around 6:30 and open the shade to watch the small towns go by. We are all up by 8am and the conductor helps us fix the beds into seats. He also tells us that the train will arrive 2 hours late, at 10:30...which is actually better for us since we don't want to get to Paris too early. More about our arrival in Paris later....
posted by csmcid at 10:49 AM
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