Wine, towers and confusion

This morning Travis had a rough start. He woke up at 5 a.m. But couldn’t go back to sleep, which worked in his favor because harvet was at 6:30 a.m. We slept in the Masini house, windows open and plenty of animal sounds and church bells to hear. Travis headed out to the vines and watched Francesco and his WOOFers (willing workers on organic farms) harvest. He torqued the vines and got to see the work being done to concentrate the grapes in the vine for the best production. I woke uo at 8:30 a.m, to a beautiful spread of breakfast that Maria (the mother of Cosimi Masini). She made us great espresso, toast fruit from the farm, jelly and jam, yogurt and a breakfast bread. We walked around the vineyard and wrapped up our stay with Francesco.

Off to San Gimiano!

San Miniato to Siena

The town if towers can be seen from a distance and too us about an hour to get to. Parking was full in a few lots but we turned around a few times to find parking. Once inside we walked around the town and took some pictures. We didn’t climb the tower as we wanted to give plenty of time to find Siena and our hotel. So we grabbed some pizza 3 slices (we were starving) and tried some world famous gelato. I had chocolate and hazelnut and Travis had tiramisu and chocolate chip.

Finding Siena wasn’t an issue. The issue was not having a good map to guide us to our hotel/parking. As we found parking we got out if the car and the thunder started to rumble. Travis spotted a magazine stand where we bought a map and promptly got confused. The streets have very long names and our map had shortened them. 😦 but Travis prevailed and got us to the hotel…..where we rang the bell to get in and arrived at a hostel. 5 flights up stairs. No owner to be found, but plenty of traveling students playing a dungeon and dragons kind of game. They recommended ringing a second bell outside to find the inn owner. So we did that, but no one answered. We rang again and a bald man approved us from the street asked us if we had reservations. We said yes and he let us in, perfect timing! Our room was downstairs from the hostel. We are in a 2 bedroom with a shared bathroom and hallelujah a hair dryer!

san Miniato

What a beautiful adventure! We’re sleeping in a million dollar villa, with a lamp shaped like a women’s chest.

View of San Miniato

The day started fairly early. The hot water in our hotel was out, so our clean up and travel time was significantly reduced! Our car rental at Hertz took some time to get to, but we were rewarded with a Fiat 500! Driving out of Florence was an experience that Travis can claim. It was hairy, wild and crazy as Italy is a speed culture and were zipping around in this tiny tiny car, going in roundabouts and getting on interstates. Our “never lost” GPS was aiming to get us very lost on our trip to Cosimo Maria Masini. With out our smart phones we had to find the winery the old fashioned way, with signs! We finally were able to figure where we missed a turn and navigated to the winery with some ease. We noticed the harvest in progress, and entered the tasting room with no one to be seen. We then drove to the “villa” where no one was seen either, however as we walked around we. Heard a woman singing. Travis popped his head in and found a lithe blonde woman who was so warm and welcoming. She mentioned our contact would be done with harvest at 2, and if ewe drove into San Miniato to have lunch we could arrive just in time to meet up.

Our view at the tasting table

View fromt the tasting table

We had a decent lunch at a American Bar, Travis and I both got a nicose salad.
We drove back to the winery and found Francesco, Travis’s contact. He said a group was coming for a tasting and tour, we could join them. The family was from the north east and had arrived to italy via cruise ship. They were very sweet and the youngest two were interested in wine. The parents didn’t drink, but were troopers and tried a few varieties. Once they left we sat on the porch of the tasting room and snacked on some amazing salami, cheese and bread. We sampled and drank the Nicole, Nichole, and the Matilde. From there Feancesco showed us to our rooms, which are era tally rooms in the winery owners mothers home. What a beautiful place. The interior is clean and filled with modern art, but the furniture is old world. A very interesting mix. The farm was started in the 1600. We don’t know how old the villa is, but there is no air conditioning. So we threw open the windows to let the cool air circulate. Our bed had mosquito netting, we’re hoping that will keep the bugs out while we sleep!

Francesco took us to a jewel of a restaurant. Casa masi, in a teeny tiny town. He knew the owner and her children. The restaurant was a nod to farmhouses in Tuscany, with well placed farm implements in the wall. It was very tasteful, felt warm, relaxing and inviting. For appetizers we had a misto plate which was a mix of turkey with truffles, prosciutto, fried bread, fried meatballs, pate and bruschetta in toast, polenta and a whole order of fried zucchini flowers. Next course was pasta, in which I ordered a pasta that was served in a hollowed bowl if Parmegano. Amazing! The pasta looked like fern fronds, that were in the verge of opening. Travis and Francesco had steak Florentine with a side if grilled vegetables and a salad. Francesco then drive us back to the villa where we promptly crashed!

Firenze

Today’s tarted at 10 a.m., completely by accident! We went to bed at 10 p.m. Last night, Travis slept through, but I woke up at 2 a.m. And couldn’t go back to sleep until 5 a.m. I never thought I could close my eyes and not wake up until 10 a.m.!

Yummers, panini for breakfast

Italians love their meat

Travis got the #1

We were off to a startled start. First order of the day was caffe(espresso) however, we needed more euro for this. So we did some checking and found a bank was located in the bottom of the train station next to out hotel. Once exchanged we were off to find lunch! We wandered to the Central Market.

Travis and I walked around, looking at all the amazing cheese, fish, pork, veggies etc. we finally had to stop for this salumari advertised a orgasmic sandwich. If your going to name a sandwich orgasmic it’s got to be good. I can say, procuisiutto, peppers, salsa Verdi, reduced basamic and amazing focaccia was and amazing deal. It started light.y drizzling. But we had appointments at the Gallery de Academia to see Michelangilo David. He was amazing, worth the admission in!

We then walked through most of the historic city center. Twice (almost) went in search of mystic Grom Gelatto, but couldn’t find it so we settled for gelato on the other side of the Arno River. We had some adventures trying to find the WC, twice. We killed some time by trying to find the Biboli Gardens. Then didn’t find the gardens. So headed to a bridge to people watch! After that was too much fun, we took sitting on a bridge to people watch. Discussed the importance that Italiana. En put on dress and character. It says a lot about their culture! After the people watching we headed to dinner at Il Livitanai. Their they provided us a Hefty plate of prosciutto, salami, and mortellaa. Followed by amazing pastas, ravioli stugged with spinach and cheese. Our meat portion came, full to the top with lamb. To finish off the meal we were presesed with all the desserts, from almond cake, to tuxedo cake to biscotti in vino, almond cake. We hobbled home, full and ready to start our next adventure.

Texas, Chicago, Frankfort, Florence!

Our departure and arrival to Florence has felt like one long day, when in fact we’ve spanned two days of travel. Our Flight from Austin was very comfortable, we had to say good bye to Texas by indulging in some BBQ from Salt Lick! From there to Chicago was a breeze, the pilot took us over the great lake before heading into the runway. Pretty cool to see all the sail boats in the harbor. Our 9 hours from Chicago to Frankfort were a little rough. It’s never easy to ask your body to sleep sitting upright. Although, to Travis’s credit, he did check to see what the upgrade to first class would cost. We couldn’t touch the $1,500 per person price tag. Lufthansa was the carrier from Chicago to Frankfort and Frankfort to Florence. Frankfort had a Beautiful airport, we were almost a little disappointed we didn’t have more time to explore it. Even the TSA agents were super pleasant!

A unique experience getting onto the plane at Frankfort, we were taxied almost out of the airport to get on a very small Lufthansa plane. We got to enter the plane from the tarmack, and got to breath in some sudo clean German air. Germany, we will be back!

Our arrival in Florence could not have gone smoother. Since we carried on our backpacks we didn’t have to wait for our luggage. We were able to exit the plane and follow the sings for (downtown bus). Travis and I had a frustrating experience in Barcelona finding the public transportation to the city center so I was sweating this experience. But it couldn’t have been easier. We exchanged some money from the airport exchange (yawza-those fees!) and paid the bus driver $6 euro per person for a billeto.
A short 15 minute drive brought us to the central train station where our hotel was 4 blocks away  . Travis grabbed the map and lead us straight to our hotel. Hotel Lorena, it isn’t anything fancy, but a great rate and a decent place to stay.

View out our window

Little restaurant below Hotel Lorena

Moped anyone?

We unloaded our bags and went in search of Pizza, of which there is no shortage of. It’s everywhere and on every menu.

First peek of the Duormo

First pizza of the trip!

My maiden nickname followed me!

Heaven in a bowl

Attempting a beautiful long exposure shot

No shortage of amazing churches

We settled into a cute restaurant that was a the east side of the duromo. We ate a bucket of mussels, OMG amazing! And split a pizza that had salami, peppers and whole olives. Had a glass of vino de casa (house wine) and laughed because Travis finally admitted that he felt like we were in Italy.  

It felt a bit chilly, so we ran to the hotel to get a jacket and then headed out to fine the Arno River. I lead us too far north! but when we finally got to the Arno it was beautiful and peaceful. Lights bank the pointe (bridges) and the street facing the river. It has a very magical look, especially with the crescent moon hanging over it. We picked up a scoop of Gelato and walked back to the hotel. Hopefully staying up until 10:30 p.m. Will help reset the alarm clock!

Learning the lingo

Thanks to our public library were able to use Mango Languages
, a program that is similar to Rossetta Stone. It walks you through short courses, repeating words and using critical thinking to combine words into sentences. As most Americans, I took Spanish in college but didn’t retain a lick of it.

My only hope is my talented husband who does have a knack for phonics will retain enough of our courses to get us through Italy. He has a leg up in the wine buisness, he is constantly learning the pronunciations of wineries, grapes and labels.

Take our two vinos were sampling this evening.

Yep, you got me. They are both red but come from the same producer.

So onto lesson 3 of Mango Languages tonight were learning how to say “hello, how are you sir/ma’am,” and how to ask “how are you?” And answer.

Our Favorite part of lesson two was they introduced the name Mark into the whole hello/good bye thing. So were assuming everyone is named “Marco” in Italy.

Wardrobe Planning

For some reason I can’t get enough of looking at travel blogs and seeing what people out in their suitcases. It is so interesting to me to find out what people list as their “I can’t leave home without”
-facial mist (really? Isn’t this accomplished by splashing your face with recycled water on the airplane….wait…maybe they have apoint)
-vega powder (because there is no way I can live life without a smoothie….hold up….there’s no real fruit in a McDonalds smoothie!?)
-passport holder (okay seriously, you travel so much you have to have a special holder? The sexy navy plastic like covering isn’t enough to keep the passport safe)
-dressing gown (for those of us who must exit the shower and enrobe themselves in the comfort of a plush robe that smells like home)

Obviously I can be swayed by others ideas of essentials. 😛

My other obsessive Pinterest searching involves packing luggage. Specifically backpacks.

My two favorite post has come from the Pleated Poppy
here

She has a similar taste in coloring/pattern selection that I do and some of her pieces or from H&M and Target (woot woot). Or body types are different I.e. I will be swapping her skinny jeans for my gap boot cut ones ’cause I feel like a ice cream cone in a skinny jean.

Below are a few scores I found at the outlet mall on Saturday and pairing with some bottoms to figure out how many items I can re-wear and repurpose. I am no fashion diva, so laying out all my clothing helps me to get a better idea of what items I am missing and what I still need to purchase.

Bought the white sweater at Loft and LOVE how light it is. I think it can go very casual with jeans or dress up with black leggings and ballet flats.

Found the stripped sweater at Eddie Bauer on sale. I’m not a strip lover, but this one fit like a t-shirt and looked very polished. I like having the option to wear a camisole underneath and make it casual for a long car drive or pair with black pants.

Mr. Brown found these at the Rockport store, he will be sporting some casual wing tips in Italy!

Packing and planning

So on effort to chronicle our Italy adventure I’m going to try and get into the regular writing habit so when we leave I have a routine of writing.

Thus far we’ve

1. Purchased our flights
2. Confirmed stays in San Miniato, Chianti (sorta, we found we only have a one night stay instead of three), Asti
3. Booked two nights at Hotel Lorena, Florence hotel
4. Purchased new backpack for me, 42L Gregory back pack

Still to do
1. Learn more Italian!
2. Figure out our Chianti stay
3. Book our car rental (secretly I would love to rent a convertible, but that doubles our cost!)
4. Book any tours – Asti region

Weeds

On any given day our yard is over wrought with weeds. Specifically Johnson grass. It feeds under the cement slab that hods our lawn furniture it weaves around our garden hose and snakes into the rosemary. However nothing is more satisfactory than giving one piece of grass a good yank and pulling up two feet of weed. Pure pleasure. Almost like pimple popping but twice as rewarding.

i am cleaning our flower beds of weeds in hopes to revive the soil and prepare the area for a great spring planting. 

 

Buffalo steak? Yes I bought one for mr. T

 

recipe to come very soon!

Got me in a pickle

Sorry for the hiatus! Today hubby and I have taken vinegar and spices to a whole new level…the brining level. That’s right, pickle me crazy.

My uncle generously donated some home grown cucumbers and my aunt provided the home grown jalapenos. HEB is where we got our cans and other ingredients included distilled water, vinegar and variety of spices.

Spears for fears or garlic and dill

Ingredients:
4 Cups distilled water

4 Cups White Vinegar

4 TBSP non Iodized Salt

We filled each can with a different ‘taste’ then covered with a the boiling brine mixture. Flavors include: Garlic Dill, Tumeric red pepper garlic and mustard, Maple mustard jalepeno dill and garlic, Onions peppers and yellow mustard, Jalapeno Serrano garlic and dill.

The process was very smooth, I recommend having two people for the canning project. Hubby sliced and I filled the cans, we both collaborated on flavor profiles. However I will not be eating the atomic pickles – Serrano and jalapeno’s aren’t my friends.

We did a plain jane jar of Jalapeno’s with garlic for future taco’s or tuna salad.

Yesterday I peeled 4 bulbs of garlic in preparation of our canning – that really helped with making the canning go quicker. It was nice to have all our ‘flavors’ at our fingers then add as we wanted.

Now we wait! 7 days in the fridge, we’ll give a taste test and review our favorites.

Whats for dinner? Steamed Sea Bass in parchment paper with squash, tomatoes, shallots, oil and shallots with a Wolftrap White Wine – Viognier, Chenin Blanc, and Granache Blank. Notes: Floral, fruit forward, peach and pear, dry, little vegetable, acidic. I would call this chenin blanc in a blind tasting.

Give me some mussel

I’ve had some serious fish cravings for the last few days…one of my favorite seafood delicacies is shell fish. Shrimp, clams, oysters, and best of all Mussels. All are packed with salty delicousness, easy to cook and even easier to eat. These Mussels are cooked with a base of onions, garlic (lots), stewed tomatoes and Sav Blanc.

 

Verdict – good, but sauce not thick enough… baguette was needed to finish off the broth that the mussels made.

Wine – La Czar Sauvignion Blanc