Another day-trip away from Montepulciano: We found ourselves at the top of another small mountain, in another gorgeous little town, saying to ourselves again, “Is this real or are we in a movie set?”
Tuscany has a surreal feeling to it. Maybe it’s because you can look out from your perch on a Medieval castle wall and see for miles and miles; the atmospheric perspective giving the rolling vineyards and poppy fields a dream-like quality and the perfect puffy clouds hovering neatly, as if they were painted there. Or maybe because the pictures we’d seen of this place many times just don’t do the real thing justice. You go there thinking you know what to expect, and then your brain explodes.
Anyway, here we were looking out at the incredible view in disbelief and wonder. And then a little sun-shower started up and a rainbow appeared in the hills. And I could have cried, it was so over-the-top beautiful.
Yes, that is a photo {taken on my dad’s iPhone} not a painting!
Lunch that day was at a little Trattoria that was well reviewed and didn’t disappoint. I had to take a photo of the pork that my mom ordered because I want to attempt it here at home. Apricots, blanched almonds, and a balsamic and honey reduction…Good Lord it was tasty!
I ordered pasta for almost every meal. I couldn’t get enough of it. Fresh handmade pasta is so incredibley tender, chewy and flavorful compared to the dried stuff…In fact, we haven’t eaten any dried pasta since returning home {it would be such a let-down, now that we know what we’re missing with the fresh stuff.} I’m more motivated than ever to perfect my pasta-making technique so that we never have to go back to boxed pasta!
Arugula + radicchio + tomatoes + olive oil + balsamic= the perfect spring salad. Mike was in heaven…he looooves arugula and it was in season while we were there.
My cute parents…full of good food and happy.
Can we talk about gelato for a sec? WHY IS IT SO MUCH BETTER THAN REGULAR ICE CREAM? Early on in the trip, Mike announced unapologetically, “I think I’m just going to get gelato whenever I feel like it.” Ok! Count me in on that plan. And so we did.
There are other parts of the trip worth sharing as well…like the 6km hike we took on dusty farm roads, winding through vineyards and ancient olive groves, or the awesome butcher shop we stopped at in Panzano in Chianti where we ate our hearts’ delight of thick slices of salami on fresh bread. But really, we’d be here for weeks if I tried to tell you everything.
Thanks for coming along on my little virtual tour! I hope you get a chance to get to Italy and see all of this for yourself someday- as good as it looks in photos, it’s 1000 times more awesome in real life. Buonasera!
The End.