Day 17 dawned foggy but warm, first thing Dave, Nancy, Al and I went to the Co op to load up on supplies for food and wine. Then 8 of us headed out in two cars to Pienza. We stopped in a small town for lunch. The special of the day was panzanella the Tuscan bread salad.
We all ordered this and got a large platter of it and plastic plates and cutlery to eat it with! Not the greatest presentation, but very good salad. We washed this down with a litre of house wine and continued on our way. We happened upon a winery that was actually advertising sampling that was open so of course both cars pulled in. I lovely young Italian women directed us to sit in a covered area with the a view across the vineyards. We were also greeted by a St Bernard the size of a small horse.
We sat down and she brought out the three wines that we would be tasting and 3 glasses each. For each tasting we got about 5oz of wine!
The winery had been in the her husbands family for 300 years. We had one pinot grigio and two reds which both had a large percentage of san giovase grape. This was the best one and we bought several bottles at 15.00 euro a bottle, which to us Canadians seems cheap but not necessarily to the Brits.
We rolled back in to the cars and on to Pienza. We arrived in the early afternoon and it was market day, and therefore rather busy. The first stall we happened upon had an amazing choice of dried and glace fruits, there were several purchases made.
We wandered around poking in to the small stores selling amazing smelling cheeses and enjoying the amazing views.
There were several purchases then we drove back to the villa to get the pizza oven fired up. Another beautiful picture of my stand of trees in the sunset.
Howard barbecued 3 enormous steaks and Tuscan sausages as well as cooking 2 pizza's in the oven.
We had this with asparagus with toasted pine nuts, served over lettuce.
This was washed down with much wine including one bottle from the winery. The last revellers retired at 3:30!
We all ordered this and got a large platter of it and plastic plates and cutlery to eat it with! Not the greatest presentation, but very good salad. We washed this down with a litre of house wine and continued on our way. We happened upon a winery that was actually advertising sampling that was open so of course both cars pulled in. I lovely young Italian women directed us to sit in a covered area with the a view across the vineyards. We were also greeted by a St Bernard the size of a small horse.
We sat down and she brought out the three wines that we would be tasting and 3 glasses each. For each tasting we got about 5oz of wine!
The winery had been in the her husbands family for 300 years. We had one pinot grigio and two reds which both had a large percentage of san giovase grape. This was the best one and we bought several bottles at 15.00 euro a bottle, which to us Canadians seems cheap but not necessarily to the Brits.
We rolled back in to the cars and on to Pienza. We arrived in the early afternoon and it was market day, and therefore rather busy. The first stall we happened upon had an amazing choice of dried and glace fruits, there were several purchases made.
We wandered around poking in to the small stores selling amazing smelling cheeses and enjoying the amazing views.
There were several purchases then we drove back to the villa to get the pizza oven fired up. Another beautiful picture of my stand of trees in the sunset.
Howard barbecued 3 enormous steaks and Tuscan sausages as well as cooking 2 pizza's in the oven.
We had this with asparagus with toasted pine nuts, served over lettuce.
This was washed down with much wine including one bottle from the winery. The last revellers retired at 3:30!
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