After an epic thunderstorm overnight day 6 started with rain but ended in sunshine, with wonderful cloud formations along the way.
The maximum we can get in the car is 5, so 5 headed out to see another hill town Cortona for the afternoon, my sons took the bus into Siena to do some shopping, so poor me I was left all alone, and had to have lunch by myself :( As you can see I made the best of it with some bruschetta, olives and a nice glass of white wine sitting on the deck.
I spent the afternoon reading in the shade by the pool and had a thouroughly relaxing day. Everyone returned from their exploring and a friends sister, who was in the area dropped by for a glass of wine before dinner.
The owner of the villa Jacopo offered to take us to a restaurant in the woods that a friend of his owned, and we jumped at the chance. So at 8:00 we set out in two cars through the Tuscan countryside. It was a good job he was leading because this was really out of the way and I am sure we would not have found it on our own.
On the way in to the restaurant which was situated in an old coaching inn, we passed the owner/chef who was grilling sausages on an outdoor wood barbecue.
The inside was cavernous with the chef's artwork displayed on the walls.
There were no menus and Jacopo brought over two bottles of good red wine and sparkling water and then an old lady appeared with a plate for each of us containing a large stuffed pasta called girasole which translates to sunflower.
This was stuffed with ricotta and spinach and covered in an intense tomato sauce and it was amazing. Then came pici which is the thick spaghetti which is the traditional Siena pasta, this was served with a ragu sauce. This was served as the rest of the meal was, family style. Unfortunately this was the only picture I have of the pici.
Next was salad and a platter of fried potatoes, in my book it really does not get any better than that.
After this the grilled sausages served on grilled bread with grilled onions arrived.
These were similar to the "Tuscan" sausages that we had been buying wonderful. The next course was steak. This was a large rib steak grilled rare and cut up by the chef at the table.
This is not a very good picture of a very good steak, we only had a little each but really at that point that was all I could handle.
Then there was dessert brought out, which I did not have, nor do have any pictures of, but the others tell me it was good. Then came vino santo (dessert wine) grappa and some bottle of green liqueur which was 76% proof, time to go home I think.
We raced back through the dark countryside and home to bed. A wonderful meal, one I will always remember as will my sons who were blown away by the food.
The maximum we can get in the car is 5, so 5 headed out to see another hill town Cortona for the afternoon, my sons took the bus into Siena to do some shopping, so poor me I was left all alone, and had to have lunch by myself :( As you can see I made the best of it with some bruschetta, olives and a nice glass of white wine sitting on the deck.
I spent the afternoon reading in the shade by the pool and had a thouroughly relaxing day. Everyone returned from their exploring and a friends sister, who was in the area dropped by for a glass of wine before dinner.
The owner of the villa Jacopo offered to take us to a restaurant in the woods that a friend of his owned, and we jumped at the chance. So at 8:00 we set out in two cars through the Tuscan countryside. It was a good job he was leading because this was really out of the way and I am sure we would not have found it on our own.
On the way in to the restaurant which was situated in an old coaching inn, we passed the owner/chef who was grilling sausages on an outdoor wood barbecue.
The inside was cavernous with the chef's artwork displayed on the walls.
There were no menus and Jacopo brought over two bottles of good red wine and sparkling water and then an old lady appeared with a plate for each of us containing a large stuffed pasta called girasole which translates to sunflower.
This was stuffed with ricotta and spinach and covered in an intense tomato sauce and it was amazing. Then came pici which is the thick spaghetti which is the traditional Siena pasta, this was served with a ragu sauce. This was served as the rest of the meal was, family style. Unfortunately this was the only picture I have of the pici.
Next was salad and a platter of fried potatoes, in my book it really does not get any better than that.
After this the grilled sausages served on grilled bread with grilled onions arrived.
These were similar to the "Tuscan" sausages that we had been buying wonderful. The next course was steak. This was a large rib steak grilled rare and cut up by the chef at the table.
This is not a very good picture of a very good steak, we only had a little each but really at that point that was all I could handle.
Then there was dessert brought out, which I did not have, nor do have any pictures of, but the others tell me it was good. Then came vino santo (dessert wine) grappa and some bottle of green liqueur which was 76% proof, time to go home I think.
We raced back through the dark countryside and home to bed. A wonderful meal, one I will always remember as will my sons who were blown away by the food.
Wowza! Can we go back? Please? CMS
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