Friday, October 24, 2014

A month in Tuscany Day 28 - The last day and a look back

The last day again was sunny and warm and the remaining 7 of us decided to spend the day at the villa, enjoying the last day there and starting to pack up. It did not seem possible that 4 weeks had passed, the villa felt like home now and I had got used to all it's idiosyncrasies. I knew that I was going to miss the rhythms of Villa life.

Every morning Dave ran or drove to the bakery and returned with fresh bread and pastries for breakfast.



I sat and wrote my blog in the living room while the inhabitants gradually rose and made some espresso ate breakfast and decided what to do that day. Dave started ferrying those that needed to be driven to the station or bus stop and then inevitably drove a few people to Chianti country or somewhere in the surrounding country side.  Many days found me walking in to Siena and having lunch in one of my favourite restaurants and maybe checking out some new area or doing a little shopping.



Almost every day found Dave and I at the Co Op grocery store picking up a few essentials.




Especially early in the month after a hot day exploring, a cool swim in the olive grove would freshen you up for the evening.


Everyone would meet back at the villa for happy hour around 5:00 on the deck, with a few nibbles and often a bottle or two of prosseco


Almost every evening we would cook dinner at the Villa sometimes me, sometimes someone would create their speciality, a few times we took advantage of the pizza oven.


While dinner was cooking I would try to get a picture of the stand of trees on the horizon, I have many pictures of this and somehow one of these has to end up a piece of art on my walls at home.


Dinner was mostly eaten on the deck, but as the evenings grew darker and cooler we had many great dinners in the large kitchen.



Evenings ended with good conversation and sometimes even dancing!

The rhythms of this last day were a little different as we all stayed at the villa, and I had the first lunch there of the whole month.  I made some grilled sandwiches using up some cheese and ham that was in the fridge.


To go with this Dennis cooked up some fry up bound together with egg, which was very tasty.


We packed up all our clothes and tidied up the villa as we were leaving early the next morning.  Our last dinner consisted of pasta with a sauce made up of all the leftovers left in the fridge.


I do not remember what was in this sauce, but I do remember that it was very tasty.  This was served with a green salad and several bottles of good Italian red wine.  Our host Jacopo came over after dinner and shared a couple of bottles with us and told us some of the history of the villa and his family. His passion is photography and he showed us some of his work.


We chatted and soaked up the last night in the kitchen and it was with a certain amount of sadness that I went to bed that night, I was not sure if I would ever be back here, but I certainly hope that I do.

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