We spent our first night in Tuscany at the home of an old friend of a friend, Hannes, and his wife, Margit. They have a midsized farm where they rent out holidaycottages and they grow olives for oil. Shortly after we arrived we were in the barn helping Hannes clean the leaves out of that day’s harvest. After our other friends [Uli and Sabine] arrived, we sat in the farm house at Hannes and Margit’s big round table eating dinner.
Things you forget about Italy? Pasta is just the starter, it is NOT the main meal, it’s almost like a salad. THEN the meal is served and if you fill up on pasta you will not be able to eat your stewed lamb with cous cous. Lucky for me, I did not want to eat stewed lamb with cous cous, I can’t bear the taste of lamb, but Julius ate his, and though he also does not care for lamb, he told me it was excellent with none of that weird taste. That’s probably because the lamb came from the barn, just a 100 feet or so from where we were sitting.
The following day we squandered the morning over breakfast, then headed south to Magliano, making a stop in San Gimigiano to see the towers – details on this later – then continued on to Sabine’s beautiful home at the end of a dirt road, on the edge of an olive orchard. We ate truffle and artichoke ravioli and slept late, the spent yet another morning sitting at the breakfast table. I sat in the sun for a while noodling with my ukulele and then, since Hannes had arrived to join in birthday festivities, we went to the beach. We took a walk along the mostly empty shore and went to Porto San Stefano to buy seafood for our birthday feast – Uli and I share a birthday.
We ate:
Mussels stuffed with breadcrumbs, herbs, tomato, and garlic
Shrimp sautéed with lemon and arugula
Olives and peppers stuffed with tuna
Roasted snapper
Oven roasted potatoes
and a creamy bitter orange cheesecake tart for dessert.
Plus, I’m quite sure there’s something I’ve forgotten.
I think that this morning, as I sit here, I’m still quite full. Those with more experience eating true Italian style tell me that the locals don’t really eat breakfast. They have a latte and maybe a very small biscuit, because they have eaten so heartily the night before. The first real meal of the day is lunch and that is a feast of the quality that we ate for our birthday festivities.
Before we left for Italy, some friends dropped by. We were talking about Tuscany; they have never been. Here is what I say to you (besides: GO, NOW!): I find it is exactly as I imagined it to be. It totally lives up to all the ridiculous expectations that the movies and photographers and writers and romantic proselytizers have put in our heads about this part of the world. Yes, it really is that great.
Happy Birthday to Me.
3 thoughts on “The Tuscan Outback”