Tuscany: Podere di Pieve and La Piscina

On our last day in Tuscany, we decided, beautiful as they were, we had had enough of medieval hillside towns and we really wanted to explore the area we were staying in more and spend our last afternoon under the Tuscan sun at our pool.

 But first, we had to do some laundry, especially Anson, who had been in Germany and Spain for the ten days before I joined him. I was delighted at this orange-themed laundromat, to match our orange bags and my dress. I made Anson take a picture of me. If you look closely, you'll see that it's 4.50 euro per wash (about $6). Whew!

We headed down the road again to stop at some of the wineries we passed up on our first day. There's that dragon again! I have been looking for the exact meaning of the dragon with no luck. Anyone know?

So, we turned off where we saw the small "Olio e Vino Vendita Diretta" (Oil and Wine Sold Directly) sign not far down the road. We drove up to Podere di Pieve, and we thought we were in the wrong place. I actually told Anson that they weren't open and we should just go somewhere else. Luckily, he persisted and we had one of the most memorable wine tasting experiences of our wine-tasting lives.

We drove around to the meticulously tended vineyards and cautiously walked through the gates to the property. Again I thought that maybe we had been mistaken and they weren't open to the public, but before long, a woman greeted us and called for Franco, who soon appeared.

Now this is where is gets really cool. Franco led us down a stone staircase, set in the middle of the yard, to the restored original wine cellar under the property. We sat down at a long wooden table where he put on a video about the winery and set out glasses and bread for us. We tasted the delicious wine and olive oil and learned (again using my limited Italian and plenty of pantomime) that the owners of the winery also manufacture equipment for the wine industry.

After we took pictures in the tiny barrel room, he led us down the hallway and we marveled that two sets of staircases we passed connected to the houses on the ground level. Like so many of our experiences in Italy, it felt unreal, like these kinds of places only exist on movie sets.

At the end of the hallway was the olive oil production room. When we I saw it, I realized that when I asked to purchase four bottles of their olive oil, and Franco disappeared for some time, he was in this room bottling them and numbering them by hand. I packed those bottles, wrapped in my clothes, and carried them back in my suitcase like they were gold.

Our wonderful host, Franco, ascending the wine cellar stairs in the middle of the lawn. What an incredible experience, my only regret was that we couldn't bring home cases and cases of wine and olive oil. Next time!

We finally pried ourselves away from the beautiful estate, and set out for our next adventure. We were hungry by this time, and we accidentally came across Osteria del Viandante again. The first lunch was so sublime that we didn't even think about it, we just pulled right in and sat down for lunch.

We started out with Caprese salad (of course, this is Italy, right?) and I had the Tagliatelle al Sugo di Coniglio (Tagliatelle with Rabbit Sauce)...

...while I took forkfuls of Anson's Gnocchi alla Vellutata di Rucola (Gnocchi with Creamy Arugula Sauce).  It was so good! This was a running theme for almost all of our meals--I got the pappardelle or other egg noodle dish, and Anson got the gnocchi. I guess you could say we're a mixed noodle-dumpling couple.

We were anxious to get back and spend one last day in our dreamy pool, and we really made the most of it. We brought down a bottle of rosato and a couple tumblers and spent the afternoon playing in the pool and trying to remember every detail of our Tuscan vacation. (Yes, that's me on the side of the pool, not a ghost.)

We were leaving the next morning for Rome, but we couldn't help but wish we could stay here for the rest of our vacation.

Salute a Toscana!