Tuscany

An update of the past few days:

The first night out we had dinner in Montichiello (town) at La Porta (restaurant). The food was great, as was the wine - the food was typical of the region with many pasta dishes that come with a meat sauce as well as homemade pasta.

M, J, A, and I visited Siena (the town is most famous for its biannual horse race). We walked around the city, saw the main square, visited the towns ONLY Jewish synagogue - which has much history with violence and oppression. I learned that Italy has 30,000 Jews with 15,000 in Rome and 10,000 in Milan. Siena has only 50 Jewish people in the town. The town is very old - probably around 1000 years old - and is very beautiful (of course). We had a nice lunch with, as usual, much wine.

Yesterday we had a wine tasting in Montalcino (town) at Plan Dell'Orino. Caroline and Jan have 11 hectars of land (many acres) in which they use 6 hectars for growing grapes and olives. The main plant is grapes. The 4 of us were given a tour of their property, their wine making machines, and then given a wine tasting (which was very intimate due to A's recent friendship with the owners). We tried 4 types of wine (Roce - and then 3 different levels of red), parmigiano cheese, bread, 2 different types of salt (one from Hawaii and one from the Himalayans), and their homemade olive oil. After the wine tasting, we came back and napped.

In between the relaxing at the Tuscan home and walking around, we have had great homemade meals from J (with me being the kitchen helper - aka sous chef). I have learned how to cut better as well as some great dishes I cannot wait to try.

We have another day here and then back to Munich. The next update will probably be from Munich. Enjoy!