Day 6
The rest of the group went to Anghiari to an olive oil mill. Part of me wanted to go, but an even bigger part of me needed to be very still and read a book. I know I'll be in Italy again, so I bailed and pretended that I owned the villa again (Lars, Pippa, and Barbara were all at Casa Ombuto, closing it down for the season). The gardener wasn't in, so there were no cushions on the loungers, but I managed to read while I ate lunch (reheated saltimbocca and minestrone -- not easy when there's no microwave) at the little side table in the cantina, and then I took advantage of both caves. I love those caves. I took regular breaks to monitor the number of leaves getting blown into the pool and the level of blue in the sky.
Barbara put me in charge of letting in the sommelier whom she asked to come and do a wine tasting for us. We thought it was going to be 20 Euro/person, but it turned out to be 20 Euro/person/hour PLUS the cost of the wine we tasted. And nobody cared because the sommelier was a gentleman by the name of Luca Martini, and in early October, he was named the #1 sommelier in all of Italy. IN ALL OF ITALY. Plus, he's only 27, so he's the youngest #1 sommelier ever named in Italy (it's an annual competition).
We tasted some AMAZING wines, and he taught me more about swirling and sniffing and tasting than I'd ever learned previously. And of course, I got suckered into buying some. Glenn was going to cook us all dinner (free day, so leftovers, or cook for yourself), but the markets weren't open when he went looking for provisions. Luca mentioned that his family had a restaurant in Arezzo, so I asked him if we could eat there. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
The restaurant is called Osteria da Giovanna, and the menu is not available in English. All the other restaurant patrons were Italian, and they were more than a little bit irritated by the loud crowd of English-speakers in the corner. We had mixed bruschetta, with tomatos, beans, and something else that I am so sad I can't remember. (I should have written this immediately upon arriving back at the villa, but I was too tired and had had too much wine.) I had tagliatelle with butter and sage sauce; I should have asked for the truffle -- it was only 2 Euro more, but I didn't know it was available. Then Mike and I split an enormous t-bone. RIDICULOUS.
For each course, we asked Luca to select a wine around 30 Euro for us to share. He picked 3, and I ended up buying two of them. Then, after dinner, he brought a bottle of 1927 Tio Pepe sherry -- AMAZING.
Luca has an assistant, Lorenzo, who is 23. Lorenzo is cute and adorable, but he speaks very little English (he understands more than he lets on). When we found out he was 23, we tried to set him up with Oana, but the message wasn't getting through. One of the other waiters at the restaurant who was also waiting on us translated a bit, but he still didn't understand, so I finally asked if he had a girlfriend. He turned bright red, started laughing, and RAN. He didn't come back to the table or even look at us for the rest of the night. We asked Luca to explain that it wasn't that any of us were after his young bones, that we were just trying to matchmake, but I don't think it helped.
At one point later in the evening (we were there for THREE HOURS, but it didn't feel like it), Luca's mother came out (we met his dad when he showed Mike and me our raw steak and his grandmother a little later), and she asked him what he wanted for dinner. He said, "Steak, broccoli, and spinach." She said, "You're having spaghetti with garlic and olive oil." All of this was in Italian, but even the people who didn't understand a single word of Italian understood what she said. It was really funny.
I can't remember when I've had so much fun at dinner and been so relaxed. To top it all off, Glenn (I just found out that's how he spells his name) and Linda PAID FOR ALL OF OUR DINNERS. He said that they enjoyed our company so much and had so much fun that he was more than happy to do it.
Several of us bought some wine, including Clare. I missed this part, but the report from the others is that when Clare tried to pay for her wine with her AmEx card, Luca said, "I don't like American Express, but I like American women [wink, wink]." Did I mention that he's handsome and charming? The report is also that Clare blushed. :)
We finally got home at midnight, and I had the spins when I got to my room. I forced down 3/4 of a liter of sparkling water and told myself that I hadn't had that much to drink -- 2 glasses total at the tasting, 3 glasses at dinner, and the Tio Pepe sherry afterward. That worked, but it was a close call.
I think this was also the night that my vacation idiocy reared its ugly head. Last year, I woke up in the middle of the night the first night thinking that I had gone deaf because it was so quiet. I clapped my hands to test my ridiculous theory (in my defense, I was disoriented and changing time zones). This year, I left the shutters on the window facing my bed open, and I woke up in the middle of the night because it seemed bright in the room. I saw four lights in the window and seriously thought, "UFO?" Then I put on my glasses and saw that it was the moon. I had a good laugh, closed the shutters, and went back to sleep.
Day 7
Everyone was dragging on Saturday, but we all got up early -- Glenn, Linda, Elena, Kristen, Clare, and I wanted to check out the monthly antiques market in Arezzo, and Carolyn and Mike were going to Anghiari to see if the crazy man who runs the olive oil mill had turned the single basket of olives (half unripe) that Clare and Carolyn picked from the trees on the villa estate into oil.
Here are a couple of examples of what irked me about Elena. Glenn and Linda rented a car, and Elena and I were riding to Arezzo with them. Glenn pulled the car around, and Elena immediately got in the front seat. When I pointed out that perhaps Linda would want to sit in the front seat, Elena said, "I'm NOT sitting in the back seat. My knees will be up to my chin because I'm tall." When Linda got in the back with me, Elena then asked, "Is it ok if I sit up here? There's not enough leg room for me in the back," and Linda told her it was no problem. In Catherineland, we ask before we make unilateral decisions like that.
Then on the half hour ride to Arezzo, Elena mentioned 4 times that she needed cash. The first time, Linda and I also said that we needed cash. The rest of the time, I tried to ignore her. Then when we got to the center of town, she asked at every intersection, "You guys, do you see an ATM? Is that an ATM? Where are the ATMs?" After we parked the car and were walking the block to the beginning of the street market, she asked twice if we saw an ATM. When we got there, I ditched them all. I was a little hungover and ready to throttle her, so I wandered by myself, and sure enough, because Arezzo is a major Italian city with 99,000 citizens, I managed to find and ATM within 10 minutes of walking into the market.
After a couple of hours, I wandered into the main shopping area and ran into Clare and Kristen, who had also ditched them. Turned out I wasn't the only one whose will to live Elena was sucking. Clare pointed out that she's harmless, but none of us were in the mood to deal -- too much wine and not enough sleep. They pointed me in the direction of the antiques market, told me that Glenn, Linda, and Elena were planning to meet me at the car at 12:30, and we split.
It turns out that antiques markets in Italy are like the ones in the US -- mostly stuff you'd find in someone's grandmother's attic. Unfortunately, I managed to find a leather goods store and bought myself a new purse. It's gorgeous -- gorgeous enough that when I showed it to everyone after dinner, Kristen decided to hit the store on the way to the train station the next morning to get it in black (mine is red).
Lunch was handmade pasta and a red sauce with sausage on the side. Delicious. There was just enough time for a 1-hour nap, and then we all dressed up like Franco -- we used tea towels for bandanas, and we used oleander for the goatee. (We used oleander because one night, Franco sent Elena and Mike out for a bay leaf. He pointed them in the general direction, but there were 3 bushes clustered together: one was a bay tree, the other two were oleander. Mike and Elena came back with 4 oleander leaves and threw them into the wild boar stew. Franco checked the stew a few minutes later, looked surprised, and then started laughing. He fished them out and made Mike and Elena accompany him to the bay tree. Kristen and I freaked out -- oleander is poisonous! But we ate the stew on Wednesday night and felt no ill effects, so no harm no foul.)
Pippa saw what we were doing and started laughing. We waited to go to class a few minutes late. Pippa rushed out, saying "I'm going to give him shit for starting his class late." When we came in, he started cracking up. We posed for several photos (I forgot my camera!), which I think we'll see on Facebook. I think he was really pleased, and the oleander was especially funny.
We dragged our asses through the cooking lesson, but because we were the last class, there wasn't that much to do, so we got done early. Franco asked us if we'd be willing to help out the chef coming in to cook for the 21 staff and Lars and Pippa with some of the prep, which we enthusiastically agreed to. Mike was given the assignment of trimming the lamb into French cut, but when I looked up, Glenn was doing it. I asked him, jokingly, what was up with that, and he claimed that Glenn volunteered (Glenn confirmed this later). Because we were all besties by then, I said, "Suuuuure, he did, Tom Sawyer!" Carolyn busted out laughing -- she said not only did I call him out on shirking, but that it was a double cut because I did it in a literary way.
After all the prep was done, we hung out in the kitchen a little longer. Franco came across the map that Simone (part of the breakfast staff, he used to be a jeweler in Arezzo, which is famous for gold jewelry) lent us, and asked, outraged, "WHO ATE AT MCDONALD'S?" He didn't realize it was a map and only saw the golden arches. I accused Mike of eating at McDonald's while in Anghiari, and I got a real death glare. At first I was taken aback, and then I started laughing because Mike is such a mild-mannered, funny, fun man, that to have earned a death glare is really something. Carolyn was really impressed, as was everyone else. Mike admitted that it was the accusation of doing something as horrible as eating in McDonald's while in ITALY in combination with the literary insult that caused the death glare. He tried to recreate it later, unsuccesfully. We were talking about it at dinner, and I said, "You pick, pick, pick at everyone else, so I picked, picked, picked back, and BAMMO -- death glare!" I think that Carolyn might adopt me.
While we were hanging out in the kitchen, Franco brought out the big book where you're supposed to write a few words about the experience. Kristen and Elena were done a little early, so Kristen sat down with the book and a pen, and she started to cry. I really love that girl -- she's a talker, and she loves being in the limelight, and every emotion she has is written on her face. She was so sad to be leaving the school and everyone that she wept. It was really sweet. I kept telling her she could always come back, but she said it wouldn't be the same, and she's right. I was really lucky that my second time was with such a great group of people. I miss them a lot.
Lars, Pippa, Barbara, and Nelia joined us for dinner, and someone asked Pippa the story of how she and Lars bought Casa Ombuto and Torre del Tartufo. Pippa used to be director of marketing for Revlon in Europe. She and Lars stumbled on a hair accessory that was created by a hairdresser in Europe -- basically a double corkscrew that holds a French twist or bun in place, called a Hair Scroo (Barbara busted some out, and Clare, Kristen, and I each got a set -- a nice treat because they WORK). They got the exclusive distribution rights for Europe, and Pippa said that they used every penny they had, including the change in their pockets, and bought a shipping container full of them to sell. And then she and Lars hustled to sell it, and it was a huge success. Pippa said that she had the idea for the cooking school because she loves cooking classes; she happened to take one that she especially loved, and she thought, "Wouldn't it be great if this were in Italy, and included lodging, and was a week long?" And they bought and renovated Casa Ombuto, then Torre del Tartufo. Lars is trying to talk her into a third house, which we were all in favor of -- the school is getting so popular, we're worried about being able to go back.
Between courses at dinner, we read limericks that Mike had written about the school and our experiences. They were hilarious, and Franco and Oana loved them. Barbara collected the ones that were fit to print (there was one that was perhaps a little insulting to Madthu) and said that she would save them and post them for us.
After dinner, the usual digestifs came out, and Pippa put on her dance mix that she wanted to test with us before she used it on the staff. We danced until 1am, and I'm ashamed to say that I taught 2 American ladies, 1 Dutch lady, 1 Dutch gentleman, and 2 South African ladies how to do the Macarena. It's Pippa's fault for putting that song on her mix. I dubbed her DJ Pippa Strippa P (after one of the limericks, when Mike said it was hard to find a rhyme for Pippa, Pippa said, "STRIPPA!). From 1-1:30, we drank water and chatted. Lars and Pippa are wonderful, and it shows in every detail of the school. We all promised to write good reviews on Trip Adviser, which I've done (find the one from RedIsBest).
Off to bed, and unfortunately, I forgot that the US fell back that night, because I was using the alarm on my BBerry.
Day 8
That meant that I had less time to pack than I intended and missed out on a little bit of relaxation time with everyone, but I did get to say goodbye. So sad.
One last Elena story. Apparently her taxi arrived at 8 instead of 10. I told her that, because it was funny, and her immediate response was to say defiantly, "I'm not leaving now." I told her she didn't have to leave now, just that her taxi was there. "I'm not ready. Why would he come so early? I didn't ask for him to come that early." I told her that it was just an FYI, and that nobody was going to make her leave before 10. I wanted to pull her hair.
My taxi dropped me at the station in plenty of time for my train to Florence. Unfortunately, I forgot to validate my ticket, and the conductor was not pleased. I thought I was going to have to pay a penalty of 50 Euro, but it was only 5. Thank goodness.
Florence to Pisa, Pisa to the Pisa airport, stood in line FOREVER. I did get to spend a little more time with Carolyn and Mike because they were flying from Pisa as well. Mike bought a book called, "Too Much Tuscan Sun." I said, "More like too much Tuscan wine," and apparently, that's the title of the book's sequel. I'm going to try to find both.
I slept all the way from Pisa to Gatwick, and I think I was one of those plane sleepers who invades the space of the person sitting next to her. Gatwick to Victoria, Victoria to St. John's Wood, and then Mediterranean for dinner with Alex and Morgan, Alex's roomate's friend.
Despite all the fun, I was happy to go home on Monday. I'm in China now, but that's another posting, because it's two hours later than I wanted to go to bed! I lost 30 minutes to the massage chair in my room....
