Carol's Travels

This morning we toured Pruneti, a premium olive oil facility in the Chianti region.  It is located in a mountainous area similar to our Santa Cruz Mountains.  I was very impressed with their fourth generation family business.  Their trees are on hilly terrain, they do not spray, and they only pick the olives by hand.  We were first given a tour, then we went upstairs to the tasting room.  We tasted the oil of three different varieties.  There was a definite difference.  I bought bottles all three varieties.

We then went to Christina’s house in the country where we were greeted with flutes of Prosecco and bruschetta.  We sat on the patio chatting with her.  Then we proceeded to the dining room and kitchen where we learned how to cook pork loin. We made a vegetable sauce and pasta.  Then we whipped up mascarpone with strawberries.  After completing the cooking lesson, we sat down in the dining room and enjoyed eating the delicious results for lunch!

Pork loin

We ate breakfast outside this morning. The weather has been beautiful, making it conducive for eating outside. Then we boarded the bus and rode about an hour. We then walked to the small chapel of Montesiepi where a small sword stuck in a rock has only a hilt and a small portion of the blade exposed. I wonder if this could be the origin of the Celtic story.

Then we walked down a rocky path to the ruins of the 13th century Cistercian monastery, the Abbey of San Galgano.

We then went to lunch! We had salad, deep fried veggies, balls of the pesto filling often found in raviolis.

After lunch we returned to the hotel for a while. Then we boarded the bus again to go see a 92-year-old artist demonstrate how he engraves designs in crystal. He has made pieces for the pope, Bill Clinton, and other famous people. After the demonstration, we returned to the hotel for dinner. We had salad, risotto, and ice cream topped fruit for dessert. We have had wine for every lunch and dinner on this trip.

View of Florence from the top of the hill

This morning we checked out of our hotel and boarded a bus bound for Florence. About an hour later, we met the same city guide who had shown us Lucca. We started at the top of the hill above Florence where we took in a spectacular view of the whole city. On the way down to the center of Florence, we saw signs of the devastating flood that had happened in 1966. It had killed many people and destroyed art and literature masterpieces.

When we reached the square where there is a cathedral and several statues, we learned that the statues placed there were warnings to possible invaders. One is an exact replica of the David statue. The original is inside a building in the city. Tickets were sold out months in advance. I am glad that we saw it in 1983 when the city was not as touristy.

When we were given free time to see whatever we would like to see, our guide took us to a store to see the process for making marble designs on paper. That was very interesting. They were selling products like pens, pencils, journals, cards, and other things covered with the marbled paper. Of course it was pricey. Our guide bought a present for his girlfriend.

The rest of the afternoon, Linda and I just wandered around looking in store windows. We bought some delicious gelato cones at a place our guide recommended. We sat in a local church where it was cooler. Yum! We looked for the Gold Corner where Mama and I bought jewelry. We found it only when we were leaving the city. I wasn’t impressed with what we saw in the windows. The rings are thinner. Since they are 18K gold, they would wear thin much more quickly. Besides, the gold price per ounce has skyrocketed.

After Florence, the bus stopped at a World War II American cemetery where 4,401 American servicemen are buried. I was one of the eight people in our group who folded the flag just before we left.

Then we were driven to our new hotel in the countryside, Villa Sabolini. We sipped wine then later had dinner.

Dessert