Addendum to the first eating night eating out at the family tratitoria.

The place was completely empty except for staff which were watching “who wants to a gazillionaire in Lyre“. It was quite like being in someone’s kitchen with lots of extra tables (about 10). In a while, someone came to take our order, poked fun at the little Italiano I could muster (he spoke English as well as my Italian) and we had the most indescribably, delicious, spinach and ricotta cheese stuffed ravioli and “fetticini like” spaggheti , spicy with hot peppers and red sauce and half a carafe of local wine. (the whole area has hundreds of vineyards). We had been told they make their pasta everyday, so we anticipated this delight. Tired as we were, it was a wonderful meal and of course by the time we finished, the place was filling up with delightful locals bantering back and forth, affectionately hugging everybody, children, waiter, cook……..but only giving nervous looks at the obviously bedraggled Americans.

Taking the advice of a traveler’s post on Slowtrav.net for avoiding the lingering effects of jet lag, we kept going as long as we could and finally went to bed about 9:30. We both slept deeply and awakened to an unbelievable Toscana scene outside, sun shining and crisp air. I built a fire and we made coffee you could spread with a knife and eased into the day by the fire. Our next step is to park in Isabella and Carlos’ driveway and post this info and drive off into the hills for scenes from “Under the Tuscan Sun” (Which by the way was filmed very close by and also filmed here was “The English Patient”

A couple of food pics here from our morning breakfast. Liane has declared that yogurt nirvana has been achieved with the local coop’s yogurt and oranges concoction. Of course Liane smuggled in her own flax to liberally sprinkle over this. Doesn’t everyone pack flax for their travels? I will say, the eggs I had were the freshest I have had since gathering from the hen house when I was a small boy