Banished From the Kingdom
Oct. 8, Radda in Chianti, Italy. As mentioned before, our villa in Tuscani was the former home of an Italian prince. The estate comprises several hundred acres of vineyards and olive orchards, plus a couple of dozen buildings scattered around the property. We spent the late afternoon of our last day touring the winery, gardens and home of the current owner. He bought the facility 30 years ago, which now puts out one million bottles of Chianti a year. The owner also has wineries and residences in ten locations, including Charlottesville, VA. After the tour, we had a wine tasting, and left to prepare for our departure the next morning.
The Last Supper
On our final night in Tuscany, our housekeeper Angela prepared a wonderful dinner that consisted of three types of bruschetta: tomato, melted mozzarella and sausage meat, and liver pate (the best). Our second course was caprese salad, and the main course featured both chicken and rabbit cacciatore with mushrooms cooked in white wine. Dolce was her version of tiramisu (incredible) and biscotti dipped in Vino Santo. Prior to dinner, Bill had this nagging fear that there wouldn’t be enough to eat, so he went into town and bought additional provisions. He served a pesto sauce dip with Tuscan bread, stuffed hot peppers, and chunks of Parmesan cheese. With dinner he put out steamed carrots, and to supplement dessert, he bought blueberry/fig torte and Baci chocolates. What was he thinking?
When Angela served the dinner, she reminded us that we had to be off the premises by 10 AM, so she could prepare for the house for the next arrivals. When she made the announcement, nine heads turned to Slo-Mo Prendergast and he said, “What? Knock on my door at 7 and I’ll be ready.”
Breakfast with Stefania
On the morning of our departure I was assigned to wake everyone up at 7 AM. Chris had already come down at 6:30, made coffee and brought a carafe up to her room to share with Bob. Marianne came down shortly after 7, as I was preparing my own breakfast. I made an omelet with the dinner leftovers that included mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, mozzarella, and salami. She and I shared this wonderful breakfast, which included fresh-picked figs and persimmons. Immediately after we finished, everyone started coming down, jealous that they didn’t get up early enough to share the omelet.
All Roads Lead to Rome
At 9:30, a half hour ahead of schedule, we hugged and kissed Angela and her husband, Guiseppe, and drove off towards our next adventure, the mean streets of Rome. Here again, the group split up with three couples staying at the Hotel Golden, and Sistis and Stouts going a few blocks away to the Hotel Veneto. As we later found out, the Golden has better security than Attica Prison. You can’t get into the building without identifying yourself, and can’t get to your floor without calling down to the desk to get buzzed in. When Tom inquired about the paranoid level of protection, the manager claimed that it was a very safe neighborhood.
The Veneto was the better choice, as they didn’t require you to pass through a metal detector and a retina scan. However, there was a glitch at that hotel, as the credit card reservation was entered wrong, and we had no rooms available. A quick conversation between Sara and the manager in Italian, got them to send us to another hotel for one night, arrange transportation both ways, upgrade our rooms to include breakfast, and had a bottle of wine sent to each of our rooms when we returned to the Veneto the next day. All this was arranged while we sipped espresso in their café on their dime, eh Euro.
