Day 11 - Food and Wine experience at Castellano Verrazzano

On our second day in Greve, we had planned a "Food and Wine experience" at Castellano Verrazzanno. We basically just piddlefarted around until our cab came at 11:30 to take us to our 12:00 reservation for a tour and lunch (with wine! yay!) Our next door neighbors had warned us that the wine was plentiful at this event, so we wanted to make sure we didn't end up in an Italian jail. Cab was soooo well worth the 20 euro or so.

Our tour guide, Gino, ran the place, and we all signed in. I think there was a group of about 20 or so. Once we were all there, we started a tour of the grounds and wine cellars.





The place was amazingly gorgeous and the quick tour was fun and informative.

Then Gino led us down to a little restaurant area, another tour about our size came in as well, and he assigned us to tables. This print was above our table, explaining how the rooster became the mascot/symbol of that area.
We were at a table with a couple from New Jersey and another couple from Ottawa. The guy in the New Jersey couple knew our tour guide (was his cousin or something) and we got A+ treatment (A+ means extra wine, if you didn't know). I think we sat down around 1, and the meal started with salted meats and cheese, moved to pasta, then pork loin and salad, some parm with balsamic, and then some biscotti with a sweet wine called vin santo. Finally they served some grappa (SUPER high alcohol content, the guys at the other end of the table called it "Drano for your body"), which I sipped just a wee bit. All of this was served with accompanying red wine. We ate and drank and made friends with the other two couples, all the while becoming louder and friendlier and more boisterous. Before we knew it, it was 4:30 and Gino was telling us to get out. He didn't say it that way but that's what he meant.

Last count on the damage was like 8 bottles of wine (not including the Vin Santo)

Gino explains something. What, I don't remember.

Impressivo

On the way out we took some pictures and Dad ordered a case of Chianti Reserve that I am going to snitch a bottle of next time I come to Evansville. hehehe.....

The cab picked us up and we headed back for a long nap and some pool time. Mike and I watched Taken as well, then we all got showered and headed to dinner. At dinner Dad got the idea to hit up Lamole for dessert so we headed back to our favorite place again. Luckily this time they didn't disappoint me, and I was able to order the panna cotta (they had been out of it the night before). So good. Note to self: add panna cotta to the list of things to learn how to make.

Days 9 & 10 - Travelling and Day 1 in Greve

The pictures I've been posting are the low-resolution versions of what I actually took so I don't kill the blog. The big guys are located here for Day 10:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agstratt/sets/72157619804946492/

On Day 9, we woke up and took a ferry into Naples. We got to the train station, snagged some McDonald's for lunch, and got on the train. Our seats were all the way in the front of the train, and we hiked down the platform. Dad remarked, "Hey, at least we'll be the first ones off the train!"

Once we were settled on the train, a few groups of people came by claiming that they also had our seats. "Man I feel bad for those people, the train people double-booked these tickets!" The conductor came by and pointed out our tickets were for May 25th, not May 24th and that we were a whole day early. Doh. Turns out the travel agent booked our ticket for the wrong day. As we hustled to get off the train, Mike said "Well you were right, we WERE the first ones off the train!" He and Dad laughed as I yelled "NOT FUNNY YET!" Luckily, there was another express train to Florence only an hour later, and we were able to get on that one. Not bad, as snafus (esp in another country where you don't speak the language) go.

The only other major snafu of the trip was when we pulled up to our hotel in Greve. "Oh no," I thought. This is not where I made the reservation. This is the dirty, nonhospitable hotel our neighbors warned us to stay away from. Albergo del Chianti. I made a reservation at Hotel del Chianti. "Um, April," Mike said, "Ya think maybe Albergo is Italian for Hotel?" DOH. It HAD been recommended by the Frommers book, so we decided to go in and look around. I think that an older guy used to run it and his two sons had taken it over - our neighbors had told us that the older guy was SUPER not nice, and the place was awful. But it wasn't bad. Our room smelled like the previous tenant had smoked like 10 cigars in a row in it, but it was clean, on the piazza, and had a cute little courtyard with a pool. So we decided to give it a try. And I'm glad we did because it was pretty cool!

That night we just got some dinner at a restaurant next door (amazing gorgonzola and asparagus penne - I think all the restaurants in the Greve region we ate at were good!) and then had some chianti in the courtyard. My idea of a good time.

The next day we woke up ready for wine-tasting. We got a map with all the wineries marked on it and set off. First we stopped at Vignamaggio. This place was gorgeous, and was the most professional wine-tasting experience we had. They had a little cute wine-tasting and sales room, and we had a few different kinds of chianti.

Mike is looking THRILLED

Now, I had taken a wine class in Chicago where I had learned a bit about wines, but didn't think about how what I had learned would affect our experience. The wine-class lady told us that in "old world" wines (anywhere the Romans were) the taste of the wine is very based on region, steeped in tradition, and the vinters take great pride to stay very loyal and consistent with regional traits. In "new world" wines, how the wines taste very much depends on how the vinter wants it to taste. What I didn't derive from that was this: So you may go to a winery in Napa, and they'll have 7 wines and they'll all taste very different. And those 7 will taste very different than the wines the guy up the road makes. There, tastings make sense - how else would you know what you're getting? In Tuscany, they make chianti (mostly). So you'll go to a winery and they'll have chianti table wine, chianti classico, chianti reserve, etc. A lot of chianti. And while they do strive to make them quality and there are small differences in the wines, it's not enough to make the tasting experience a big thing. It just isn't like that there.

Random shot of a hillside castle

So the second winery we go to, Castellanuzza, we walked up the driveway and saw a door that was closed and locked that said direct sales. What? We checked our watches... nope, not siesta time. We walked up the driveway farther and heard someone taking a shower inside. OK, now we were the creepy people outside the bathroom door. We started walking back to the car to give up when a tiny Italian grandmother came out and started talking to us in Italian. Now we speak next to no Italian, but she got our "Vino?" and motioned that she would go around and let us into the direct sales room.
We walk in, and we're in this dusty room that is very obviously not a wine-tasting room, but a small room off the production facilities where they happen to have a countertop. She opens some chianti classico for us, she talks in Italian, we talk in English. We point to a bottle of wine and pay for it (Thank God the price list was on the wall), and decide to bail. I have one word to say about the entire exchange and that is AWK-WARD.
We decide to drive to the next place, Castello de Stinche, to try our luck there. Again, the direct sales door is closed. We knock, and some dude in his pajamas throws open a window on third floor and says "Vino?!" We all nod, and wait on him to come down.

The guy comes downstairs and opens the door for us. He shows us to a tiny dark dusty room where there is a table, wineglasses, and two chairs. Mom and I sit down, the guys hover around. Wine dude goes to pour us a glass and knocks over one, shattering it all over the stone floor. As he cleans it up we decide to buy a bottle of white wine and a couple bottles of olive oil. We tell the guy that it's OK, we'll just take the junk and go.

At this point I'm about over dragging guys from their nap and ladies from the shower and decide to tell everyone that I'm starving and we must stop to eat (even though I am at best only mildly hungry). Everyone knows how crabby I get when low on food, so we find the nearest restaurant and park in a nearby church parking lot. Of course the boys had to go into the church, so I sent Mike in with the camera while Mom and I sat in the air conditioning, as it was like 90 degrees outside.

Picking this place ended up being our best move by far. It was so freaking good. By the time we finished lunch we'd made reservations for dinner that very night.

We started lunch out with a glass of prosecco. I have always been a bubbly fan, but the bubbles bother my reflux and it gets a little sweet. Prosecco is drier, and has less bubbles that are smaller in nature. It hits the spot, let me tell you. I may have a new favorite drink. Also, the view from this place was pretty amazing. We could see 4 different levels of hills/valleys in the distance.

At the end of lunch, the waiter poured us some lemoncello. We sipped a bit to be polite. I always felt bad leaving it on the table (they poured it after every meal in many places), but I just can't do 100-proof hard alcohol. I guess that is a sign that I'm getting old, eh?

After lunch we headed back to town. We lazed around until dinner - shopping in the piazza, getting gelato (YUM), napping (by this time our room had aired out from previous Smoky McSmokerson), hanging by the pool. Generally, the perfect afternoon. Once the time came we headed back to Lamole for dinner at the same restaurant as lunch. On the way we saw this blue tree. I have no idea what was going on with this guy.

We also stopped to take pics of a house Mom liked. She wanted to frame a pic of it, so I took like 50 to make sure I got at least one she liked.

And then we sat down to one of the BEST meals I've ever had. I took pics of every dish but this one was amazing. Warm asparagus flan. We also ordered a red onion and truffle flan. As I gulped it down, I told everyone "You know, if you'd told me yesterday I was going to be eating vegetable pudding and liking it I would have told you you were crazy. But this stuff is amazing!"

This was my entree, a black risotto with asparagus and rabbit. So good.

And we had lots of vino. We had an amazing chardonnay (I liked most of them out there, they were not as oak-y) and a 2004 chianti by Lamole di Lamole. So good. I am regretting not buying some at the grocery store while were there and bringing it home. But we were pretty sure we were close to our weight limit on the suitcases, so didn't bring back any wine :(

And watched an amazing sunset. Our meal overall took about 3 hours, and we were stuffed with some of the most amazing food after we got done. I would SO highly recommend this place, it's like heaven on earth. And the waitstaff was all super friendly and sweet. Our waitress, Francesca, was great at recommending wines.

Day 8 - Capri

The pictures I've been posting are the low-resolution versions of what I actually took so I don't kill the blog. The big guys are located here for Day 8: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agstratt/sets/72157619799208822/

On our only full day in Capri, we woke up rather late. I ate leftover pizza from dinner the night before for breakfast, allowing myself to have a diet coke from the mini fridge. After a bit of laying by the pool, we decided to head down to the port, grab some lunch, and rent a boat to tour around the island. It was super reasonable, only 80 euro (100 dollars or so?) for 2 hours. The thing sounded like a lawnmower, but we had an awesome time taking in the views. I tried (mostly successfully) to keep the camera out of the ocean spray, and took a ton of pics while sunning on the front of the boat.

The boys climbed up into this cave thingy, and hollered at us from inside

There was a freaking HOUSE built on the top of this cave opening. Crazy.

That is our hotel, yellow with the blue awnings!

After the boat ride we took a cable car (funicolare!) to the top of the island, to the tiny piazza in the middle of the small town.

This is the view from the top of the island/hill - where the piazza is

Once in the piazza we got settled and had a little happy hour

I think we might have also seen Michael Jackson?

After happy hour, we went back to the hotel, took a nap. Then we had another happy hour and dinner.

I could get used to island life!!

Day 7 - Pompeii and Capri

The pictures I've been posting are the low-resolution versions of what I actually took so I don't kill the blog. The big guys are located here for Day 7: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agstratt/sets/72157619772966098/

On day 7, we woke up super early and caught a train to Naples. There, a driver picked us up and took us to the ancient city of Pompeii, where our tour guide Elvira met us to walk us through and show us the city. Below are a few of my favorite shots.

Mike poses in the gladiator barracks. The door on his right is a locker, where a gladiator kept all his gladiatorin' junk.
This auditorium had perfect acoustics even today. Standing in the middle, you could hear your voice amplified naturally.
One of the old streets of Pompeii. Pompeii was destroyed in 62AD by a major earthquake, and was in the process of being rebuilt when it was buried in volcanic ash in 79AD. The older streets in Pompeii were constantly wet, washed with the water from the aqueducts. The front room of each house was the bathroom, and the excrement was swept out into the street with water. In this way, the sewage was washed out of the street, and as Elvira said "The streets.... never dirty" There are stepping stones in the middle so that the people could cross the street without getting their feet wet. Check it, you can even see the old chariot tracks in the street.
Posing near a pool in a rich person's house. It was huge!
More of the Pompeii city streets.
This shows how the old streets met up with the new streets. The newer streets had the sewage system running underneath them instead of over the top. This shows how the older street drained into the newer sewage system.
This, uh, carving shows where to find the nearest brothel. I find it's fairly to the point, no? Elvira told us that the beds in the brothels were stone, as to not make any noise!
The central area of the city
Central area, with Mount Vesuvius in the background. You can see how it has two main points after the last eruption.
Us! With Mt Vesuvius in the background, getting our tourist picture takin' on.
More cool old columns.
They had one large shed full of archeological items taken from around the city
When Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD, it was immediately buried by 60 feet of ash (so says Wikipedia, Elvira said 25 feet... who knows). Over time, the bodies buried in the ash decayed away, leaving holes in the ash in their shape. Archeologists poured plaster into the holes to get a cast of those people at the time they died. There were a few like this.
This guy is a dog. "Un perro, un perro!" - some little kids yelled in Spanish.
A temple off the central area
The organization of the civilization at Pompeii was amazing. It's impossible to tell how tall most of the buildings were built, b.c the ash collapsed all of the roofs and many of the upper floors. But the amount that they've dug out was so cool - and there are archeologists still digging out areas of the city. Most of the houses we saw had a hole in the middle of the living room and a basin to catch rainwater. And they even had fast food, even if it was fish soup! Our tour guide was funny, as we stepped out of multiple buildings, she would point to the different directions and say "North, South, East and West. To the West, the sea. To the east, the river. Is good location!"

After our tour at Pompeii, we got back into the van of our driver and he took us to Sorrento to catch the ferry to Capri. Once there we caught an open-air taxi to the hotel and were greeted with this.

So amazing. After a happy hour and some laying by the pool we were ready for dinner. The hotel had a deal at a restaurant in the town square that they also owned that was amazing - 20 euro for a side, first course, second course and dessert. After dinner, the waiter poured a tiny shot glass of lemoncello (a VERY strong Italian cocktail clocking in 48% alcohol) for each of us. You're supposed to sip it - but Mom thought it was lemonade and knocked it back. Dad, Mike and I laughed hysterically while she gasped and made faces at the burning sensation down her throat. So funny.

After dinner we took in some cocktails on the amazing patio of our hotel. We saw a party down the street and decided to check it out - too bad it was for some Major Sailing Competition and clearly we weren't good enough friends with PDiddy to get in. Oh well. We headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.