We reserved a Mercedes E Class but Hertz thought the Chrysler

Mini-van of love was more our speed!  2 thumbs down for Hertz

Food Pics

BR - Tuscany and Florence

I have some catching up to do with the belly report.  So we left off with the fantastic cooking class, that was our lunch - the risotto and gnocchi.  After that we had some down time, so we took a walk through the vineyards and into the neighboring town.  We sampled a couple sangiovese right off the vine - delish and probably a couple weeks from harvest (these next couple weeks are crucial for this years harvest.  The grapes are basically left to grow for much of the summer with basic care but as September/October come then the harvest is monitored closely and once they sugar and acidity are at the desired or close to desired levels, they will start cutting, much still done by hand).  

We had the wine tasting at Mangiacane that afternoon - we sampled the Villa's own Chianti Classico and the Chianti Riserva.  Both were decent but not great (the '05 Riserva was rated 87 by Wine Spectator and Paolo, the wine director was a bitter about that to say the least!).  We took Paolo's recommendation and headed to Osteria di Passiganao:

http://www.osteriadipassignano.com/index.php?osteria_di_passignano_eng

We started with the Parmigiana & Parmigiana starter - 1) Crunchy Eggplant and Buccia di Rospo foam 2) Zucchini with Squash flower salad.  It was very interesting and super good.  Parmigiana done 2 ways that I have never seen anything close to (I will include pics).  We also ordered the cheese plate, a mix of 3 cow, 3 sheep, and 3 goat.  The plate was arranged from the youngest to the very aged.  There was one the server warned us about that said 'it brought tears to his eyes because it was that good'.  He was right on point, wow it was good, no tears but incredible!  

The First Course was split the 'Green Cannelloni filled with ricotta and aromatic herbs on bread with tomato cream'  - it was phenomenal, really different and innovative.  They basically used the cannelloni as a pasta.  For the main we picked the 'Beef Filet Wrapped in Cheek Bacon and Bay Leaf'.  It was also great, what a meal!  We paired all of this with the 'Badia di Passignano' Chianti Riserva.  After dinner I was like a kid in a candy store at their wine shop (bought a Tignanello, Brunello, another Chianti Riserva, and some olive oil).  Looking back this was the best meal we ate, everything was just great.

We started our last day in Tuscany with the regular hotel breakfast then headed out to San Gimignano and Siena.  The last stop was Badia a Coltibuono, a huge winery in Gaiole Chianti.  We got a great tour of the winery including seeing the family's private collection (bottles from every year since 1939!).  We ended the tour with a tasting of 3 wines, 2 honey, and 3 olive oils.  Our favorite wine was the 'Cultus Boni' Chianti Classico, the oils and honey were very tasty. 

After the tasting we headed over to their restaurant, a short walk from the tasting room.  

We started with the 'Tomato, Mozzarella, and crispy bread with caper sauce' very nice, different, we liked it.  Then we shared the 'Porcini veloute' basically a Porcini mushroom soup and the 'Ricotta cheese dumplings chestnut and chestnut sauce'.  The soup was a good choice because it was rainy and cold that night.  The gnocchi dumplings were so good, amazing.  Ricotta stuffed gnocchi?!?  How the hell did they do that?.  We finished with the 'Beef shank braised in sangiovese grapes with mashed potatoes'  another good choice with the weather.  It was very tender slow cooked meat, very flavorful.  A great dinner for the last dinner in Tuscany, so sad:(

On to Firenze!  Overall the food in Florence was good but not comparable to Tuscany and much more expensive.  Tuscany was very reasonable (keep in mind we are used to NYC prices!).  Dinner the first night was at Aqua al 2, a touristy trattoria but fun.  We got the pasta sampler, cheese plate and then the 'blueberry filet'.  The Blueberry steak was nice, the sauce was sweet from the blueberries but also spicy from the peppercorns.  It was different and we liked it.  The highlight of dinner was the '05 Tignanello - umm umm good!  The night cap was probably one too many Morretti pints at a small bar by the hotel.

On our last day we built up an appetite sight seeing and hit 'Osteria de Benci' for lunch.  We started with the cannellini and garlic bruschetta then ordered 2 pastas (Dina had the signature spaghetti carbonera and I opted for the fusilli pasta with pancetta,  hot red peppers, and lots of garlic!  Both were better than expected.  

For dinner we headed to Borgo San Jacopo, a great hotel restaurant on the edge of the Arno river.  We started with the stuffed Zucchini flowers, excellent just not enough of them!  Then we split the 'Raviolo of fresh pasta filled with smoked scamorza cheese in a tomato, eggplant,  and marjoram sauce'. Molto buono!  (Again not enough of it).  The main was the 'Veal rolls romana style with potato cake, ham and sage sauce'.  Excellent!  The wine choice could have been the nicest of the trip, a 2003 Brunello 'Il Colle' (from a small producer).  The wine was earthy and smooth,  much smoother then the Chianti's we have been drinking.  

That's it!  Now its back to the gym to try and work off all of the carbs.  Pics will be posted shortly.... 

         

Florence

We arrived in Florence Thursday mid day. We dropped off our rental car and arrived at JK Place (really pretty boutique hotel in Piazza Santa Maria Novella). See link:

http://www.jkplace.com/

We dropped off our luggage and made our way right over to the Cathedral Santa Maria (better known as the Duomo), Battistero and the unbelievable Duomo ceiling. We stared at the Duomo ceiling from the alter of the church......really amazing to look at but could not hold a candle to what it looked like as you are perched right underneath the ceiling. We climbed 463 steps to the very top....along very tiny stairs. The fresco painted ceiling is truly remarkable. When we had climbed a bit higher to an overlook on the outside of the top of the Duomo, it had finally stopped raining. As we overlooked the city of Florence and the hills of Tuscany – there was a beautiful rainbow across the sky line. We were treated to two rainbows in two days!

We went to enjoy a cappuccino and espresso and as we were walking through the square on our way to see the statue of David (Michelangelo) we heard our names being called out through the square. Our friends Vicki & John from the villa were also in Florence! So, we stopped and chatted and then they walked us over to the Accademia (museum). We very much enjoyed the Accademia because we were blown away by the David. Why were we blown away? As you stare up at this massive sculpture that was created from one slab of marble (1501-1504), you actually see muscle definition (throughout entire body), veins, perfect proportions, it looks as though he was in motion....really was a sight to see. We listened to a tour guides information and read about the David. We learned that it had been attacked in 1991 by a hammer wielding disgruntled artist. Luckily only David's feet were scratched up just a bit. In 2001, a group of people from an organization called “Friends of Florence” had an event in which they raised money to restore the David. Oddly enough the owner from our Villa Mangiacane in Tuscany had contributed as did a wealthy family by the name of Sager from Boston. The only $ contributions to this restoration effort came from a South African and an American- no Italians. Many Italian people found this to be odd and troubling, but not bad enough to contribute apparently. We left the Accademia and were off to the hotel to relax and get ready for dinner at a restaurant called Aqua al 2. This restaurant was recommended to us by a couple also on their honeymoon from Chicago that we met in Positano. Dinner was great and we met a nice couple there as well (from Australia) and we tapped into Tiagnello, one of Mike's favorite wines. We walked back through the squares and listened to live music and shared some Moretti (Italian beer) outside. Then we headed home and the next day we were off to explore Florence.

Day two of Florence we headed over to the Uffizi museum, walked all around trying to see of there was any affordable shopping. There was not. Sadly we bought nothing. Well, only olive oil, balsamic vinegar and wine. Mike bought the olive oil and balsamic vinegar at a sweet little husband and wife run shop- they allowed you to taste everything prior to purchase. We walked over Ponte Vecchio (known as the old bridge -landmark- full of jewelry stores, over to Piazza Pitti (enjoyed a gelato) and then headed over to Santa Croce (church built in 1294) and that houses the crypts/ tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Bruni, and Rossini (amongst others). We spent some time reading about each person and looking at the art throughout the church.  Afterwards we grabbed a quick bite and were off for a siesta. The hotel set us up on the roof deck prior to dinner with champagne and treats for a sunset toast, very sweet. We enjoyed our time (we were the only people out there on the roof deck- really pretty) then were off for dinner. Dinner was nice -over looking ponte vecchio and the arno river. Then we walked around a bit and headed back to the hotel. We both are a bit sad b/c we head back to NYC Sat and the honeymoon is officially over.....as this blog will be and the endless gifts of champagne. We'll wrap this blog up tomorrow and add some fun pics. We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our trip and we can't wait to spend time sharing photographs! With love- us.

Recap as we have been a bit mia.....

We arrived in Tuscany at the Villa Mangiacane, a beautiful and art detailed 15th century villa built by the Machiavelli family. There were large gates that opened up as you arrive at the villa. You drive down a very long stone drive way, looking right & left you see the vineyards, the owners helicopter, and villa (which also includes the reception area, spa, two pools, outdoor sitting areas in the garden, restaurant and wine cellar.  This place was such a unique find-take a moment and check out the link to their website- so pretty!

http://www.mangiacane.it/

We met very nice people during our time at the villa.  Salvatore and Michael both worked at the restaurant and treated us wonderfully. We also met Massimo (on site chef from a town called Prato- about 40 minutes north of villa). He was self taught and shared amazing recipes at a cooking class that we had with him (personal, just us!). We cooked together and then we ate together and shared the villa's wine. A three hour informative class. What I thought was really cool was that when we met for our class we not only focused on the meals that we were to cook that day but he also knew exactly what we had ordered the evening prior and shared with us how he prepared each of our meals (three course meals). He was very talented....see included link:

http://www.mangiacanespa.com/cooking-classes.php

We relaxed at the Villa, enjoyed lots of food, met a great couple from Chicago (Vicki and John who were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary!), we walked through the vineyards and into the Chianti region. Such a  pretty and relaxing place! Day one consisted of relaxing and a superb dinner! Day two we enjoyed the cooking class and the wine tasting class with Paulo and then later in the evening we went to dinner at the Antonari estates restaurant, Osteria di Passignano (one of the largest wine maker in Italy). This place was unbelievable. The estate was set so high up (scary tiny roads) in Tuscany and as you arrived all you could see was the castle and clock tower. Such a medieval feel and has been a family business since the 12th century. We enjoyed a great dinner, arguably our best...and met a cool father and son from Montreal. Mike bought some wine from the store- a ridiculous bottle of Tiagnello and we were back to the villa. 

The last full day at the villa we spent driving, driving and more driving. We did two day trips to San Gimignano, full of medieval towers (14 remain and there used to be 70), and is known as medieval Manhattan. I was a bit disturbed as I had read a lot about this town prior and it's torture treatments of the towns people (including children) which we both were highly disturbed by. They even had museums all about torture. It was a bit much. Mike and I enjoyed best the architecture of the town- as it is on a hilltop-amazing views (impressive as you drive up). FYI- George Clooney just bought a house here as well. Very narrow streets and tall walls- very much a maze like feel. The enoteca's, the shop owners, the gelato shops were all very nice- we enjoyed a slice of pizza in the town square and then we were off to Siena. 

Siena was really nice however exactly the moment that we arrived it was pouring! We walked drenched wet throughout this town that had narrow streets and steep alleys. They had amazing shops and we made our way to the Duomo- beautiful and Piazza del Campo (where they run the Palio-horse race each year). We both enjoyed the feel and energy of this town- it was as though you were in a movie set. 

We departed - still completely drenched from the rain and got back in the car. We were invited by a NYC contact to visit the winery Badia Coltibuono. See link of this estate!

http://www.coltibuono.com/index.asp?lingua=_L2

During the course of the 19th century, the former monastery was transformed into a wine estate and is surrounded by forest. We visited their shop, received an amazing private tour including a wine, olive oil and honey tasting by Silvia from Firenze- so sweet! We also went into their church and there was the very same sculpture of Mary that we have at my parents house in the back yard. The one where Mary is stepping on the serpent. It was really cool there....we loved it. Afterwards we had a wonderful dinner at their Osteria and got back o the road where we remained for over 2 hours of pain. 

When we say two hours of pain....we can't make this stuff up. We were advised to "watch out for wild boar while driving" and "if we are to hit one and their big asses- it's like hitting a brick wall..."- this little bit bothered me and we vowed to no matter what stay in the car. We drove back after it had become dark and alas there are no street lights and never lost had earned it's new name of forever lost. It had asked us to make illegal U turns and to take non existing exits off roundabouts (one roundabout actually had 6 exits). Needless to say this was the most scary and uncomfortable portion of our trip to Italy. We drove and drove and drove....and then almost drove right into (as our high beams put them on center stage) three "working" women-soliciting. I would highly recommend never driving in Tuscany after dark.....that was brutal. On a safer note, once we arrived back at the villa we hung out and got ready for the final day/breakfast at the villa and we were off to Florence/ Firenze. 

Florence details to follow.....We heart Florence/ Firenze!