2 maggio 2010
ciao familia e amici,
we finally are connected, writing you from our little town in Tuscany, Panzano in Chianti. we are staying in a 400-year old farmhouse called Il Palagio (6 different apts where there are also other international guests;http://www.agriturismoilpalagio.it/Palagio_site.page) that is quite nice, though made almost entirely of stone and very cold! (to have heating is very expensive... i might advise against it... :) the apt is fully furnished, has a fireplace and we have everything we need to live comfortably for the month+ that we're here (fridge, oven, pots, pans, lots of cups, wine glasses, linens, washing machine, tv, dvd, radio). it is almost full service, as they'll deliver firewood, olive oil and wine bottles - all the cosa importante - from their winery, though no food). the bedroom and the bathroom are nice, nicer than our apt in alexandria, which is a plus. we will light the fireplace once we find some matches - yes, you can see the little things stop us. climate change has taken over here and it has been reportedly been raining since october of last year - so it has created havoc on the farming and winery schedule here, delaying both. driving around, we are enjoying the incredible hillside views from all angles, every inch covered with olive groves, fruit trees, vineyards... all the roads to get between florence-panzano-siena are all windy... such as life!
[we have only brought the MAC so i am struggling and having convulsions away from my beautiful PC. the MAC won't connect to the WEP2 connection that the farmhouse has, and especially impossible through the thick stone walls. (tu, can you look at what we can do about this WEP2 connection as it's not an option on the MAC?)]
this morning we went to the weekly Panzano sunday market and bought fresh cheeses (a soft goat, a soft cow, and regianno... the real thing in Italy without the airmiles!) they also had a fry truck (yoohoo!) with fried battered delicious vegetables (in olive oil of course) including cauliflower and artichokes - Italian tempura style - and roti chicken. we also bought two types of olio extra vergine di oliva from the local market (i. D.O.P. chianti clasico 3.85 for.25 litro, ii. Sardelli 2.80 for .25 litro...) we will be experts on all the EVOO from across the region soon... some seem more bitter than others, but all delicious! umar cooked up our first meal with a full fridge... penne al ragu, fresh fruit, bread, EVOO, the most delicious heirloom pomodoro and our selection of cheeses... oh yes, and we received a bottle of 2006 Il Palagio Chianti Classico Riserva from the vineyard, left by the owner Monia, her husband and her assistant Antonella that take care of the farmhouse, their B&B in town and the vineyard (all speak English almost perfectly... whew!)
at this moment we're sitting in a cafe before umar goes to meet Dario Cecchini for the first time! he's been studying italian like crazy for the last days to prepare to start his apprenticeship on Wednesday with this world famous tuscan butcher. (inspiration: the new yorker's Bill Bufford's book Heat) Dario’s restaurants are very cool inside (white and red modern aesthetics), where he is the 9th generation of his family’s 500 year old butcher shop – having even served the Medici family - always full, his three restaurants above the butchershop and next door have only large long communal tables. very cool. please send your best as umar begins his Hell's Kitchen italian-style!
we did spend 5 days in granada and malaga, though mostly sick and overmedicating ourselves with a strange tamarind-flavored cough syrup and their version of theraflu, mixed with our nyquil pills from the US. (unfortunately you can't buy antibiotics without a prescription – drats, and yes, we’re still coughing!) the city of granada has changed very dramatically, surely from large infusions of grants from its ascension to the EU. as you might have seen from a few FB posts, the city is with pocos turistas. as one of the downgraded debt countries, it is suffering. across all of spain, there is currently 20% unemployment, and in my beloved Andalucia, it is at a startling 27%. wow. this of course means lots of apts for sale everywhere! in any case, the alhambra is still glorious and full of tourists, and we finally did find a few good modern tapas restaurants (la ermita’s third outpost behind the catedral is incredible... carpaccio of ox (buey) and cod (bacalao)! of course i stopped by Cafe Bar Ocana and yes, el Tony still lives! now with fancy thick glasses and thick side burns! we had a few delicious simple breakfasts of pan con tomato, fresh jugo de naranja and of course, café con leche. we didn't make it to the discoteca Granada 10 due to our debilitated states though next time...! paseo de los tristes is totally gorgeous and peppered with restaurants, on gran via you can actually walk along with no fear, and el sacromonte is pretty safe - though we did give 5 euros to a gitana that forced her blessings on us earlier in the day. granada, with such beautiful sunlight... dale limosna mujer que no hay nada peor que ser ciego en granada... regresaremos a verte!
on the way down to panzano, we did make a quick stop into milano and ate in Caffé Milano on their pedestrian shopping district, visited the incredible duomo and galeria where there was a young man playing beautiful classical music in front of the louis vuitton store, and had some gelato in a modern, hip gelateria called chocola! on a fashion note, i’ve never seen women dressed so well. every woman has such beautiful casual outfits on with beautiful shoes, as if they just bought them minutes ago. even the young look terribly well put together!
bene, we're off back into the rain! hope you are all well, and i'll probably continue to write via email instead of blog until we get a stable connection at the farmhouse! (pictures to follow)!
un bacio per tutti!
ann-marie & umar
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