San Gimignano and return to Roma
With heavy heart we left La Villa Favorita and started our trek back to Roma and Paso Robles. Another beautiful day in the Piemonte as we pulled out of the driveway with Roberta waving goodbye. Sheila led us on a quick drive through of Barbaresco (just so we could say we done it) and we are off in earnest.The only event of note was our lunch break in Carrera where the marble quarries in the hillsides are so extensive it looks like snow. In fact, one of us (no names here) claimed it was snow until we stepped out of the car for lunch and realized it was in the mid-eighties (Farenheit)! Lunch was at a great little fish place that Sheila found; John was the only one to take advantage with a garlic, shrimp, zucchini, paparadelle dish prepared in a garlic/wine sauce. Everyone else went down the spaghetti pomodoro road – which given the quality of the tomatoes we continually encountered is never a bad bet. Jill insisted on continuing the gelato tour of Italy but none of us could get her to try the marble flavor.
I do find it interesting the Jill can sleep in the back when I’m doing 150km/hr sustained on the Auto Strade but gets all fidgety when I’m doing 70m/hr on the interstate… (JB)
San Gimignano is a quaint but very touristy town. John had his one bump incident of the car turning around on the ring road outside the wall that turned out not to be ring – and not to be road! The town itself is based in the linen trade and the many tall towers are not – for once – intended for defense but were part of the textile manufacturing process used back in the day.
From a gustatory perspective (which if you haven’t figured out is about the main reason we came) San Gimignano stands out for the meal we lucked into. The hotel desk clerk (this was the only place we stayed in a purpose built hotel and I’d go back there tomorrow just to unwind for a week. Beautiful rooms, great pool, wonderful view and people) sent us to La Mangiatoia which is tucked away on a little side street. We imitated the Piemonte style only this time with forethought and ordered food for two instead of four (and they had excellent wines available by the liter instead of the bottle)!
Antipasti:• Two kinds of salami
• Crostini with tomatoes
• Barley salad w/cucumber, tomato and red onion
• Chicken liver pate on crostini
• Artichoke hearts
• Proscuitto w/melon
• Sausage frittata
Prima:
• Ravioli stuffed with pecorino and potato in a butter & truffle sauce
• Paparadelle with pork ragu
Secondi:
• Venison stewed in a mushroom sauce
• Chicken baked in a mushroom/cream sauce
• Cannelini beans in olive oil
• Roasted potatoes
And that’s about it for San Gimignano. Obligatory gelato walking back to the hotel. A few more touristy places for Jill and Sheila to look at ceramics and linens and we are done. Everyone is sort of in a reflective mood after 14 days of close quarters, messed up sleep patterns, too much good food/wine and facing down the return to reality.
Saturday morning was a pack up; hit the road and head for home time. We had a brief lunch at the same place in Orvieto as we did on the way up (the grilled sausages still excellent; the house wine – thoroughly tested with another 1.5 liter sample – still delicious). Sheila and John passed their final exam – navigating/driving into Roma back to the Hotel Bolivar and then to the Termini to drop off the rental car – with outstanding marks (although John felt that the test was a bit of a pushover as it wasn’t Friday night rush hour but he did get extra points for casually driving through the pedestrian only area of the Roma center as if he belonged there!); Jill finally got to toss her coins into the Trevi Fountain and it started to rain again. Another excellent dinner at Target – the same place we ate on our first night in Roma – a glass of wine in the lobby and the trip (or the fun part) was over.Sheila and David leave on Sunday at 7:00 AM; John and Jill at 8:30. We will see you all back in Paso!
Last post to come: What did we learn?
Ciao!
Jill and John
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