So Friday we drove our little Smart Car down to Orvieto for a quick look-see at a town we'd never been to. Tammi's Italian teacher has cousins who live in the area and we had gifts to deliver. We thought a couple hours would be enough time to explore. Boy, were we wrong. That's a night or two kind of place so we'll be going back on our next trip (yes Mark and Joe, you heard right). The cathedral alone took two hours. Francesco and Francesca (Rosie's cousins) had invited us to stay at their villa in Fabro, so we headed north on the autostrada for the 20 minute drive. Note to self: accidentally putting the toll ticket in the money slot costs 50E and requires a special trip to the PuntoBlu office to clear the mess up.
Our host's villa is amazing. It was an abandoned old farmhouse they've been working 25 years on that now has the main house and 5 or 6 separate apartments, a huge recreational room, outdoor patios and BBQs, a pool, sun deck and 35 acres of fruit and olive trees. They rent it out for large groups. The apartment they put us in was WAY better than our Florence one and didn't smell like something died. Francesco and Francesca cooked a delicious dinner in their wood burning fireplace and we visited for quite a while over Umbrian wine and a cherry liquor with dessert. They were very gracious and welcoming and insisted we speak only Italian for practice. A very nice night and we woke up chipper despite the wine. We just don't get it. As we were leaving Francesco gave us a tour of the grounds and had us try figs from all his varieties. Tammi and I loved them but frantically started calculating how many bathroom stops there were on the autostrada. He had a lot of figs.
We drove back to Florence Saturday afternoon certain we'd have no trouble finding the rental car office coming in from a different direction. We're getting pretty good at driving here and Matteo, our trusty new friend at Sixt, mapped it all out for us. Sixt Florence, by the way, is the best car rental office ever (sorry Katy). It WOULD have been nice if Matteo had remembered that last little roundabout and jog across the river you have to make when he drew the map. That was critical and caused Navigator Tammi more than a little stress. Poor Matteo got a good ribbing for that one but Tam felt a whole lot better once he admitted it was HIS mistake. Anyway, dinner was at Gusta Osteria so we could say goodbye to Marizio, one of three brothers who run eateries in the piazza. Pascuale has Gusto Panini and we never made it to Gusta Pizza. As if we needed another reason to go back!
Sunday we decided to check out the international market in Piazza Santa Croce. It was only there for the weekend and showcased food and crafts from all over the world. Mom, you would have been in heaven. It wasn't on a stick but there was pork everywhere. The German section alone was mouthwatering and Spain was stirring up huge pots of paella. Poland claimed us with their sausage and roasted potatoes. It's a good thing we walked about 5 miles to get there. It's really less than a mile from the apartment and normally my internal GPS is spot on, but that morning we got stuck in the middle of about 5,ooo Asian tourists off the cruise ships and I think it jammed my radar.
Sunday night was our last opportunity to eat at the Borgo with Miguel, Andrea and Emelie. We both tried a new pasta dish, mine with clams, and I put Parmesan cheese on mine. Apparently putting parm on clams, even if they are over linguine, is a big fat Italian no- no. Just as I finished sprinkling the cheese Miguel walks over, sits down at our table, wags his finger at me and says " mai, mai, mai" and stopped just short of tossing my plate in the garbage like he did with our pizzas. Italians never, never, never put cheese on "fish". Remember Seinfeld's soup-nazi? That was Miguel with the Parmesan. Anyway, it was a perfect night and those guys were so great to sit with us throughout the evening, despite being so busy. It was hard to say goodbye. We are REALLY going to miss them and hope they find their way to Florida or Idaho one day soon. They have friends there now.
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