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All caught up now... O. M. G. I don't have any superlatives left for your pictures. I'll just call them out: Duomo. Pottery. Countryside. Hidden Mickey. Pasta. Infinity pool. sigh...
I love the hotel and grounds! For some reason, when I heard you'd be in Tuscany for 3 days I pictured a hotel in Florence. This is nice, though, after just being in the center of Rome. I really wanted to pluck an olive out of the screen-- those look wonderful, and I do love a good olive! Did they have a shop selling the olive oil and olives?
( I wish they'd hurry up and release the 2012 ABD itineraries!)
Staying in Artimino was really nice. It gave us a nice taste of the Italian countryside and allowed us to decompress from the hectic pace of Rome. I absolutely loved it! They did have a small gift shop with plenty of olive oil and the bath products with olive oil, but no olives, I guess they weren't in season. And I heard the 2012 itineraries will be released on August 30.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coop
Tuscany looks BEAUTIFUL! I'm a country girl by nature and looks like I would love it! I'm afraid if I went there I would be like Jessica Lange in "Under the Tuscan Sun" and just buy a place and never come back! The olives, the wine . . . oooh. Can't wait to hear/read more!
It definitely makes you want to stay. I felt very much at home, like I was visiting friends instead of staying at a hotel. It was almost like a bed and breakfast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disney_duke
Even now my DH wants to go to Italy. He's terrified of the loooong flight over the big blue, but he really wants to go to Italy!!! And can I just say these are the most delicious looking potatoes I've ever seen!
Not to mention the dessert. Oh my.......
I think if he can sleep on the plane, it would be fine. Most of the flights are overnight, so you wake up and you're in Italy. I flew direct to/from NY and it was 8 hours to Rome and 9 hours from Venice. Also, if you fly economy plus or first class, it's more comfortable, so you can talk him into that! The potatoes were yummy, I've never met a potato I didn't like but we had even better ones the next night (though I think these looked yummier).
Quote:
Originally Posted by scrappyjae
What a lovely little place. The food looked good. Funny though, I just went to a wine tasting last night as part of a week long Buy Local celebration that our office is participating in. We did a tour of the winery as well, although, ours is just a small winery in our County. But, it was nice and a good change. I'm not much of a wine drinker (I like my drinks fruity flavored) but I did find a nice white desert wine that would go awesome with that chocolate mousse!
I have to make it clear, I'm no wine enthusiast. I'm a blender drink kinda girl to be honest. But it's been fun trying different wines and I'm starting to learn which ones I like. And there's a funny wine experience at lunch the next day. With dessert wine. But you'll have to wait for that story!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a fun time at the wine tasting! I love the hotel and the grounds - beautiful.
The next day was spent entirely at the hotel, so there are lots more photos to come, including the big villa.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata
Ok those potatoes look absolutely mouthwatering. I'm about to start licking my computer screen.
The views are stunning. I'm foaming at the mouth here... wow!
Warning, food pics coming up soon. Also, the most food porn of the entire report is coming up not in the update I'm about to post now, but in the one after, so beware!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I forgot to mention that dinner looked fantastic and I'm crazy about the plates!
The plates were a big hit with our group. We had a discussion about them at dinner!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrDolphin
The wine tasting sounded fun - and the olives looked WONDERFUL (I adore olives) - dinner sounded great too. I love your photo with the sunset and the pool.... dreamy.
The olives were a big hit with almost everyone!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Baloo
I love that your hotel was a converted stable--from the Medici Family, no less!! How cool is that?
That was cool, right? It was perfect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
This picture is so great! Makes me want to jump in to my computer right now!
Now that you mention it, yeah, I do want to jump right in!
Quote:
Originally Posted by goofyboysmama
All caught up now... O. M. G. I don't have any superlatives left for your pictures. I'll just call them out: Duomo. Pottery. Countryside. Hidden Mickey. Pasta. Infinity pool. sigh...
"Sigh" about sums it up for me, too.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Day Six – Monday, 30 May Who knew that would be my favorite?
I woke up around 6 and had a leisurely morning. After relaxing in my room for a while, I grabbed a shower and got dressed. I headed down to breakfast. Breakfast here was a little disappointing, but I did manage to fill my belly, so that’s all that matters in the end.
Then I decided to walk up to the big villa to get some pictures. But first… the pool. It was an infinity pool, and I thought that was awesome! I infinity pools!
That’s my corner room
The walk up to the villa was quick. There wasn’t much activity going on (which is good, we weren’t allowed to go over there if something was going on). They host events like weddings and such.
I walked around back, figuring I’d check out the tennis courts, but when I didn’t see them I decided not to wander trying to find them.I later learned that they were a bit far away, up and down a big hill, so I guess I’m glad I didn’t bother, since I was only going to look, not play.
I loved this tree! I could easily imagine myself sitting under it for a while with my Kindle
I walked back to the front, planning to climb the stairs and check out the frescoes on the ceiling.
I’ve heard that this is called the villa of a hundred chimneys. I counted the chimneys and there weren’t a hundred that I could see, but there sure were a lot! It looks like I was the only one there, but I was joined by a couple of my fellow Adventurers. I was able to take their picture with both of them in it, which I’m sure they were happy about. But I really loved that there were so few guests at the hotel. It really made it feel like a villa and I was someone’s personal guest.
Anyway, I loved the view from up there, so I hung out for a while.
I love that you can see so many of the chimneys in this shot!
I wanted to read, so I went back to my room, getting a few more pictures on the way.
This is the lounge next to the lobby – free wifi here
Speaking of free wifi, I don’t remember if I mentioned it, but there was free internet in the rooms, and in the two lounges (on each floor) there was free wifi.
I loved that so many flowers were in full bloom. That fertile Italian soil rocks! I went to my room and grabbed my Kindle and sat out by the pool, reading for a while. It was lovely.
See? It was nearing time for our pasta-making class, so I put the Kindle in my room (which I didn’t bother to lock ) and then went down to meet with the rest of the group.
When everyone had gathered, we walked over as a group to the little restaurant behind our hotel and up to a room they had set up for us.
We met Michaela, our chef, who showed us how to make pasta from 100 grams of flour, some olive oil, an egg and some spinach.
Then she showed us how to cut it and make shapes (she did a little bow tie like it was second nature to her. Mine came out looking like, well, my other stuff came out great ).
She also showed us how to cut pasta with the machine.
It was an informative lesson and I felt like I could tackle it on my own after that. I wasn’t all that excited about this activity, but I will try almost anything once. Honestly, the thing I was the most uncomfortable about was touching the raw egg (raw eggs really gross me out – to the point that if I need to crack 2 or 3 eggs for a recipe, I must wash my hands in between each egg ).
Honestly, just looking at the picture gives me the shudders
Once the pasta came together, it was a lot more fun. I worked and kneaded that pasta like an expert. Michaela came around to check the consistency of everyone’s pasta and let us know when we were ready to start rolling it out.
Once it was sufficiently dried (after about 15 minutes or so), it was time to cut it. We had the option of making several different shapes by hand – I came closest to real pasta with the bow tie shape, but Michaela’s work made mine look like the completely amateurish stuff it was. In the end, the bulk of mine was made into linguine.
We had an expert in our group. Ed had made pasta before, so after he did his own, he helped everyone else. I definitely chose the right group!
Here’s a look at my finished product:
Looks like real pasta and everything!
Tina couldn’t wait to sample some.
Here’s what our group managed. You can tell the perfect Michaela-made bow ties from our efforts.
This was so much fun! I can make simple dishes, but I never even considered homemade pasta. It was easier than I thought it would be, and I have this fantasy of buying a pasta machine and making my own pasta regularly. Of course, it isn’t like to happen, but I enjoyed this activity way more than I expected to, and it’ll be a precious memory for me forever.
After making the pasta, we went to the restaurant. This was another lovely spot for photos (but honestly, I think that can be said for all of Italy, particularly Tuscany).
Then we were seated for our pasta lunch. Again, good company, good food. By the way, we didn’t eat the pasta we made. We ate pasta prepared by professionals, who’d washed their hands and followed other rules of basic hygiene.
OMG, this makes me so hungry! I need to get some breakfast!
Excuse me, I’ve gotta go get a snack!
Okay I’m back. Dessert was a biscotti, which you were meant to dip in the dessert wine. The biscotti on its own was kind of yucky, but combined with the dessert wine (also kind of yucky), it was… really yucky. It tasted sort of like eating Listerine.
The topic of discussion at our table turned to what tasted worst – the biscotti alone, the wine alone or the combination.
SPOILER! If you don’t want to be spoiled, skip to the next post. Then we got that day’s pin.
During lunch, the subject of weather came up. Before our trip began, many people, including myself, checked the weather and rain was forecast for every day but one of our trip. Well, I usually have good weather on my trips (as y’all can confirm), so I said that they could thank me for the good weather we’d been having. I am good weather luck! I did let them know, however, that if it did indeed rain, that was someone else’s fault entirely.
During lunch, I was seated with most of the people going to Pisa and I came very close to changing my mind and going with them, but then I decided that I didn’t really want to ride for 3 hours in the car. After lunch, they went in a car service that Marco and Tina helped them arrange.
I was going to do the winery tour which was in a few minutes, so I returned to my room to drop off my sunglasses.
Up next: OMG!!! A snake!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
What a perfect morning! The villa and grounds are amazing and the pasta class looks like a lot of fun. Yours turned out great! I used to make pasta all the time and the silky feel of the pasta dough when it's kneaded is wonderful. Fresh pasta seems to hold the sauce much better than dried, too. The pasta you had for lunch has me salivating, too, but then you took my appetite away with the listerine for dessert ! The pin-of-the-day is great. Have you done anything special to display your ABD pins?
Thanks for the info about the release of the 2012 itineraries. All they'd tell me was "in August" so I was hoping for early in the month.
What a beautiful morning! I also loved that tree, it's so picturesque. I could sit there and look out over the countryside all afternoon. Ahhhh. Glad you enjoyed the pasta-making-adventure! I too have never met a potato I didn't like.
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Tanya
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My goodness, with the boards being down and me having continued problems getting in (hopefully resolved now!) I missed a lot!! All caught up and lovin' everything. Being from an Italian family (by marriage) we make pasta each and every Christmas when we have our family get together. My mother in law had a different approach to the making. She started with a five pound sack of flour and a dozen eggs!! We've now determined that 1/2 cup (of semolina flour) and one egg is a better method. I sometime use some oil. But, I love the idea of adding the spinach as it would be a great way to identify different types of ravioli that we make! Thanks for taking us along and I do so wish we could have helped you enjoy all that good food!
Beautiful pictures from today - both the scenery AND the food!!
I think I mentioned when you did the live report that I do have one of those pasta machines. From Italy. Hasn't come out in 15 years, which coincides with the birth of my first child! But I'm really feeling compelled to dig it out one of these days to make fresh pasta with DD. She'd love that!
What was in the pasta dish with the spinach noodles? Looked like veal maybe? I am SOOOOO hungry now!!
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Wow. Wow. Wow. So many beautiful pictures! So much beautiful scenery! Glad you enjoyed making pasta. It sure looked like fun! And now I'm really hungry. Great update. I really, really, really want to go on an ABD trip now.
All caught up again... Tuscany looks so beautiful. Oh to have sat there and pretend that was my home.. The food looks delicious., though I am not fan of olives... I may have taken a small bite of those to try. So I am guessing after the biscotti and listerine... everyone was in search of gelato?
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And I heard the 2012 itineraries will be released on August 30.
Not to mention the dessert. Oh my.......
The potatoes were yummy, I've never met a potato I didn't like but we had even better ones the next night (though I think these looked yummier).
I love the hotel and the grounds - beautiful. 
"Sigh" about sums it up for me, too.
infinity pools! 
) and then went down to meet with the rest of the group. 
). 
Then we got that day’s pin.
The pin-of-the-day is great. Have you done anything special to display your ABD pins? 
Glad you enjoyed the pasta-making-adventure! I too have never met a potato I didn't like. 
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