Italy Journal
Friday, November 23,
2012
Sara (tutor) picked me up at 9:30 to go to Alba for another
tour practice. I always learn lots of new things about the area and am
entertained on these excursions. They are great fun.
This was the afternoon for me to take Stephen and Lori’s
food package from New Orleans to Anna at Molina di Geminella. As always, I had
a great snack and conversation with her, and she LOVED the package that Stephen
and Lori sent to her with all sorts of New Orleans food. I also took her one of
my Nonna
P’ease books. I hope she’ll enjoy that. She seemed pleased to receive
it. Anna gave me some great ideas about Peter’s tour business that I hadn’t
considered. I’m looking forward to discussing them with him when he returns
from Scotland tomorrow night.
Saturday, November
24, 2012
After a fantastic, long walk and a visit to the Piazza
Giolito Farmer’s Market with Ashley, we went home for more leftovers. She
probably thinks I never serve my guests anything but leftovers. She seemed to
really enjoy them, though. We made a date later in the week for a lunch with
Sara. They were both very interested to meet each other, and they have a lot in
common.
Before I took off for Malpensa Airport MXP to retrieve Peter
from Scotland, I went by Ella and Gionni’s house for a short visit. It’s been a
long time since I have seen them, and as always we had a fine time. Enzo and
Lisa were there as well; and Alice, Elettra, Rebeccah, and Rossella all dropped
by during my visit to say hello. I was glad to hear from Rossella that her
husband Teresio has finished his cortisone treatments for his 2 herniated discs
in his spine and would return to work as a PE coach at the high school on
Monday. He’s been in a lot of pain, and Rossella has been stressed trying to
care for him, go to her work and take care of all the other things going on in
her life. He is still going to have to be very careful with his back, but I’m
glad he’s better.
It was good to see Peter; and on the way home, I heard lots
of great stories about what they saw and did in Scotland. It seems that they
spent 2 ½ hours at one farm only walking in the fields with the farmer and
hearing all about their history. Peter was asked to drive the van for the
group, and they drive on the left side of the road, so he had to get used to
that. He did fine after the first few round-abouts, and he was glad to help out
that way. He showed me lots of pictures, and in each one everyone was doing
something interesting and fun. It looked like they were really enjoying their
time in Scotland. I was so pleased to hear all about it.
Sunday, November 25,
2012
There are blind wine tasting events…and then, there are
BLIND WINE TASTING EVENTS. Peter saw our neighbor Alberto when he went next
door to get coffee today. Alberto was going to a party hosted by the wine maker
at the Marchesi di Greysi Vineyard. The wine maker, Jeffrey Chilcott (New
Zealander, but an Italian winemaker for 20 years), was leaving for a 2-month
vacation, and he wanted to get together with his friends before he left. Five
other local wine makers and some other friends were going to be there, and
Alberto invited us to join them. Peter paused, remembering the tall list of
homework that was waiting, then eagerly accepted his kind invitation, struck
with the powerful impact this could have on our tours in this area later and
the fun we anticipated. We were pleased to find out that Jess from Peter’s
class was invited, too. We always enjoy our time with her. My only regret from
the whole evening was that the weather was very foggy, which made it hard to
take advantage of the 225 degree panorama which could be seen on a clear day at
Jeffrey’s house, high on a Piemonte mountaintop promontory.
My mistake was not taking any pictures, but Peter came to
the rescue. We were caught up in the evening, which included feasting on
constantly replenished plates of everything delicious (chicken, lardo, salumi
and prociutto cotto with bread, cheese plates with fresh pears, Peter’s roasted
vegetables, a traditional, savory beef and beans soup, cakes of onion and of
eggplant, sweet cakes and fresh pineapple with dried fig salad drenched with
grappa)… AND… tasting (are you ready?) 27 different wines during the 6-hour
meal from 4:30 to 10:30! We were told that the most they had ever tasted in one
evening was 33. I sort of regretted that we had stopped at 27…so close to the
record! Of course, we left at 10:30, but they were only just getting into the
dessert, so maybe they did keep going to 33 or beyond! I’ll have to ask Alberto
about that! (UPDATE: JESS SAID THEY DID DO 33 AND MATCHED THE RECORD!)
With each new wine; it was tasted, then discussed at length,
and everyone was given an opportunity to guess what kind it was, where it was
made and the year. The 6 winemakers that were there all contributed their own
bottles of surprise wine, and most of them enjoyed center stage when their
wines were tasted and the identities were revealed.
It was a truly memorable night. Thank you so much, Alberto,
for honoring us with an invitation. And, thanks to Jeffrey and all of the other
new friends we met there.
What a special time we had together!
Colleen
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