Tuscany Road Trip Day 3

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The following morning we had a quick breakfast at the farm and then onto our last day of the road trip. We spent a few hours at the designer outlet store. We saw an amazing jacket from Gucci that would have been the perfect match with one of the pairs of my shoes that I had previously purchased and it was reduced heaps too from 25,000E to just 9,500E!!! Yes it’s still at the store…we did pick up some Miss Sixty jeans and I bought yet another pair of shoes…I swore I wouldn’t but I did, when you see them you’ll know why (that’s to the girls of course).

Montepucharno was our next and final stop. We reached there for lunch and had a type of pasta only made in the region called Pici. We all had Pici allaragu. So pasta in a meat and tomato sauce accompanied with one of the wineries reds (delicious). The views were spectacular…actually all the views were throughout all 3 days really just some where more so than others if that’s possible! Close by is Cortona Village where some of villa scene’s were filmed for Under the Tuscan Sun which was to be our next stop after we had checked into our hotel, Hotel Tarrazzo with Roberto as our host. Now Roberto is one of those unforgettable characters that clearly loves life. He can be easily described as an Italian Basil Fawlty, out of Fawlty Towers! Fortunately Roberto doesn’t possess any of Basil’s negative qualities just the positive funny ones! As we needed to book the next part of our stay here in Italy we hit the Internet Café and due to our time spent there Cortona was scratched. A little disappointing although we had seen Montepucharno’s square where the flag throwing scene was shot…and we will also see Positano parts when we reach the Amalfi Coast.

Dressed and ready for dinner we walked 1 minute to a bar/restaurant and had aperitifs’ (commonplace here) before dinner at Gordimento. This place had been renovated around 4 years ago and when digging out and underground so they could extend they came across some Etruscan Caves. The Etruscan people use to live underground in a (very) small round area with around 2-3 othere smaller round areas. This is now a feature of the new back level of Gordimento. I asked H if the government stepped in when things of the past were found. The government generously funds 50% of the dig as they see it as all part of the tourist trade.

We ate at a local restaurant owned by Pier Lugi a friend of H’s. From the greeting the were fond mates and a short conversation took place between them. Pier turned to us and introduced himself to us and asked our names and then announced that he thought we were “Fuckingly Gorgeous” which just about brought the house down as most of the patrons in the restaurant heard him! He had asked H how to say something to complement us. H had said “Tell them they are amazingly gorgeous…apparently Pier had his English mixed up! That night…our last in Florence we decided that R and I would share the Florentine Steak, one that we had seen on many menus and one of the traditional dishes throughout Tuscany. It is a huge thick T Bone needing at least three people to eat it. R and I managed most with H joining in at the end. A nice bottle of Sav Blanc as they had run out of two of the Pinot Grigio’s for R and I. I was a bit concerned at first as it smelt like cat’s pee…but tasted devine!

Pier Lugi also owns a Café/bar so a table was booked for us as it was Wednesday evening and piccolo sabato sera takes place (little Saturday night). R and I were quite popular there even though there was a (verbal) language barrier and at times H jumped in to interpret when needed. Francesco is in a pic seated next to me…could have easily packed him into my suitcase to bring home forgoing all purchases made here! He was quite keen to see “la camera” which I found out the following day from H meant bedroom…nothing to do with taking pictures! There is another story here for those that want to know when we return.

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