DAY 7 COOKING IN STYLE

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Today was our last ful day in Florence, and it was a great one! Once again Leonardo was our driver and he drove us to Castello Del Trebbio, a privately owned castle about one hour northeast of Florence. We enjoyed beautiful scenery along the way. Although we had an overcastsky most of the day, we were happy it was not raining.

Alberto. cousin of the owner of the castle, was our tour guide. Before we began our tour we met the gamekeeper, Mario. Mario is in his 80's and has been gamekeeper since 1953. At that time, the gamekeeper had to sign an agreement not to get married. They wanted the gamekeeper to have no distractions as he protected the vineyards from poachers and wild animals. When the present owners bought the castle, they allowed him to marry and he was married within 2 weeks. I will include pictures of Mario.

As Alberto began the tour of the winery, the power went out. Alberto had to carry candles down into the cellar and into the dungeon. It was a bit strange. In the dungeon were large terra cotta jars which once held freshly pressed olive oil. Today

the olive oil must be kept in stainless steel containers. We got quite an education about olive oil along with their high quality Rufino wine made right on the grounds.

After the winery tour, we arrived at the kitchen where we had a Tuscan cooking lesson. You will see pictures of us making our pasta dough. I was a star pupil with the pasta, but Bobby was the one who had the nose for identifing wine ingredients. After our work in the kitchen was completed, we went to the dining room. Alberto instructed us in proper wine tasting as we ate our bruschetta. The next course was the pasta dishes we made. One sauce was made with sausage and the other was vegetarian. The pasta was really good even if the sizes of the pasta varied. I thnk I have a picture of the pasta dishes.

Before we left, we asked Alberto to show us their olive oil press since it was new and this is such an important step in making the best olive oil. ( By the way, you can adopt an olive tree and come to Tuscany for the harvest, pick olives from

the tree and bring home the olive oil you pressed.)

We really felt like we were part of the local culture today. When the grandson came in from his classes and kissed his grandmother in the kitchen, I almost expected him to kiss us too.

After arriving back in Florence, we took a short walk, getting caught in a rain shower and then returned to meet Leo for our last tour. We walked to the Academy for Fine Arts (founded in 1563) and viewed the artwork, including Michelangelo's David. Leo has a degree in art history, so you know we learned a lot from him. However, we had to say Ciao to Leo as we walked back to our hotel.

Bobby and I walked across the Arno river and aet at Mamma Gina's. The food was excellent and our waiter loves to sing so it was dnner and show.

Tomorrw we say goodbye to Florence and head to Venice. Enjoy the pictures.

Frances and Bobby

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