Ciao, Italia!

Eating our homemade pasta at the Villa

Third time's the charm, right? After two failed attempts to get to Italy (IXPUG Meeting in 2018, foiled by a Nor'easter, and May 2020 foiled by COVID), we finally made it! 

Friday, May 20: We were not the only ones in the airport with masks, but definitely in the minority. The flight to Dulles was uneventful, but the C and D gates at IAD were *packed*. Lots of school kids going to Europe. 

We had the middle and window seats in the middle of the plane, but not in Premium Economy (which apparently didn't hold over from our tickets purchased 2 years ago). Ugh. The guy on the aisle was a fidgeter. And there were so many little kids on the plane! I felt bad - one of them cried for his mommy for about three straight hours. But I was also super grateful for my earplugs and eyeshades. The gluten-free food on the plane was HORRIBLE, btw. Do not recommend. 

Saturday, May 21

I will say, when we arrived, it was the fastest passport check ever - European airports use facial recognition scans, so they barely talked to us when they stamped passports, and we were out! 

The first person we met was Linda, our Culture Discovery Vacations (CDV) guide. She was a hoot! I started practicing my Italian immediately. (Grazie, Duolingo!) Linda was very impressed. That started a thing where any time she didn't know a word in English, she'd look at me and say it in Italian so I could translate -- all week long. I kinda felt like "teacher's pet" - but on the other hand, I loved it, because I was learning too!

I am so grateful that I can eat like a human here (aka "glutens, get in my belly!") The first thing I did was get a sandwich at the airport, to make up for all of the horrible GF food on the plane. Lesson learned - bring your own.  

The bus from Rome to Soriano nel Cimino took about 90 minutes. Sergio, our driver, is like Mario Andretti, and the roads are small and curvy. Our bus had big plush seats, a card table in the back, and only 4 of us + Linda. The other couple, Sandy and Rod, were from Sun City in Arizona. The rest of the folks were coming in by train from other parts of Italy.

The town of Soriano is really cute - population around 10k. They walked us up the street to a pretty large apartment. Strange decor - modern art & nudes in the living room, and picture of two Popes and religious art in the bedroom. John found a bookcase of ancient medical textbooks. We rested, unpacked, showered -- in the tiniest box shower ever -- and went back to the plaza to meet up for orientation. We gathered at a pizza place and had aperitivos (snacks and drinks, like tapas). There were 14 of us total, mostly couples. One couple (Martin and Julie) just got engaged in Venice! I thought I was going to be the youngest on the trip, but there's a couple in their 20's (Kevlyn and JT) who came with her parents (John and Bonnie), from Boulder. Cathy lives in Alexandria and came solo, and John and Bonnie's friend Tamara also came alone. Tina was there with her mom, Diane - Tina is a documentary producer in LA. (I found her IMDb page.) Diane is from Rhode Island - she was quiet but once you got her going, she was hilarious.

We all introduced ourselves, and then we went up to the Castello Orsini at the top of the hill, through the old medieval part of the town. (Linda kept saying "middle evil" which is pretty apt anyway.) :) The Castello was built between the 13th and 16th centuries. Our tour guide was wonderful - he spoke English very well and answered all kinds of questions. We ventured into some of the solitary cells, and climbed a spiral staircase to the top of the tower. The castle was actually a prison up until 1989! We went down to the armory and checked out the swords and chain mail that had been there for hundreds of years.

The castle was also hosting a display of old-fashioned radios, record players, victrolas, etc. - complete with the old RCA ads with Nipper "his master's voice" - in Italian! "La voce del Padrone" 

Then we went down the hill to Il Carolino restaurant - we sat at a long table on a huge patio overlooking the valley. There was SO MUCH FOOD. Antipasti - artichokes, salad, cured meats, focaccia, etc. Then lasagna with a mushroom sauce, a meat course (I don't remember!), and an amazing dessert. After dinner, we stumbled back to the apartment and crashed! 

Sunday, May 22

Our group on the first day at the Villa

Day 2 started off poorly - we forgot that the regular 7:30am alarm doesn't go off on Sundays! We got up at 8:30 and had to meet the group at 9:15! We scurried down to the Cafe for breakfast and then onto the bus to Villa Edarella for our first cooking class. Omg, I get to have decaf cappuccino every day! (Good thing I brought so much lactaid...) 

Prep food on the table

At the Villa, they have built a beautiful outdoor covered patio, with a long table for prep work and dining, lots of lounge chairs for relaxing, and a giant wood-fired stone oven. For our first day, we peeled and chopped veggies for Farro salad, rolled and cut our own pasta, seasoned chickens for roasting, and made tiramisù - and then ate all of our work for lunch! Lunch on these Villa days lasted until 3pm! At the Villa, one member of the group is assigned to be our bartender for the week, and another is the barista. We were very well cared for!

While whipping the eggs and yolks separately to make the pasta, Carla told us that you always whip your eggs in the same direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) and never switch directions in the middle. Seems like an old wives' tale... and it was actually hard to do. I guess I must switch directions all the time.

Then we took a bus ride to Orvieto, a tiny town on top of a mountain (which requires a ride on the funicular, whee!). The Duomo there is amazing (see pic). Apparently, there was a sizeable Jewish community in Orvieto starting in the 13th century, but they were expelled later, so there's no trace of them now beyond the six-pointed stars in mosaics on the street in front of the Duomo. We took some photos, walked around, and did a little shopping (I bought a magnet), and then we went back to Soriano. We got back to town just in time for dinner at a little place right off the main piazza (though we still weren't that hungry!). They served lovely antipasti, pasta, a turkey and mushroom dish, and a cream-puff style dessert with fruit sauce. Phew! My watch said I was over 12,000 steps for the day. 

Monday, May 23

After our daily cappuccino and pastry breakfast (YUM), we headed to Pienza, a small medieval town with wonderful little shops. We tasted some pecorino cheeses  -- 3 different ages -- and walked around. The town is full of narrow little streets - it feels like it can't be real. There was also a mural that said Pienza was bombed in June of '44, and celebrated the rebuilding of the town in 1956. Then we got back on the bus to go to Montepulciano to visit a winery. 

We were doing fine until the bus broke down...and it was HOT. But, true to the "we're all family" ethos of CDV, the DeRicci winery owner and his family came to pick us up in their personal cars! They took us to their vineyard, where we tasted six wines (yummy) and ate a surprisingly light lunch with a tomato-bread soup, cheese, and pasta. Nicola - the son of the owner- asked if I spoke Italian, and when I said I was learning, he asked me "WHY?" Maggie (our other CDV guide) said that Italians don't expect people to learn their language because they are the only country that speaks it. 

In the DeRicci caves

Then they ferried us into Montepulciano proper to their underground cave/wine cellars -- they call it "the Cathedral" -- which were built by the Etruscans in 1000 AD! Because of the bus problem, we had to walk down this giant hill to get to where the CDV folks were waiting for us in their own cars. Carla asked to have me in her car, I guess because I "speak" Italian better than others? We drove back to Soriano and had dinner in a long narrow cave in the old part of town - they told us that these caves are places where families have special gatherings. Carla made a turkey dish with lots of citrus in the sauce, and a filled pastry for dessert. Phew! What a day!

Tuesday, May 24

More cooking classes! This time we made individual cups of eggplant parmesan -- Carla had already fried the eggplant slices, we just had to layer them into the cups with sauce and cheese. We also made meatballs (beef & pork) - each one had a little ball of mozzarella inside! We rolled dough and made small raisin custard tarts, and a local artisan came to teach us how to make pecorino and ricotta cheese. We got to eat the cheese that a previous group made. John helped out by sharpening knives, and he got to stir the curds and whey (see pic). We chopped up pancetta and guanciale that went into the sauce for the meatballs - Omg, it was sooo salty. But so seriously delicious. 

This time we got to go back to the apartments to rest. I conked out but only for about 10 minutes. But hurrah, the other bus is working now, and it has much better AC (though no table for the Scoba card game that Linda taught us with Italian cards.) 

In the afternoon, a few of us went to Viterbo, which is the largest town around here - it has ~70k people. John stayed in Soriano to do laundry and find us some TP. He ended up having an adventure of his own! 

You can tell Viterbo is a bigger town, we saw a McDonald's and a BK. Sigh. There was even a Bennetton! The town is full of cobblestone streets, and lots of shopping. Sadly, because they're in a drought, all of the fountains in the city were turned off. Sophie (our third CDV guide) lives in Viterbo - she took us to a cute little shop and I finally had gelato. (I mean, how do you come to Italy and make it through four days before you have gelato? We were too full from all of the other meals!)  I had stracciatella and dark chocolate. Omg, so good!  

Viterbo is famous for the festival for Santa Rosa in September: 100 men carry a ~100ft tall sculpture "la macchina" (which weighs ~5.5 TONS!) through the streets of the town. The sculpture is redesigned every three years. Read the history at Wikipedia - the procession went from just a reliquary containing the heart of Santa Rosa to this enormous sculpture. 

Viterbo group - Palace of the Popes in the background

Viterbo is also the home of the Palace of the Popes, where the first papal conclave was held. The cardinals were literally locked in "con clave" - with a key - and the people wouldn't let them out until they had chosen a Pope. It took almost three years! We couldn't go in, it was under renovation, but we stood in the courtyard and then went down to the park below. 

On the way back to the bus, in the park below the Palace, we came across an identical copy of 'The Awakening' sculpture (see pic) - the same as the one in DC. What a cool surprise! Sophie didn't know anything about it. (But I've seen the photos from the next CDV trip in Soriano, and they took a group photo there.) :)  

Then we went back to Soriano and had dinner outside near the waterfall - basically at a hot dog stand/ outdoor cafe. They served us lots of salads, grilled meats, and ice cream bars for dessert. (...but not Magnum bars! We failed on that particular Fratkin family tradition on this trip.) And of course, they broke out the limoncello and grappa. Thursday we're making limoncello cream. Yum!   

At dinner we learned a tongue-twister from Linda:

Sopra la panca la capra canta 

Sotto la panca la capra crepa 

Wednesday, May 25

Under the Tuscan Sun :)

I really didn't sleep well the whole trip -- the bed in our little apartment was really hard and uncomfortable, and I kept waking up with the sun at 5:20am. By Wednesday I was completely exhausted... But we were on our way to Tuscany! Because of the bus issues, for the rest of the trip, we were in two vans instead of the big bus, but this worked out better for some of those tiny little towns (or big tourist destinations) where the bus would've had to drop us off far from our destination.  

We stopped just for a photo op (see above), to take in the Tuscan scenery. Supposedly we were near the villa where they filmed some scenes from 'Gladiator.' We went on to a little family-run winery, Piombaia, where we met the father and son who run it, learned about their very eco-friendly practices, and, of course, tasted some wine. We had a picnic lunch at the vineyard with sandwiches, wine, and chocolate cake slices (all made by the owner's mom). It was really lovely. 

On the ramparts at the Rocca

Then we went on to Montalcino, where we climbed the Rocca di Montalcino tower -- a fortress built in 1361. (We climbed a lot of towers on this trip!) Then we walked around the picturesque little town. More shopping (I am apparently not a big shopper? I didn't even buy a magnet here) and we stopped for a cold drink at an outdoor cafe, before heading on to the Castello di Proceno -- which is actually a hotel now, but it was built a thousand years ago. We were given a tour of the original family home by the Contessa herself! She was adorable. Cecilia said our tour was the second time she'd climbed the tower today - she once did it 23 times in one day! And this was no mean feat - each level had a high ceiling and a steep ladder. 

When we climbed back down, we went for dinner at the Proceno restaurant, which was probably one of the best meals we had all week. Lovely individual "lasagnas" made by stacking crepes with sautéed vegetables in between. Then pasta and a turkey dish. There were other diners in the restaurant - the Contessa was there to take orders! 

There was also a woman selling jewelry made with recycled Nespresso cups in a side room at the cafe -- I bought a cute pair of earrings. 

Thursday, May 26

Our pottery purchases

This was by far the longest day. We loaded into the vans to go to Deruta to a pottery studio at 9:15am. Deruta pottery is famous and is absolutely beautiful. We watched a woman painting a platter - such a steady hand! 

I got to try throwing a pot on the wheel. (I figured, I've been watching The Great Pottery Throwdown, I can do this!)  Wow, that's hard. I only got a pot at all in the end because the owner helped me shape it on the wheel. But this is where the shopping kicked in! We bought some beautiful stuff for the new kitchen - an olive oil server, a salt cellar, two espresso cups, and some drawer pulls - and we can order more handles when we get a count of how many we need. Fortunately, they ship to the USA. They will fire and ship my pot too! :)

Basilica in Assisi - Stanley Tucci was here!

Then we went to Assisi. We started there with lunch at a little cafe, off the beaten path. A surprisingly light lunch -- just some salad and pasta, and ice cream bars for dessert. Then we walked around the town with all the other tourists. Assisi is a Rick Steves favorite, so it was full of Americans. But John and I found a museum of Roman ruins under the town, which was empty, and much cooler than outside. The ruins were from the 1st Century AD! (Stanley Tucci also goes to Assisi in his episode about Umbria, but we didn't see that until we got home.) 

We met up with the group and had gelato at a cafe, but John and I skipped going into the Basilica of Saint Frances... I mean, maybe you do it because you're there, but my feet were killing me, so we didn't bother. On the way out of town, we stopped at another giant church -- this one was built around Saint Frances' original home/church, so it's this gigantic basilica surrounding a tiny little house. There was a little too much Catholic dogma there, so we both got kinda cranky. :( 

Dinner that night was a "party" at the Villa - while we were out all day, Carla and the other ladies cooked us this amazing meal - fried zucchini blossoms, mushroom puffs, tomatoes with rice and potatoes, green beans, ham and cheese croissants, and the most amazing caramelized baby onions ever. The dessert was this ice cream/meringue cake... And there was limoncello and shots and dancing! (Salsa dancing, because Maggie is from Uruguay...)  So much fun!

Friday, May 27 

First order of business: covid tests. We were both negative, but Tamara (who was in the van with us for two days) tested positive! So she had to go back to her apartment and pack up - CDV moved her - and she has to stay and quarantine her a week! We couldn't believe the rest of us were negative since we'd all been in close contact for so many hours. 

We climbed on the bus and went to the Parco di Monstri (Monster park) which was originally from the 1500s, and was rediscovered in the 1850s. It was REALLY hot and muggy. We walked a lot.  The sculptures were amazing.... if only we hadn't been surrounded by school children. 

Then we went to Madonna della Macchie, which produces wine and olive oil, for a tasting and tour and lunch. Their underground cellars were built by the Etruscans. We kept hearing that there were Etruscan tunnels under everything. It was so cold down there you could see your breath! Lots of yummy wine (this time we bought some) and olive oil (we bought some of this too) and a light lunch - but we ate outside and it was soooo hot.

Then it was time to go back to the Villa and make pizza. They brought out fans, but it's hard to make pizza dough in front of the fans and not have the flour blow away. After we made our dough, we used some of Carla's existing (massive) bin full of prepared dough and spread it into big pans, and put on the toppings.

 
Carla showed us that you grease the pans with lard instead of oil, it keeps the dough from springing back when you spread it into the pan. Ugh, I'll have to buy Crisco. She fired up the wood oven and cooked the pizzas. OMG, soooo good! I drank water all night and ate way too much pizza - including the Nutella& ricotta dessert one,  which used the ricotta that we made the other day. And we took some pizza home because I wasn't sure what they'd give me on the plane. 

Saturday, May 28

Pillows & blankets from Saks!

Turns out I didn't need to worry about the airplane food... John upgraded us to Business class because of his back pain (caused by the squeezed space in Economy Plus on the way to Rome), and Polaris on United is ah-ma-zing. Best airline meal I've had in a long time. Lunch was chicken and potatoes and a real salad and cherry/amaretto ice cream. I mean... Come on! (as Phil would say). The pre-landing snack was like a tomato pizza (without cheese) and fresh fruit. No complaints. But now we're spoiled. But it was really nice to have our homemade pizza bites as a snack during the day and to tide us over before we could get dinner at home. 

Linda, Maggie, and Sophie

All in all, this was really an amazing experience... CDV totally makes you feel like part of the family - we met Michael and Paola who own the company (and the Villa) - and really bonded with the others on the trip as we cooked and ate (and drank) and with the wonderful guides. Yes, it was busy, and I might wish for a little more downtime, but we got to see so much and didn't feel like "ugly American tourists."

We're definitely planning on doing another CDV trip in the next few years. (Gotta pay off the kitchen renovations first!) 

See the rest of my photos on Google Drive.