MacsTravel Blog

Where to start?

We started talking about a university friends reunion in Italy to celebrate over 40 years of friendship and the 60th birthdays for most of our group a few years back. Serious planning got underway last summer. The consensus was that we wanted to rent a villa in Tuscany for a week, and Sarah’s husband Ian took on the thankless task of looking for a spot that fit our criteria (whole place to ourselves, lots of indoor and outdoor space, great location, incredible view, private bathrooms for each bedroom, big kitchen, reasonable cost, etc…). He nailed it with Villa Sonia, located at the edge of the village of San Donato in the heart of Chianti wine country.

We lucked in with the villa and the weather: seven straight days of glorious sun and increasingly warmer temperatures. We used the villa as a home base to explore different Tuscan towns, and as a place to relax and reconnect in a beautiful setting.

Due to the threat of legal action from the other nine villa guests I will stay away from villa shenanigans as a blog topic, and focus a little more on broader themes of the week that emphasize “la dolce vita”, the simple pleasures of wine, food, and shared experiences with friends.

Wine

We made a concerted effort to support the Italian wine community during our stay at the villa (and the beer and spritz communities- we are an inclusive group). I’m sure all of us were a little embarrassed at the volume of glass recycling generated, and I’m sure that June will be a month of abstinence from all Chianti wine for most of us. However we spent many happy hours together learning more about this wine region and its famous products.

The tone was set by the wine cellar that we found underneath the villa, where you could purchase wines on the honour system that were produced by friends of the owners: a sort of next level hotel bar- fridge honour system. Every home should have one!

Villa Sonia is positioned across a small valley from Casa Emma, a local winery and olive producing property with a lovely dining area overlooking the vineyards and a view back to our villa. We spent a nice afternoon there enjoying their products as well as a nice three course lunch. It was great to be able to unlatch a gate near our villa and walk through the vineyards up to the winery.

My most memorable wine experience of the week actually started with the intention of simply going on a hike. I had noticed that part of the ancient Romea Sanese trail from Florence to Siena passed just below the villa. We had heard quite a bit about this trail at various stops as it was part of the longer Via Francigena, the famous pilgrims route to Rome.

Patty and Graham were off in search of coffee and some village touring but the rest of the group was interested in a hike. My All Trails app suggested that this section stuck mainly to trails and not the secondary roads, so we set off for some exercise.

The trail, clearly marked by red and white stripes, actually skirted the Casa Emma vineyards before heading through the woods, eventually popping out at a side road where I assumed we’d turn back.

However we noticed a sign for a winery we didn’t know about, Fattoria La Ripa, which indicated they were open and that they did wine tours.

In the spirit of a pilgrimage, we took the road less travelled and ventured down the long driveway, assuming we might try a glass of wine or some olive oil.

A kind but slightly harried looking woman met us at the house and invited us in for a tasting. She turned out to be the office manager for the estate and mentioned that Sandro, the owner, was held up in Florence but would be back soon.

I believe we were on our second tasting when Sandro, a gracious and personable man in his 80s arrived and took over from our visibly relieved hostess. It turned out that he had misjudged how much gas he had in his car and had run out of gas in the middle of a highway tunnel. He said, as his cell phone didn’t work in the tunnel, he just waited patiently until someone came by to tow him out. He was remarkably unfazed by this turn of events, which, if you have ever driven through a highway tunnel in Italy, is astounding.

For the next hour and a half Sandro entertained us with stories of his life, educated us about the history of the estate (the home once belonged to Antonio Maria di Noldo Gherardini, the father of Leonardo DaVinci’s model for the Mona Lisa) and the winemaking process and challenges around getting his wines to global markets. It was fascinating. I think we were all a bit stunned by how the day turned out.

Food

Thank goodness for the huge number of steps we accumulated this week because our caloric intake was pretty high!

The villa had a spacious, well equipped kitchen (including four different types of coffee makers, much appreciated by Graham, Scot, Lisa and me), an outdoor wood oven for pizza and a large wood burning grill, as well as a big indoor dining area and a large patio with a huge table for outdoor dining. The weather was spectacular all week, so we were able to eat outside every evening, which was fantastic.

On our first night at the villa we decided to have a simple supper of charcuterie from the Greve market and a big salad. The volume of cured meats and local cheeses that had been purchased was incredible. In fact, the nitrate intake for the week by our Canadian/Aussie contingent must have set some sort of Commonwealth record.

Pete, who has a particular reverence for cured meat as befits a Canadian of Italian heritage, was particularly taken with the commercial sized meat slicer, and ventured to the Coop in San Donato to purchase a slab of prosciutto the size of a placemat, which seemed a little ambitious for one week’s worth of consumption. He would plug in the meat slicer and slice off a mound of prosciutto to supplement breakfast, make a sandwich for lunch or contribute to any tray of antipasto that was being assembled prior to dinner.

All of us enjoy cooking, but Graham takes it to another level. On numerous occasions he has prepared meals for upwards of 60-100 people at a time. So we were grateful that he enthusiastically took the lead, particularly on two meals: our pizza night and our Bistecca alla fiorentina evening.

Graham picked up two enormous steaks at the well stocked local butcher in San Donato and plotted out a plan of attack for using the wood fired grill in the yard behind the kitchen. Scot stoked the fire and when the coals were ready, Graham skillfully grilled the Bistecca alla fiorentina. We served it with a giant salad and grilled asparagus with shaved pecorino. Hands down the best meal we had.

The second Graham initiated meal was pizza night, which just happened to coincide with Anne and Scot’s planned 80’s Night. We made 12 pizzas over several hours, and did have leftovers for pizza breakfast the next day.

While it was a team effort assembling the pizzas, Graham made the dough and chopped up the ingredients earlier in the day, and weilded the giant pizza peel.

It was a great way to use up some of the fridge items that accumulated through the week, and the finished products were delicious.

Ian organized two special events at the villa, the first being a pasta making class on Sunday night. We had a great time preparing ravioli and tagliatelle with tomato sauce, as well as a panacotta desert, which we then enjoyed together outside. It was good fun, and we learned some new (for us) tricks and techniques.

The second evening Ian set up involved a multi course meal prepared by two nonnas, who spoke very little English but prepared a huge amount of delicious food. The leftovers fed us for a lunch or two as well!

Somehow, we also fit in a very nice meal at Camere, a restaurant about 100 metres from our gate, with the same lovely views of Panzano that we had from our pool.

Time Together

Without question, the highlight of the week was the time spent together. I think that’s what made the meals so special. We sat out for hours, sharing food and memories, and laughing about the days events.

Robin had prepared a slideshow and 80s oriented Jeopardy game which was great fun although perhaps marred by controversy over the final results.

The pool was a real draw in the afternoon, and in the evening, as we looked down the olive tree groves illuminated by fireflies into the valley below, where the village of Panzano rose on the other side.

This was a memorable week for all of us, particularly the five women who had lived together at Queen’s and who had made a real effort to stay connected through the years and across the oceans.

It was a special week with special people. Until next time friends.