No sleep 'til Roma!!

CIAO regazzi!!

As some of you may know, i've been joined by an old friend here in Tuscany. His name's Ali and he and I went to college together a few years ago. Since college, he's bounced all around the US but currently lives in San Francisco. He (and soon many other college friends) made the trip out here for a mutual friend's wedding. Fortunately however, he decided to give himself a good 10 days of relaxing in Italy straddling the wedding. SOOOOO, of course (to make the most of his trip) we met here in my little town, rented a car, and hit the road....

On his first day, we explored the area immediately surrounding my small town. Shortly after, we hit the weekend and decided to make the most of it by driving a bit farther. After some intense decision making (we practically flipped a coin) we opted to drive to San Gimignano (in the heart of the Chianti Region) for the day.

After getting there, we had a fantastic time, saw some beautiful scenery, and decided that we should take a few hour detour in Volterra before we finally made our way back home. NOW, I should say that it's been great having him here, but to be perfectly honest i've barely slept, ate like a pig, and drank enough to kill a small elephant!! Of course i wouldn't change it for the world and I'll defiantely attest to the wonders of Wild Boar and Fennel Sausage (Salsissca di Cingale e Finoccio) , Farrow Soup (Zuppa di Farro), and all the other fantastic Tuscan delicacies. =) [Case in point: It's currently 2 am here. We've just polished off our 2nd bottle of wine for the evening, and after staying up until 4:30 am last night, i'm ready to do a faceplant into the keyboard!]

Here are some pics from our last adventure:


Josh & Al - San Gimignano



Farrow Soup & a fantastic view from the drive down

Oy I need sleep....

BUONA NOTTE! =P

HOLY CRAP, A ZOMBIE!

Ok, not literally... but lets just say LITERARILY i've risen from the dead. Yes yes, i know, i've been gone for a bit now and many of you feared i'd never return. Well, much like Jesus springing from his well-adorned egg during Easter (I think that's how the story goes), I too have reappeared despite popular belief.

Firstly I would like to say that these past few weeks have been as the Italians say "Casino Casino." Suffice it to say, we (at the school) were joined by an old chef named Jacob who stayed with us for a little more than a week and definatley livened things up a bit. He and I hit up the local nightlife, took a roadtrip to Venice, and definatley had a blast. Happily, I can also say that he's quite talented in the kitchen so we actually got to put out some good food while he was here. Below you'll find a small trio that he added to our usual fish appetizer plate for our Tuesday night menu.


"Jacobe Beef" and the trio of fishy delights

CIAO VENEZIA!

Also, our property has a number of cows that have since appeared outside our humble home. SO, of course i couldn't wait to take pics and get them up on the blog.....


The Cows of Tuscany!!!

hahaha, anywho... i'm happy to be back, and will definatley be posting more soon. OH, and as a random side note, I should also say that my US phone number works here. SO, for those of you who were curious about that, Verizon's world phone service works pretty damn well.

CIAO!!!