A short one today. I didn’t get up to much beyond writing and eating. During our cookery course a couple of days ago, we booked a table in the restaurant the instructor’s family owns. We toddled up there at around 13:00, and we sat in their lovely terrace at the back.
They were having a busy service, and as we had all the time in the world, we were prepared to wait without any fuss. We got our wine (‘Marcampo’, 50/50 merlot/sangiovese), and a nice little bruschettini with finely diced tomato on top. I usually shy away from ‘obvious’ tomatoes, but gave this a bash – it was lovely. I’d had it before, when we visited last time.
We ordered, and while the food was slow to come, we didn’t mind – we had time, and the staff who knew us, also knew we had time! They brought out their restaurant-baked breads for us to nibble on while we waited.
The starters came. The ladies had salads (Niamh the Caprese, our guest a salad with crispy bacon and cheese). I had a carbonara with grated black truffle, which was excellent!
Myself and Niamh swapped main courses when compared to the last time we ate here: this time she had the beef cheek, and I the fish. Our guest also had the fish. I really liked it, but I think I preferred the beef.
Between courses, we engaged in conversation with the mamma and the daughter (our cooking instructor), who are both lovely, welcoming people.
Pigs that we are, we also had a dessert! I had what I had last time – twirled 70% chocolate mousse – Niamh had a coffee mousse with cherry sorbet, and our guest had a fruit plate. I loved mine, and had a taste of Niamh’s mousse, which was amazing. I don’t do the fruit thing, but I was told it was nice.
When finished, we were given a selection of petit fours, and a glass of extremely potent limoncello. The latter is made by the matriarch of the family, and uses lemons straight from the Amalfi coast. It was nice, a little thick – and easily the most buckling limoncello I’ve ever had!
We paid the bill, and there were hugs exchanged, and afterwards had every intention of going to the pinacoteca (art gallery), but changed our minds on the way. The ladies stayed out and about for a walk, while I went back to the apartment for a bit of a snooze and some screen-watching. I took this little curiousity on the way there – I don’t know what it is… an accident, or a weird art installation, but the colours contrast wonderfully.
Nothing done again last night, and this morning I didn’t go out for a walk (again!). We had to get up at 04:30 to bring our guest back to the airport. We went straight to bed when we got home, and to be honest, I’m still a little tired.
Don’t think we have plans today, but there are rumblings about us attempting to go to Florence tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed!
Our Man In Volterra 