Traffic in Tuscany

How blessed were we? Arriving in Tuscany when it was coming into truffle season (OH MY GOD!!) porcini season and grape picking season. Every day we were oh-so happy to sit behind tractors putting down the road, chock-full of fresh picked grapes .....



All the more time for taking in the beautiful Tuscan landscape.

Porchetta Sandwich #2

At the morning markets in Greve one of the first things we spotted was the Porchetta van. The van had an impressive rotisserie set-up, spinning around in the background piled full of chickens, meat & all sorts of sticks.



But we have our eye on the crisp pig, perched up on the counter. This variety is available by the kg at 24Euro or on a panino for 3.5Euro. We take 2 panino. Chunks of the delicious porchetta are sliced away, and piled on a crisp Tuscan bread roll.



We also spot something in the counter that is a tradional Tuscan spiedini. We need one of these !!



We first un-wrap our sandwiches, and they were even more delicious than they looked! The pork was still warm, the stuffing packed with fennel seeds, fresh rosemary, lots's of salt and pepper.



As you can see, I was very content .... my eye's glazing over with glee.



Then we were onto the spiedini ... wow! There was chunks of sausage, chicken, and pork all layered between slices of bread. It has been cooked in the rotisserie and all the fat from the meats have fried the bread to a golden crunch. An absolutely amazing concept, fried bread and tasty meat, all this goodness packed onto a stick ...



Oh, Italy ....

To market, to market.........

My head is spinning, every sense is reeling, I feel like the whole world has exploded into full technicolor life. We've been to markets all over Asia, but standing in the midst of the morning markets in Greve in Chianti, it's just wow. All the things we've only ever seen as dried or preserved goods are all here fresh. Vege stalls over flowing with that morning picked porcini's and chanterelles.


Porcini's and chanterelles


Zuchini flowers by the crate and beautiful artichokes


Tiny chilli's and roma tomatoes on the vine

How could we not buy some? Or the cheese or the cured meats or the....... well, all of it. This was our first experience of Italian life and we loved it, we were already formatting plans to pack up every thing we own and move it all here, from swinging by the local coffee shop to grab a standing breakfast of espresso and pastry, to walking another few meters across the square to grab freshly baked bread, or buying some prosciutto at the 300 hundred year old family run butchery and mingle with the locals doing their weekly shopping.


Seriously how could we choose?



Delicious fresh bread

After we rounded up a few amazing snacks it was back to the villa to set up a wee lunchie under the Tuscan sun.


Truffle cream, seeded bread and stuffed pepperoncini


Tuscan artichokes and Brawn


Herb rolled goats cheese and oh so stinky taleggio


Guanciale


Fresh peach with Guanciale


The view from the lunch table

I think I'm going to have trouble re-adjusting to real life...

The truffle madness begins.

On our first night in Tuscany we began our ridiculious attempt to scent ourselves from the inside out with truffles. Crostini of Lardo with truffled honey, and crostini of taleggio with fresh truffle was a great way to start.



How could we be in a new place for all of five minutes and already feel content??

En-route ~ Rome 2 Tuscany

Road tripping ... across the Italian countryside. Dinah (Kim's mum), Don (her husband) Kim and myself met in Rome earlier this month. We pile our stuff in a little turbo VW golf and head off bound for Tuscany .... our first stop, and a taste of what was to come, was a little town called Montalto di Castro. We squeeze the car through miniscule little cobbled streets and stumble across some beautiful sights, including this particularly pretty blue door:



But we did pull into this little town with the hope of food, but weren't so blessed with that. We get back on the road, and to our horror and dismay pass a Salumi & Fromagi van on the side of the highway .... oh my?! But it's on the wrong side of the road and it's way to hard for us to turn around, so the mission continues.

We are taking the beautiful coastal drive up to Grosetto, before heading inland towards Greve in Chianti. It between Grosetto and Siena Kim and I simultaneously spot a sign proclaiming "PORCHETTA" - an Italian culinary wonder of boned pork, that is heavily salted with herbs or fennel seed and then roasted over charcoal. A crisp, crackling skin and super moist meat, we know if that's to be had at this roadside stall we'd be good for the last stretch of the drive.



The place was pumping with Italians, loads of construction workers happened to be stopped for the lunch and coffee fix as we arrive.



Then we walk in and are greeted by a delicious pork head, crackling skin covering his face, with those come hither eyes. So it's prochetta x 2, piled between delicious Tuscan salt-less bread. But the pork, oh the pork, this one packed with crystals of salt and loads of fresh rosemary.



2 massive sandwiches and 1.5l of mineral water, for 5.5euro. Awesome!

We then see that all the locals seem to then head into the bar and drink a coffee at the counter before moving on. Well, you know what they say "When in Rome ...." So we perch at the bar and order duo caffe. Watching the precise and efficient use of the coffee machine makes me weak at the knees.

Then we are overwhelmed with the choice of panforte, sweets and pastries on offer. We both decide on the spiced panforte - which is taken from the showcase ... a animated indication with our hands of how much we would like, and a little buffalo horn knife (yes, we found one in Tuscany and Kim bought one back with us, tres cool!) cut's a chunk for us. It's placed on the scales - so many things are just sold by weight, so cool - and we scoff it down.



And all this was had at a little service centre / road side food stall. You can only imagine what lies ahead on our 14 day adventure in Italy .........