Rock of Ages

As you wind your way on narrow hilly roads, you view yet another improbable structure, in this case a castle built by the the Medieval powerhouse in this area, the Aldobrandeschis. The castle arises out of hard rock. The town has a church at its center with some impressive 16th century frescos. But the biggest delight of the trip to the foothills of Mt. Amiata was the chance encounter with an 82 year-old hearty resident who took us on a tour of a Medieval mill, across a swift creek, and to the other side on a plank that he lifted as if it weighed as much as a stick. The incredible heartiness of this gentle man, his willingness to spend time with us, is a reflection of the very friendly people we have encountered throughout the area and we are ever thankful.


As we were looking around Roccalbegna, Kate spied a man working in a vegetable garden. A buon giorna was all it took to get a lively conversation going, an explanation of the town, its history, and a tour of an old fattoria used by early town residents. It even included a visit to his small farm and pets for his donkey.




Thankfully, we had Kate with us to translate as the gentlemen explained how the early inhabitants of Roccalbegna diverted the water from the river to a holding pond where the water was then channeled through an opening in a wall to turn the wheels to grind olives for olive oil, wheat for flour, grain for fodder and various other foods for sustenance. He told us that when he arrived in Roccalbegna 50 years ago, the fattoria was already not in operation. Suffice it to say it is an ancient structure.




Just outside Roccalbegna sits a modern cheese producer, Caseificio Il Fiornio. The sleek tasting room belied the traditional pecorino (sheep) cheeses being served. We tasted progressively aged pecorino cheeses from very fresh and new, to one aged in wine and the other in straw, and finally a mild blue veined cheese. We purchased a large chunk of the blue vein pecorino, an innovation of this particular producer as it is apparently a difficult process to get this effect, and a round, parmesan looking cheese that was aged in straw and with a distinctive taste. (www.caseificioilfiorino.it)

After the cheese tasting, we headed to yet another picturesque town perched on a rock before returning home.

Pitigliano at night

We were told by our neighbor to approach Pitigliano at night. The picture here doesn't do it justice but gives you an idea of the visual impact of this ancient town built not on top of the rock but rising out of it with the rock forming the foundation of the town's structures. As you approach the town on a bridge traversing a deep gorge there are caves every few yards dug into the rock that are now stables or storehouses but used to be Etruscan tombs. The picturesque Medieval center was once the town's Jewish ghetto but was destroyed in 1945. Remaining is an old synagogue and a museum, "La Piccola Gerusalemme" where you can see the remains of the synagogue, matzo oven, Kosher slaughter house, ritual bath and dye works but which is closed this time of year. The wine boutique we visited had a whole section of Kosher wines, the only selection we've seen. Here I purchased the store's own handmade castagne in siropo (roasted chestnuts in syrup) and pici, a thick, hand-rolled pasta. The pasta is made by rolling the strip of pasta between one's palms. (This is from Wikipedia: It is eaten with a variety of sauces particularly alle briciole (breadcrumbs), all'aglione (spicy garlicky tomato sauce), alla boscaiola (with porcini) or ragu (meat sauce). But it is best eaten with sauces containing game such as al cinghale (wild boar), all lepre (hare) or all'anatra (duck). Yum.

Mysterious 2,500-year-old Etruscan roads

Everywhere you go in this area, you encounter remnants of the Etruscan civilization. Many towns still have walls, roads, and remains of ancient Etruscan houses. On almost every hilltop are the remains of an Etruscan town. Fine museums exists everywhere and we've been to a few already. Just outside of Sovana are early Etruscan caves, impressive tombs, and the "vie cave" a long (they say it goes all the way to Mt. Amiata a seemingly long distance) narrow, deep road used by the Etruscans. Just why the Etruscans dug a deep road in the soft volcanic rock is one of speculation, the reason only known to the people who built it 2,500 years ago.

The vie cave.

An Etruscan symbol, the svastica, is clearly visible on road's wall. A root growing upwards looking much like a movie-set prop for The Hobbit.

Caves dot the entire area, some just off the road and others impossibly high up the wall.

One example of the ruins of an elaborate burial site.

On the Etruscan trail

Sovana is a beautiful town with a central street paved in red brick and surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. Serendipitously, I had cut out an article in the Seattle Times by Kristin Jackson, "Past Perfect, just down the road is inpresent-day Tuscany," Etruscan roads, medieval villages make enticing Italian landscape, two years before I knew I would be living in the area. In the article she writes:
I just soaked up the mysterious, moody feel of this rural area of central Italy, a captivating mix of Etruscan ruins anad medieval hilltop villages, of rolling fields and stone farmhouses edged by gnarled forests.

We strolled through this lovely town, purchased our requisite Etruscan souvenir (a painted, etched replica of an Etruscan pottery piece), visited the Chiesa di Santa Maria, a Romanesque church with a 9th-century ciborium in white marble, one of the last remaining pre-Romanesque works left in Tuscany (says one guide book) and some early Renaissance frescos. Then we headed to the 9th century cathedral down the way. Finally, we ate in a small family trattorie and I had, what else at this time of year, Cinghale (wild boar).

Speaking of wild boar, we saw our very first one crossing in front of our car (in a hurry I might add since hunters couldn't have been far behind) and it was BIG. Much bigger than we had imagined. We have seen pig prints in our olive orchard with gunshot shells littered around. We hear hunters every morning shooting in the surrounding woods. But finally, we saw an actual boar.
Here's a recipe from ciboviaggiando for Stuffed Wild Boar (though it's not stuffed; also, the translation is amusing so I am copying it verbatim.
You need: Wild boar meat chopped, garlic, rosemary, bay leaves, chilli pepper, Evo Oil, wine, salt tomato.
Preparation: Place the meat in a saucepan on the flame and let it "spit" water for twice (to let it lost the wild smell). Beat the garlic (just press it) along with rosemary, bay leaves and chilli pepper. Let the beated herbs fry in a lot of Olive Oil with the wild boar meat. Let it brown, add a glassful of good red wine. Let it evaporate. Add a little tomato (just to tan it), salt it and keep on cooking for about 2 hours until the meat is tender. Add water if necessary. Serve it hot.

Makes perfect sense to me. Now if only I had a gun.

What are you doing in Ortobello in January?

In one of our guide books, the section on our area of Tuscany ("The Lost Corner of Tuscany") they have this to say:
The inland reaches of Grosseto province form the largest stretch of territory in Italy north of the Abruzzo without any well-known attractions. Part of the Etruscan heartland, these towns have been poor and usually misgoverned since--by the Romans, the noble Aldobrandeschi, the popes and the Tuscan dukes. Some don't even consider it part of Tuscany, and in many ways it has more in common with the haunted expanses of northern Lazio over the border.
Is it any wonder that few tourists visit this area? And in winter there are virtually no tourists. We alone seem to be the only non-residents as we travel around the area. Thus the comment from one English-speaking shop proprietor -- What are you doing in Ortobello in January?
Perhaps this is exactly why we are enjoying the experience. I assure you, it is beautiful.
Ortobello, by-the-way, is situated on an isthmus. Once a spit reaching into a lagoon filled with wildlife and now a natural preserve, the spit was extended to reach Monte Argenario in the mid'1800's. Some of the walls of the original 17th century Spanish garrison remain. It's on an impossibly thin strip of land with lagoons on both sides.







Having visited the other major port on Monte Argentario, we headed through Orbetello to the other major port, Port'Ercole. albeit more sleepy one, on the other side of the island. The village is dominated by a Spanish castle and remnants of forts from that period on every hill around the bays. Port'Ercole has a split personality. One bay is filled with fishing boats and villagers lounge around on benches and beachside cafes and restaurants. At this time of the year, not much is open, but it was warm and we ate lunch outside at a restaurant right on the beach. The other bay is a large, modern boat yard and marina with huge, expensive yachts everywhere. We scribbled down the names of several impressive yachts then Googled them when we got home. One especially, Virtuelle, is a current contender in all of the major yacht races around the Mediterranean.

Political pasta

Last night I was making pasta and checked out the packages of pasta sciutta in the cupboard. One package brand, Libera Terra, had this on the front: dalle terre liberate dalla mafia (from the earth liberated from the mafia) and then at the bottom: gusto di Sicilia with an "i" inserted between the "g" and the "u" to say guisto, with the gist being "taste of Sicily" to "just, fair or correct of Sicily." I appreciated the sentiment too much to open the package. We just ate the plain old pasta. Here's the recipe for my sugo di familia (where amounts not given, just quanto basto):

Sugo Di Familia
Sauce for Pasta

1 onion, 1 large carrot, large bunch of fresh Italian parsley, 2 stalks celery all chopped finely
Stew meat cut in 1-inch pieces
Tomato sauce (2 15-ounce cans)
Tomato paste (half small can)
2 beef or chicken bouillon cubes
Red wine (about 4 ounces)

Cook vegetables in oil until onion is transparent, add meat and cook an additional 2 or so minutes.
Put in tomato sauce, tomato paste, bouillon cubes and red wine.
Bring to boil and then reduce heat to simmer for as long as you can. Here I just put the pot on the woodburning stove and cook all day and then maybe the next day too. Add water if necessary.
Before serving add a pat of butter and grate some parmesan cheese into the sauce.

Cook pasta, drain leaving a bit of water. Add a pat of butter to the hot pasta and stir until melted.
Add several large spoonfuls of sauce to the pasta and mix.
Serve on a platter, with sauce over the entire top and topped with grated parmesan.

Bon apetito!

After a lunch with friends, a bit of shopping

This is the view from our window. We woke up to glorious sunshine this morning and spent the rest of the day sitting in the sun.

Yesterday we stopped by to visit friends and ended up having a wonderful lunch of pasta e fagioli, salad, mini mincemeat pieces with yogurt and, of course, wine, wine ,wine. The fagioli sauce was made from small white beans cooked to a puree. The beans, Zolfino beans, are an old variety that have been cultivated and prized since antiquity. Just after lunch, I happened to pick up a brochure, ciboviaggiando, and this is what it had to say about the bean: The zolfino bean is from the slopes of Pratomagno where you can find age'old chestnuts [sic] trees and pore [sic] mushrooms in large quantities, if the season is favourable you can find another well known Slow food Presidio: the Zolfino bean. After the Discovery of the Americas (the New World), Charles V seems to have introduced beans in Tuscany giving them as a present to the Pope Clemente VII (in the world Giulio De' Medici.

Pasta e Fagioli
Pasta with Beans

The recipe is simple: Cook small white beans until very soft, add some pesto, mix with hot, cooked pasta, top with green onions and plenty of parmesan cheese. The salad had gorgonzola cheese, walnuts, pears, and green lettuce. Like everything from the cucina here, simple but very delicious and satisfying.

The translations in the booklet were so funny that it kept me laughing for hours. But this little promo piece for a new website, www.ciboviaggiando.it, gives you an idea: The first portal for food and wine tourism fans is the centre of italy: itineraries, styas, offeres, events, widenings about specialties and gluttonies available for professionists, collectgors, lovers or simple testers.

We then went shopping at the Filson of the Maremma and Tom looked right at home in their hunting jacket, so we bought it. Check it out at www.confeszionibrema.it/collezione 2008/2209 and its on the first page. (The man with the golden retrievers is modeling the jacket.) We then headed to Scansano, the Medieval town that was once the summer residence of the Grosseto government at a time when officials sought to escape the malaria bearing mosquitos that afflicted this area in Medieval Maremma during summer. We walked around, purchased some rye flour at the small health food store, and checked out the old city streets, steps, doors, and the glorious view from the uppermost section of the town.

Simple days of doing not much

Whenever we aren't heading off to explore this area, we lounge around the house, eating leisurely lunches outside or in the kitchen by the warm stove if the weather doesn't cooperate. Tom purchased a guitar song book in Grosseto and is practicing on Guiliano's guitar. I purchased colored pencils in San Stefano and have attempted to capture the landscape. Louise left her Apple computer and I am finally getting the hang of the key board but still have no idea what the Italian commands are trying to tell me. I've enjoyed cooking. The grocery store in Grosseto, PAM, has beautiful selection of meats and produce, wines, Italian dolce...so we've been cooking a lot at home. One recipe we made for our friends is Spedini di Vitello. Here's the recipe:

Spedini di Vitello
Veal Scallopinni

Dredge veal lightly in flour and fry on both sides in a small amount of oil.
Remove when brown on both sides.

Add to the pan, finely chopped garlic, parsley, sage and cook for until the garlic is slightly brown.
Then add some finely chopped lemon rind, capers, lemon juice, and a bit of white wine and cook for about 4-5 minutes making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan.

Serve on top of the slices of veal and an addition lemon wedge.

This is very good the next day cold on a slice of bread.

Talamone, once the butt of Medieval jokes, now a jewel

According to one of our guides, Talamone, a fishing village on the southern end of Monti dell'Uccellina and one of Italy's most prestine natural seaside parks, was a "continuing embarrassment for the Sienese Republic" who tried to fashion it into an important port for landlocked Sienna. Unfortunately, it kept filling in making it impossible for use by big ships. Dante used their failure to poke a bit of fun at the Sienese. Today, Talamone is still a walled village sitting on a rock overlooking a nice marina and sporting a 16th-century Spanish castle. We decided to make the most of a sunny afternoon with a late picnic at the top of the village and overlooking the Mediterranean and Monte Argentario an archipelago that juts out from the coastline.