Santa Fiora

Beautiful Radicofani

Montenero Restaurant

View from Montenero Restaurant

Guests in our Backyard

Colours! Colours!

 This is Santa Fiora. Sounds, smells, sights, tastes..

Sounds:

You will remember that our neighbour, Marcello, runs a kennel about 100 m from our house. His dogs bark. And bark. And bark. They do not change their tune, nor moderate their volume. They have one song and it is Heavy Metal Dog. They will bark at 3 in the morning, at 4 in the morning, or at dinner time. You would think that this might drive us mad, but it does not. There are many foxes and wolves in the area, not to mention cinghiale (wild boars – a staple of most restaurants, and absolutely delicious!), and it is these that set them off barking. We have begun to respect that they believe they have a job to do and they do it with a passion that one has to admire.

Yesterday we were enjoying a snack of prosciutto and melon on our back patio when we heard the faint clanging of a small bell, and looked up to see a herd of sheep grazing contentedly in our back yard.

This morning we awoke to the strangest sound, and, giving each other the benefit of the doubt after 40 years of mornings together, we agreed that it was not emitting from either of us. Rising to the window, I looked down to see a gorgeous, rainbow coloured peacock strutting around on our patio.

Smells:

We have figs on our tree. Last night we picked two, and ate them wrapped in prosciutto with Gorgonzola. We smell them every morning. We have blackberries, pears, plums, cherries. We smell the rosemary, basil, chives, oregano, mint... Every breath is a bouquet.

Sights:

Our back patio looks out over the mountains, valleys, hills and streams of Tuscany. We try to eat on our patio every time we are not sampling a local restaurant, or exploring a nearby medieval village. There are times when we just sit quietly and stare at the scenery, not saying a word. Other times we will be walking silently through a passage in a small town, appreciating the window boxes overflowing with pink and red ivy geraniums, pink petunias, blazing orange trumpet vines, and honeysuckle vines, when we stop to enter an ancient church and realize the congregation has been called to prayer here for hundreds, even thousands of years.

We visited an Etruscan necropolis with tombs dating from the 3^rd century.

Tastes:

We have already had cinghiale twice - once in a pasta sauce and once as a cutlet. We have just returned from the alimentare with salsiccia cinghiale, which we will serve as one of the antipasti tomorrow when our Italian friends come over for a Canadian BBQ. We regularly go to the Tavola Calda where we can take home freshly cooked Italian food for dinner. Two nights ago we had ravioli, gnocchi, pici with salsa bolognese, and paid a total of E6 (about $10.00) for two and we continue to eat the leftovers.

We take our refillable bottles to the alimentare and have them filled with Montecucco vino for about $3.00 a litre. Tonight, for dessert we will have blackberries that we picked this afternoon.

Tomorrow we have made a prenotazione for 8 o'clock at Il Barilotto, where the young waiter has become something of a friend.