Saturday May 2, 2009

Mom and I decided to drive through Tuscany for the weekend. We woke up early to taxi over to the car rental garage so we could beat traffic getting out of Florence and make it to the Saturday market in the Chianti town of Greve. We had booked some miniature car to drive around for the weekend but they didn’t have one available so we were upgraded to a flashy BMW! Since the rental was under Mom’s name she had to drive it out of Florence and ended up just driving the entire 40 minutes to Greve. Italian driving is a hazardous sport especially in the city center so the communication between Mom and I was a bit frantic for the first 15 minutes to say the least.

In Greve we parked the car and spent the rest of the morning in town, at the market and in some shops. For lunch we ordered chicken and sausage spedinos (aka shish kebabs) with fried polenta (greasy and delicious!) from a vendor then sat down on a park bench off the main square to eat.

By then we had exhausted the town of Greve in Chianti and decided to drive up to our “agritourismo” to check-in and relax for the afternoon. It was about a 5 minute drive outside of town on a gravel road up to the main house, Casa Nova. Everything was picture perfect and beautiful….practically out of a storybook! Our room was located in the converted farmhouse just down the road, La Ripintura, surrounded by gardens and an incredible view of the rolling Chianti hills.

After a short nap we hopped back in the Beemer to go find the small hilltop town of Montefioralle only 10 minutes from Greve. Thankfully at the last minute I requested mom pack our Garmin GPS or else this weekend could have been a driving disaster. My cousin’s wife, Sarah, works for Garmin and was able to get us the Italy software the night before my mom left on her plane…Thanks Sarah!

We arrived at the tiny tiny town in just a few minutes right as the sun was starting to set. So pretty! (Insert Patsy squeals of excitement). I must say it made me happy to see her so happy. The town is known to be one of the most ancient in Chianti and is still surrounded by its original walls. We parked outside the city and hiked up a short road to enter the small village passing a front yard full of hens and numerous roaming cats along the way. The town was quiet and peaceful with only a couple people in sight. We walked up to the highest point, the church, then took our time circling the town back down to our car.

For dinner we went back to the town of Greve to a restaurant recommended by our farmhouse owner. It was a rustic, stone wall restaurant on the main square. We started with an antipasto of prosciutto and pecorino cheese drizzled in honey. I had the eggplant parmesan and mom had beef stew. Both delicious!