Foodivore: Under the Tuscan Sun

Early evening by the pool

Doing it tough

Entertaining guests at the villa

A while back we were sitting in Hobart with some friends with whom we have a wine group. After a few wines we joked (as one does after a few wines) about all meeting up for a wine week in Tuscany. Next thing we know, we've hired a 6 bedroom villa amongst the olive groves and vineyards of a village called Campogialli (about 40 minutes from Florence) for 12 of us (including 4 under wine drinking age). We woke on the morning our of Tuscan rendezvous at 4.45am in Lyon having now obtained legal right to remain in Europe. We flew back to Roma, collected Pierrot, obtained a replacement ticket for the carpark (easier than you'd think, but still hard early in the morning in another language...the replacement ticket being required due to Tracey finally cleaning out her bag...not wise at 4.45am) and headed up the Autostrade to Campogialli, our home for the next week, Villa Nava, awaited us. Now you might be thinking to yourself "a villa in Tuscany sounds all right - pretty damn relaxing in fact". If you are, you're absolutely correct. While we were being greeted by our non-English speaking hostess Gabriella (a quintessential little nonna). Kirsten, Paul, Joshua, Ashley and Alyssa all arrived. A plunge in the pool and a lazy pasta/salad dinner preceded further arrivals: Annemiek, Paul, Billie, Joke and George. With a full complement, we all settled in to the serious business of relaxing.
So what do you do in Tuscany for a week? The answer depends on who you are, of course. You could....

Visit Assissi. Wander through the old town with Lhasa-like monastery. Savour a good lunch overlooking the main square, including stew of wild boar (cinghiale) and truffle omelette (it was truffle season). Witness a middle-aged battleaxe of a woman cursing and shaking her fist at nun (points to the nun, who remained serene).
Drop in to the market of Firenze, although it's insane driving there, and goggle at the fabulous range of mushrooms for sale.
Loll by the pool under beaming Tuscan sun, sipping prosecco or champagne.
Cook up good family meals for the 10-12 of us and dine at long tables scarred by the knives of countless generations. The menu included saffron seafood risotto, puttanesca, rosemary roasted chicken, salads full of vivid colour and crunch, a simple and elegant garlic/chilli/extra-virgin olive oil pasta, and much more.
Get to know chianti and montepulciano wines, the regions of which were just up and down the road respectively.
Go to a cooking class. We made a delicious sweet capsicum soup, crostinis, ravioli, ragu, tiramisu, fagioli pyramids - OK the kids made those, and they were far more handsome than any pasta we adults made - and dine out in the garden.
Discover the untold horrors of the Tuscan insect population. Some of these guys were the size of dragonflies (or Pterodactyl dinosaurs) but bit like mosquitos. None of us emerged unscathed, and Tracey got a nasty dose of the shakes from being bitten too much (thankfully that passed within a day).
Head out to Saint Gimignano and sample some world-record gelato (flavours including gorgonzola, cinamon and lavender/blackberry)
Duck down the road and check of the wonderfully whimsical Bomarzo monster park, containing giant mythological inspired stone carvings from around 1550.

More Bomarzo

Sleeping beauty, dog and a foodivore

Enjoy two excellent and reasonably priced meals in Arezzo at a place called Il Cantuccio (the tripe was such a highlight that we ordered it again on our second visit).