[Itinerary Page]The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
May 4 - Visiting
This is our seventh trip to Italy and only the second time we have stayed exclusively in hotels. Our normal mode is to rent a house with a group of friends an explore an area ... and in Tuscany/Umbria that means renting from Summers Leases, a company owned by an ex-pat British couple who have come to be good friends. The project for today was to drive to their home in the Chianti region for lunch and a bit of catch-up conversation. As with most things in Italy, it turned into something quite a bit more than we expected.
A leisurely homemade Italian lunch became an afternoon chatfest ranging from the state of the rental home market to politics (Italian, American and British) to construction horror stories to computers to ... well, name something!
Suddenly we noticed that it was 7:00pm! The plan was to head down the hill for a pizza at a little place in Montevarchi that they liked so off we went, winding our way down a narrow road through the trees. When we arrived, they had remembered a meeting they were supposed to be attending (oops!), so begged off. We snagged a quick pizza and jumped back on the autostrade for the run home.
If we had come to Italy to SEE Italy, this might have been a disappointing day. But we came to BE IN Italy, so it fit perfectly! Maybe we will look around more tomorrow. Maybe not. Ciao for now.
© 2007 Restaurant Doctor