24. November 2011: Long Way From Home

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in the states! It was strange to think of it being Thanksgiving…this is the first Thanksgiving that I have not been with my parents.

They did a good job keeping our minds off any nostalgia though. We awoke early in the morning and boarded a bus by 7:50 to visit the Villa Medicea di Poggio a Caiano. This Villa is a huge countryside mansion that was first owned by the rival family, the Strozzi family. It was inherited by the Rucellai family before they reluctantly sold it to Lorenzo il Magnifico. The villa symbolizes the patronage of Lorenzo—the embracement of nature, the cycle of time and cyclical renewal. We walked through the Villa and I noted a room with a stage and a mini organ, a strange stairwell that came out of the middle of the wall, ran along the wall in a slight incline and then reentered the top of the same wall, but my favorite was a bedroom ceiling covered in rouched fabric. I’ve decided that my house will have a ceiling like that, it was beautiful. There was also a fresco with a turkey—how appropriate. (I wasn’t allowed to take photos but I illegally snapped a few…)

That turkey fresco was completed by the same artist who frescoed the Castel Sant’Angelo that we just saw in Rome. It reminded me of a cool little fact that I forgot to mention the first time I talked about that Castel. The high stone walls of that Castel were the same from which Floria, the lead soprano in Puccini’s Tosca, jumps to her death at the end of the opera.

Moving right along, we drove to the Villa di Capezzana. This villa is owned by a noble Florentine family and includes a huge acreage of vineyards and olive tree orchards.

 We got to tour their wine cellars where they keep wines from as early as the 1930s. They brew a special mix of the famous Tuscan Chianti grape and the French Cabernet Sauvignon. They call the latter variety of grape Ouva di Francesca (grapes from France) and the unique mix of varieties a Carmignano wine. Next, we saw their special collection of Vinsanto—literally a holy wine, in terms of flavor it is a sweet dessert wine, then to the barrels where they age the wine. There are two types of aging. They have one room of huge French oak barrels and another room of smaller barrels that are imported from France, cost 600€ per barrel and must be replaced every three years.

After visiting a room with hundreds of shelves of freshly picked grapes, we ventured across the way to the olive press. This is now a much more technological process. There is a machine that runs the olives through and cleans them, and then they are moved to a machine which presses the olives, skins and seeds included. Finally, this paste is transferred into the last machine which uses centrifugal force to separate the oil from the water.

And the freshly pressed olive oil stored in huge ceramic pots looked a bit like green slime.

Then our entire group (pictured above—minus Ellie who is hiding behind Leah) sat down for a traditional Tuscan meal centered around the oil and wine of the Villa di Capezzana. There were five courses and a different wine to go with each course.

For appetizers, we had a rosé with pane and olive oil…the best olive oil I have ever tasted. Our first course was crostini con fagioli e cavolo nero all’olio nuovo paired with a 2009 Carmignano. Next was penne ai tre cavoli paired with a 2001 Carmignano. The main dish was artista all’olio nuovo con puree di patate e ceci all’olio paired with a 2006 Ghiaie della Furba. Finally, our dessert was torta di mele with their signature vinsanto. The sweet dessert wine was good but very sweet and a little syrupy. That was my only complaint for the day.

Overall it was possibly the most delicious meal I have ever had in my life and definitely on this trip. I sat at a carino table where, for every new bottle of wine that was given to our table we went around and said what we were thankful for. After the first round, we chose themes: the little things, art and from the earth. I am thankful for fabric, the wide range of emotion that can be expressed through art but escapes human language, and the fruits of the tree of life.

There are, of course, an endless number of things that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving. The first things that come to mind are my parents. They have given me the financial and emotional funds for this incredible international opportunity. My family gives me strength. They give me wings to overcome any obstacle, be it a language barrier or homesickness. I am thankful for my sister who has always been there for me, who has talked sense into me and who has coaxed me out of the darkest moments of my life. Her smiling face alone is enough to brighten any room but more importantly, it brightens my life. I am thankful for my beautiful ragazzo who harmonizes with the music in my life with unbelievable perfection. I am thankful for my best friends who send me letters and emails that remind me that I am missed, even after months of separation. I am thankful for everyone in my life—I am lucky to have so much love in my life. I am thankful for Eli, Rivka, Steph, Randi and Mara. I am blessed to have two loving grandparents who have gone out of their way to enter this world of the interwebs to read my blog and send me loving emails. I am truly blessed and there are far too many souls to write about in a blog post. You know who you are and I thank you for being a part of my life.

Happy Thanksgiving, TUTTI!