An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Just another leisurely morning here in our home. Breakfasted on some fresh fruit, then read in the yard, soaking in the postcard view. Set off around noon for Panzanno’s weekly market, which turned out to be sort of a mini-market. Spent but a few minutes there, then went up to Strada for our meal of the day.
Lunched at Il Caminetto, a Marjorie recommendation. We did as we were instructed and dropped her name, but the owner thought we were talking about some Japanese person, so we just smiled and went back to the menu. Seemed to be a real local’s place, with about 10 tables occupied out on their lovely veranda, all by Italian families and us.
We began with some bruschetta (perfect) and a delicious homemade (of course) tagliatelle w/basil and butter. Then on to a grilled chicken (plain, but really hit the spot), some veal w/cheese and asparagus, a giant sauteed mushroom and some good string beans w/tomato sauce, and a vegetable flan. We used our cheat-sheet from September’s Wine Spectator on wines of Tuscany (thanks, J & W) to order an excellent Poggio Rosso Chianti Classico Riserva, which was flavorful and smooth. Dessert was a rich creme-like pudding with a fresh, thick raspberry sauce. We then learned, yet again, that restaurants in Italy are not the place to be in a hurry. We told our lovely waitress (the daughter of the owner) that we’d like the check, as we were trying to get to Impruneta for today’s festival. 20 minutes later we asked the other waitress. Many minutes later we motioned to the first waitress who gave us an apologetic look and eventually brought it.
We zoomed off to Impruneta for La Festa Dell’Uva - the 71st annual Festival of the Grape. We parked and scurried into the crowd, as the procession (the culmination of three days of celebration) had just begun. What fun! Each of the four quarters of the town provides a float and a grand presentation in one end of the town square, one after the other. Each presentation lasted about 30 minutes, and involved some big, impressive floats (one resembling a Japonese Pagoda, one an Egyptian pyramid theme, one a Roman Temple, and one a Giant Chianti bottle motif), close to 100 mostly teenage “dancers” for each group in great outfits and costumes, (with choreography that ranged from frenetic to non-existant) and copiously blasted music which went from bouncy new-age to Tchaikovsky to Wagner to Peter Gabriel. All with an audience of several thousand in bleachers, atop buildings, filling all windows, etc.
After the two-hour show, we quickly walked the stalls of junk and food (and junk food), passing on the grilled hot dogs (which didn’t look too bad, actually). We attempted to drive home, but with all the traffic and the Italians’ trait of walking leisurely in the middle of all streets we ended up taking an enjoyably circuitous, scenic route - something we should probably do more often. (another Italian trait is ubiquitous smoking; we peered into the baby bag of the woman seated next to us today and saw diapers, bottles and cigarettes!)
Came home and enjoyed a relaxing evening.