Day 5: Arezzo
Last night, we couldn’t quite finish all of the food. So this morning’s breakfast was leftovers. Who says you can’t have gnocchi and tiramisu for breakfast? It’s basically hash browns and coffee with cream.
Crosswords and Crostinis
We drove about an hour to the hills north of Arezzo to the Antares Horse Club. We met our guide, Olga, who took us on a two-hour ride through Monte Della Verna. We first had to match up with our horses and get a mini lesson. When we were all comfortable and ready, Olga led the way up the mountain.
Olga is ready to ride
We are also ready to ride
Riding into the forest
Matt and Stella doing fine
Jo’s horse, Zumba, was hungry and tried as often as she could to grab some grass. By the end of the ride, she seemed tired and went straight into her stall instead of following the group (or the reins) to the area to dismount. Honestly, I respect it.
The sun makes an appearance
Breaking thru the clouds
End of the ride
With plenty of time before our cooking class, we were looking for things to do in the area. Olga suggested a place in nearby Talla for lunch. It was called Note de Guido, named after the monk who invented the musical staff (among other musical innovations) and was born and lived in Arezzo around the year 1000.
The restaurant was definitely authentic. The menu was hand written, the manager/server did not speak any English, and the Italian chef appeared to be a semi-famous contestant from some Italian TV cooking shows. Once we translated everything on the menu, we placed our order including cappuccinos, only to receive a strange look and “now?” Apparently milk isn’t really consumed after noon and coffee comes at the end of the meal — not before. Knowing we were making pasta later, Belinda and Cordwood were smart and ordered chicken (which ended up being wrapped in bacon) with potatoes and sausage with peppers. Matt and I ordered pastas.
Restaurant named in honor of Guido d’Arezzo
From there, we drove to the old walled town of Arezzo. We went to see the Christmas market in the main square, do some shopping, and see the fort. Unfortunately, a tourist town on a Tuesday in November isn’t exactly a hopping place. The Christmas market and the fort were closed as were most of the shops. We did walk around the park, saw some tacky statues, and got cappuccinos. What else do you need?
Basilica d’San Francesco
Where is the Christmas fun?
Found it!
Bibliotecca Citta’ di Arezzo (Arezzo Library)
Palazzo dei Priori
Still with a little time to kill, we drove to an old bridge on the way to the cooking class. On the way, we almost ran into a wild hog that tried to cross the road in front of the car. We have been seeing hogs on magnets and other souvenirs — apparently they are over-populated in the area of Tuscany. They are allowed to be hunted and eaten. We almost had one to bring to dinner.
We arrived at the Ponte Burano right at sunset making for a pretty good view. The bridge was built starting in 1240-something and finished in 1277. Some historians believe that it is the bridge in the lower-right quadrant of the Mona Lisa… but thats debatable.
Very old bridge
Sunset on the Arno River
The next stop was the cooking class, which was at Dina’s (the chef) house. We drove just a few minutes and were lucky to find an easy parking spot on the street. Dina met us outside and introduced us to her husband and her sister, Kiara. While Dina really runs the show, they all support the experience. Kiara was vital as she spoke the best English and acted as translator.
Dina showed us how to make three pastas: a ravioli with spinach and ricotta, a tortellini with beets in the dough making it naturally red and cheese with lemon inside, and tagalitelle — the traditional pasta of Tuscany. We mixed eggs into the flour and kneaded the dough until it was ready to be rolled out. For the first two, we used a pasta maker to flatten the dough. The tagalitelle was rolled out with a really long rolling pin.
Making pastas!
Master Chef: Arezzo
Local Italian approves
We cut, filled, and folded the ravioli and tortellini, then finally rolled and cut the tagalitelle noodles. Dina demonstrated everything with such ease, but it was all harder than it looked. Once the three pastas were made, we celebrated with Prosecco.
Beet tortelloni (mostly for the red color)
Kiara led us into the living room to enjoy our drinks and start the antipasta course while Dina did the actual cooking of the pasta. They served cheese, local crackers, spicy jam, olives, and fried polenta. When that was done, we moved to the table for red wine and to the crostini course including tomato from their garden, chicken liver, olive oil, plain bread and prosciutto.
We all love crostini, but knew there were still THREE pasta servings coming up so tried to not eat too much. Starting was the ravioli, which we got high praise for since none of them fell apart when cooking. Next was tortellini (also somehow all stayed together). Finally, the tagalitelle was served with ragu. As the tagalitelle was being served, we asked if there was any more food coming out next and was told no. They lied. When we finished as much of the pasta as we could, Dina brought out cantucci (what we might call biscotti), a sugar twist pastry, and a traditional almlond flour fuitcake type thing. And of course, you can’t have dessert without dessert wine and homemade limoncello.
The team after dinner
It was a very fun experience and we left full enough to last a few days. With no more stops for the day, we drove back to the house to pack up and go to sleep (dinner was done around 9:30pm). We leave tomorrow to drive to Rome to catch a flight to Part 2: Greece.
