Mangia e Beve

Today we visited a new vacation home - Villa Franca - located down a short white dirt road (strada bianca), high above the vineyards of the Conca d'Oro, the most prestigious wine growing area of Chianti Classico in Panzano. The villa is surrounded by the owners' hand-built stone walls, organic olive groves, vineyards and a beautiful vegetable garden. Guests are welcome to purchase their wine and olive oil while enjoying their holidays in this tranquil setting. The fruits of their garden are usually offered as gifts to holiday residents.

After touring the two bedroom, one bath home with a spectacularly sited swimming pool, the owner Franca (seated on the left in photo) and her husband (standing) asked us to return to their home in town for a snack. Franca offered us their own home-made vin santo (aged for three years in oak barrels in their attic where extreme temperatures of heat and cold assist the fermentation of this sweet dessert wine) along with cantucci (see basket on the right in front of James) - and a very special egg yolk cookie called mangia e bevi (see photo at bottom) named after the street vendors in the last century in Florence who would sell these special cookies with a glass of sweet wine from their street carts. These soft yellow morsels were the perfect accompaniment to our hosts luscious nectar. The basket also contained white meringue cookies that were also Franca's handiwork.

As we said our goodbyes, Franca made sure we did not leave without a pot of her special zucchini, onion and pancetta sauce to be used the next time we made pasta. She also included a large snow-white head of her organic cabbage along with her recipe for a Tuscan cabbage and rice soup (the red pot on the stove behind Franca was the same soup simmering away as we chatted). We immediately returned to our apartment and enjoyed a delicious al fresco lunch with our friend Karin.

Tuscany has wonderful vacation homes, clean fresh air, dramatic landscapes, wines of character and grace, sweet produce, and fragrant herbs and flowers. However, it is the warm generosity of the Italian people that continues to impress us year after year.