Food coma

Note: I wrote this but didn't post it in October 2013 while we were vacationing in Italy.
It's now getting towards the end of our Italian vacation, and once more, we find ourselves stuffed to the gills with amazing food.

The binge started in Bologna, where every meal was delicious and then topped off by the "Italian Food Experience", which included tours of parmiagiano, balsamico, and prosciutto factories. After all of that (including generous tastings) we had a "light lunch" (Ha!). OMG, it was amazing. We ate and drank far too much, then wedged ourselves into the rental car to being our journey to Tuscany.

A few months ago, I bought an Italian map for my GPS. It was a lifesaver. We set it for "La Befa" and followed it until it told us we had reached our destination. At this point we were on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, but just up ahead we found our home for the next week, "Il Palazzotto".

Maurizio was waiting for us with a delicious dinner, although we were both too full from lunch to really appreciate it. Then we crawled up to bed.

We woke and checked the time in our darkened room: 11:10! Had we never slept so late? Nonetheless, Maurizio and Alexandra served us an Italian breakfast (toast and jam, coffee, juice, yogurt), and we set off our our first day of Tuscan site-seeing:

A few days later we went with our new friends Regula, Patrice, and Claire (from Switzerland) to the Innocenti winery for a lovely wine tasting:

Brunello, Super Tuscan, even some Grappa, which was reminiscent of lighter fluid. Regula acted as our interpreter since our host, Gianna, spoke about as much English as we speak Italian. It was great!

 After re-visiting Montalcino and then the Abbey of Sant'Antimo,we returned to Il Palazzotto. The smells coming from the kitchen were amazing, and we knew we were going to be treated to another fantastic dinner. Tonight we started with pancetta, parmigiano, and arugula. This was followed by a luscious risotto, and then pork loin stuffed with plums and hazelnuts. Oh, and a delicious plum cake.

So the food coma continues. More tomorrow!