Our Trip: Part One

School started this Tuesday (Oct 2), and before we had class every day, we headed off to Lucca to watch Lina and watch the mill for Doris and Doug while they took a group up to the Dolomites and to Venice. We got the chance to got to a lot of places and see a lot of things. Here are the highlights from the first part of the week:

Saturday, September 22

The Vineyards on the way to Panzano

On Saturday we already had the rental car so we decided to head up to Chianti to visit Panzano and Radda in Chianti. Panzano was this really small town, about half way between Castellina in Chianti and Greve in Chianti.

Panzano

Panzano is most known for being the location of the Antica Macelleria Cecchini, one of the most famous butcher shops in all of Italy. For those who have read the book, it is also the butcher shop that is mentioned and talked about in the book Heat by Bill Buford. The place was absolutely packed but Darrio, the owner, came out and shook our hands so Reed was happy!

After that it was on to Radda in Chianti, a really cute small town, that is definitely worth a trip. The town is really small, including the doors. Oliver helps put it in scale!

Ollie in Radda

For dinner we headed off to the festa di Bistecca and Fungo Porcino in Certaldo, a 45 minute drive from Radda. It was fun, but not quite exactly what either of us was expecting. It was inside this large communal hall and we had to wait about 45 minutes before even getting through to order. We placed our order and sat down to wait for our food. The food was pretty good, just annoying that people who were in line behind us ate and left before we got half our food!

Fried Porcini (we also had grilled porcini-at the back of the picture)

Steak with Arugula

Sunday, September 23

Sunday we headed off to Lucca....We spent Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon lying by the pool which overlooked Lucca and the valley. It was quite relaxing!!

Hopefully tomorrow after school we will have time to post about the rest of the week, which included a trip to Cinque Terre and Olivers first train ride to Firenze!