Cortona: Wine and Food. And then more wine and food!

On Friday we headed off to Cortona for a long weekend visiting Tania and Keith. We had a really great time and ended up spending an extra day and only coming back on Tuesday! There was lots of food and lots of wine! A great weekend all around.....

Cortona is in eastern Tuscany on the border of Umbria. It is perched high on mountain overlooking the Valdichiana. On Friday night we headed into town to have dinner....the Christmas lights were up and it was quite festive!


We headed to Osteria del Teatro for dinner. The restaurant was really good!


Reed had the fagottini al caprino e carciofi (pasta with goat cheese and artichokes) followed by the caramelle al radicchio con pancetta e pesto di pinoli (hand-made pasta made into "caramel candy" shape with radicchio, pancetta, and pine nut sauce). I had the ravioli al ragu di chianina e funghi porcini followed by the same caramelle pasta.


Along with dinner, we all shared two bottles on wine: one from Basilicata and the other from Puglia (both regions that we are about to visit!).

For dessert we opted for the il mio tagliere di cioccolato where the serves comes and shaves a number of different chocolates tableside. There were to many to count but there was one with black peppercorns and another with balsamic vinegar! As we left the restaurant we noticed that it had started to snow!


Saturday we headed out to a vineyard, Faralli, that Tania and Keith had learned about at a wine festival in Arezzo.


We tried quite a few wines, all were really good. The interesting part is that it is a very small vineyard that produces about 3,000 bottles annually, but they have their own bottling machine (something small vineyards rarely have).


Ollie got a chance to play with Murphy too! It snowed on and off the whole weekend and you can just make out some flakes in the picture.


Sunday we headed to Torrita di Siena for the Christmas Market. Every year Torrita has a "Palio," in mockery of Siena, in which they race donkeys instead of horses! The main piazza was all lit up with Christmas lights and we stopped by to see a huge indoor nativity scene that had been built.



After getting back from Torrita, Reed made a non-Italian dinner: Shrimp and vegetable tempura and Thai Red Curry.


Monday Reed and Keith decided to cook one last meal, using a huge piece of pork.


They grilled it on the fireplace upstairs....


Final product:


We have been really busy and have lots more to post about in the next few days as our last days in Siena and trip to the South quickly approach!