I spent a delightful week in Tuscany in a watercolor workshop. The group, organized by Il Chiostro, that runs a variety of programs in Italy and elsewhere, housed us at Borgo San Fedele, near Radda in Chianti.
Restored Borgo San Fedele
The Borgo, once a large Romanesque church that had fallen into near total disrepair, has been entirely restored. The marble stairs throughout including those up to my attractive second floor room provided an excellent workout. The property hosts private and corporate events, workshops and weddings.
Between bouts of painting we went to several nearby Tuscan towns including Gaole in Chianti, (near where my husband and I rented a villa for our family twenty-two years ago), Castellana and Radda. One mildly rainy day we drove to Sienna where I went inside the Picolomini Library, tucked into the black-and-white striped Duomo.
In Picolomini Library (These folks got the memo about matching outfits)
Inside the Library are manuscripts and terrific frescos including one depicting Raphael, the painter, in chic maroon tights. The cathedral itself is a jewel and the library a special treasure.
At a vendemia, (grape harvest), we watched workers wielding scissors to clip bunches of grapes off the vines before dropping them into plastic buckets. Filled buckets were tossed into a tractor-truck heading to the mechanical crushing area, Gone are the days of barefoot grape stomping rendered so hilariously by Lucille Ball.
Who did not love Lucy?
There is a newish (2006) archeological museum in Castellina exhibiting finds from Etruscan burial mounds. The museum is next to the fortress that has a walkway at the top for a wonderful view which I skipped as time ran out. Vaguely scholarly note: the Etruscans, who peopled ancient Italy, passed on many cultural and artistic traditions to the Romans and occupied
Ancient Etruscan settlements
what is now Tuscany and a great deal more of modern Italy.
During the week I ate lots of pasta, gelato, various riffs on salami and what I’ve incorrectly been calling biscotti for years. Biscotti translates as ‘cookie’; cantucci are specific ‘cookies.’ (Think of ‘cookie’ being the category and ‘chocolate chip’ the specific kind of cookie.) The traditional way to eat cantucci is to dip them into Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine, but I happily inhaled them out of the bag.
Here’s a video of making cantucci although the presenter refers to them as biscotti.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx9FnQ0G0t4
Typically, biscotti are very hard – a treat for the dentist, hence the classic dunking. To complete your experience, corral a bottle of Vin Santo and listen to a snatch of Italian opera, maybe something by Puccini. Think of the rolling hills of Tuscany.