Coming to the End

Jan 8, 1745 GMT

Well, this was our last full day for H and I in Italy. Tomorrow we'll be in transit back to the states. Thursday we are back to the grind. Bummer.

But, we made a full day out of it. Under the guidance of Paul, we headed to the south and west of Siena, to a different area of Tuscany. But out of the Chianti area. We ended up spending most of the day at the beautiful walled hill town of Pieza. As we harder farther out of the Chianti sea and more into the more gently rolling hills of outer Tuscany, the temperatures rose towards the 50s, the clouds cleared out, as we got our first real sunshine of the trip. Better late than never.

It is getting a little late, so a full account of our doings just isn't going to happen today. Suffice to say that we had an excellent time and enjoyed the weather immensely. When we rturned to our home base, we stopped by the press of a small olive oil company run by a family that lives a stone's throw away from us, almost literally. Their product, Podere Pornanino, is a real premium piece of work - harvested by hand, no pesticides, only a few thousand liters' production annually. Their equipment is very simple, and they work very hard to ensure the oil is extracted with minimal warming, agitation, and oxidation - all of which reduce the oil's taste and potency. We can't wait to try some that we are bringing back.

Now we are just doing a quick Internet check before heading back to make dinner. Don't expect to hear anything else before we are back stateside Thursday. Ciao!