Under the Tuscan Sun: La Parte Due

Sunday kicked off with another lovely breakfast at the hotel followed by a nice walk around town. We bought a few postcards and popped our heads in several little shops that sold interesting art, jewelry, antiques, etc. If we hadn't packed our little carry-ons to the brim, we might have considered buying something. Instead we settled for window shopping and our few postcards.

Giancarlo and Rita met us in the main piazza at 10:00 and we went straight to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the lunch Rita wanted to make us. We spent a few hours by the pool napping and soaking in a few more of those Tuscan rays.

We stuffed ourselves at lunch. Rita made gorgonzolla and spinach quesadillas that were to die for. I could have, rather SHOULD have stopped there but she also made pasta carbonara liked I'd never tasted. Whew! Makes me hungry just thinking about it. And what meal isn't complete without a little homemade limoncello?

Unfortunately, we had to say our goodbyes as they had plans for that evening. Giancarlo took us back to the hotel where we napped for about an hour (you know, because the day had been so strenuous and all). Most of the shops opened back up at 4:00 anyway so it worked out perfectly. Our first stop was into a wine shop to pick out a few wines to have shipped back to Germany. Brad and I are trying to build up our wine collection so we tasted several and picked out a couple of cases worth to have shipped home. Mmmmmmm, tasty! Brunello di Montalcino anyone?

Giancarlo had recommended Il Loggiato, a beautiful restaurant overlooking the main piazza, for dinner that evening. The owner of the wine shop, Marco, was a friend of Giancarlo's and called in a reservation for us which really paid off and you'll see why later. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the tiny streets and on a hunt for a Christmas ornament (that's what we've started collecting from each destination). Brad finally got to experience gelato the way it was meant to be. Sorry Germany, you can call it "gelato" but it's just not the same. We sat on the steps of the clock tower people watching and writing postcards for a bit. I wrote a few up on the terrace where Diane Lane sat in "Under the Tuscan Sun" just to say that I did it. I'm a nerd, I know this.

Then, it was finally time for dinner. There was only one table left outside that overlooked the square. Dang it! And wouldn't you know they didn't even have our names on the list. Grrrrr. Well that was because they had taken Marco's name by accident! Wooohoo for us! That last table belonged to the Binghams! So we had the perfect table with the perfect view. Now for the food and wine. We recognized several of the wines on the list from ones we had tasted in Marco's shop earlier that afternoon. Now here's something I love about Italy - the restaurants (at least the one's I've been to) don't overcharge on their wine. Wines we had picked out in the shop sold at the restaurant for only 3 or 4 euro more. Gotta love that. We started off with an antipasta of bruschetta. We didn't want to ruin our main course so we split the first course and had ravioli. Delish! Last but certainly not least, the main course - we both ordered steaks. Mine had a wonderful mushroom cream sauce and Brad's was topped with black truffles. Let me tell you, this place gives Bob's Steak and Chop House a run for their money. I'm talking "WOW!" You almost didn't even need a knife, it was so tender. Yum yum yum. Since we ate our ENTIRE steaks we could hardly think about dessert so we settled for some coffee and called it a night.

And that was the end of Sunday. Well, I'm tired and now hungry so I'll be back for the rest of the trip's details later.

Ciao!

Under the Tuscan Sun

Katherine: It's a nice little villa. Are you going to buy it?
Frances: The way my life is currently going, that would be a terrible idea.
Katherine: Terrible idea... Don't you just love those?
*From the movie Under the Tuscan Sun

I don't know what orginally attracted my Grandparents to visit Cortona. Maybe the book, maybe the movie but it's easy to understand why once they had experienced it, they wanted the family to experience it, as well. There's just something about that city that sets it apart from any other destination I've been. Since we stepped foot in Germany, I've been just itching to get Brad to Italy, especially Cortona.

We try to take advantage of every 3 day weekend we have so we knew that Labor Day would have to be something great. It was a long shot but I emailed our friend, Giancarlo, who lives in Cortona to see if he was busy that weekend and lucky for us, he was not. Giancarlo does tours all over Italy and is typically very busy doing trips with families, students, etc. so we were eccstatic we would have a chance to spend some time together.

We flew RyanAir (a super cheap airline, no frills, no fuss, just gets you from point A to point B) into Pisa and Giancarlo picked us up at the airport. Pisa is approximately a 2 hour drive to Cortona with weekend traffic. And we were in a hurry. A friend of Giancarlo's was hosting a dinner and showcasing 6 types of wine that evening. It was being held in the courtyard of an Etruscan museum just off the main piazza. And there were 2 seats left just for us. We knew we were going to be just a little late so we literally drove up to the hotel, put our bags in the lobby, checked in and we were off. No freshening up which I'm sure the people at our table really appreciated. So we were a little under-dressed and disheveled but that's not uncommon when you put American tourists up against well-to-do Italians. Fortunately, the people at our table were extremely nice! There was a couple from New Jersey and another from Chicago and both couples had bought homes in Cortona. Must be rough. The wine was fabulous! The setting was fabulous! Oh, forgot to mention there was a FULL moon that Giancarlo said he had arranged for our visit. The live band was fabulous! The food....well it was just meh (picture me shrugging my shoulders and tilting my head).

After dinner we took a tour of the Museum of Etruscan Acadamy. In the past few years, multiple Etruscan tombs have been uncovered (mostly by farmers) right there in Cortona so it's an exciting time for this region. The museum truly was fascinating but after several glasses of wine and the fact that it was almost midnight, we were anxious to get back to our hotel. We were staying at the same hotel my family stayed when we were there a few years ago. The Hotel San Michele is literally located right in the heart of Cortona and is simply beautiful. The building itself was built in the 15th century....now that's just cool. We got hosed a little when it came to the view but I guess that's what we get from booking on Hotels.com and paying a lot less than what we would have if we'd gone through the hotel. Ho hum.

But the story is just getting started. After a good night's sleep, we woke up to a beautiful Tuscan morning. I could tell it was beautiful from the itty bitty window above the toilet. Lovely. We ate our breakfast in the courtyard, went for a little walk and Giancarlo met us at 10:00 in the main piazza. We started off by going to the very top of the hill to see The Fortress. From here we had an incredible view of the city and the valley.

Next stop was the Church of Santa Margherita where you can view the body of Santa Margherita herself.

Then we drove to the Franciscan Convent where nuns and priests still live. Again, I've been here before but there really is something very spiritual about this place and I was happy to be back. Peaceful would be an understatement.

By this point Giancarlo was craving his daily cappuchino so we literally flew down the hill (you'd think that man drove a Ferrari and not a Dodge Caravan the way he drives) to the small town of Camucia at the bottom of Cortona. You can't even have a cup of coffee without it being a work of art... We also stopped off in a little shop to buy lottery tickets. Let me tell you, we had some pretty grand ideas on what to do with our 45 million euros when we won....starting with buying Giancarlo's house. :)

Next stop was Il Falconiere. I don't really know where to start with this place. The last time I was here, I spent a magical night with my family over great wine and great food. But I never thought I'd get to step foot there again. It's a little, well, out of our league. I'm pretty sure I saw George Clooney sitting by the pool. Ok, not really but I kid you not - he very well could have been.

We met the "mascot" of the place, Lila, the falcon that hangs out near the entrance. Had a nice tour of the brand new spa. Ummmm, wow. And said a quick hello to Silvia (one of the owners) before sitting down to a nice glass of wine with some delicious olives and capers. On our way out we ran into Ricardo, the other owner and husband to Silvia. He had a woman from Las Vegas with him who imports a bunch of their wine to one of the casinos there. I want her job.

We went a little off the beaten path and Giancarlo showed us where they are uncovering many Etruscan tombs. In this picture, you can see one tomb to the right of the stairs and two to the left. Absolutely fascinating! Twenty-four more were just found in the past few months not far from these. Maybe I should become an archeologist.

From here we made a quick stop by the grocery store for some fresh mozzarella, melon, and procuitto. The perfect lunch before spending the afternoon by the pool. However, I must say that I've turned into a snob when it comes to mozzarella and olive oil now. That cheap stuff I've been getting from the Commissary just won't cut it anymore.

We stayed by the pool for several hours soaking up all the sun we could get. Rita, Giancarlo's girlfriend, joined us late that afternoon and it was so nice to finally meet her. What a sweetheart!

The drive to Giancarlo's house

We decided we would all go to dinner at a new little restaurant in town. We didn't really want to go all the way back to our hotel so I turned my swimsuit coverup into a dress, borrowed a pashmina, and off we went. (Gotta love being under-dressed EVERY place we went.) We all ordered pizza and finished it off with one of the most fantastic desserts I've ever had. A chocolate truffle sitting in espresso. Woweee! The boys had a glass of Grappa to top it all off....makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.

And that was the end of the day. For your sanity and mine, I'm going to split the rest of the trip up into several posts. Stay tuned.

Ciao!

Wine Fest....Round 2

What's better than a Wine Festival? TWO Wine Festivals! And what's better than two wine festivals? Getting to enjoy it with my dear friend, Bethany!

Bethany came in town for a site inspection for an upcoming meeting in Frankfurt and it just worked out perfectly that she was able to spend a couple of days with us. Plus it finally gave us the motivation to get the guest bedroom completed (which it is so come visit us).

Brad, Tommy, and Melissa checked out the wine festivities on Saturday. I've turned into my mother (and Grandma, for that matter) and spent the evening ironing sheets, pillowcases, etc. and making sure our little guest room was comfy enough. Plus I only had a couple of days to spend with Bethany and her flight was scheduled to land at 6:00 am on Sunday morning....I needed my sleep.

Sunday was just beautiful. After breakfast we drove Bethany around Mainz (where we live) and Weisbaden (where we'd like to live). We stopped by a neighbor's barbecue for a bit before hopping on the trolley to head to the Wine Festival. Having experienced the Weisbaden Wine Festival the week before, I expected much of the same. To my surprise, the Mainz Festival blew the Weisbaden Festival out of the water! It was about 10 times as big!! Ok, so the wine didn't change much and left a little to be desired but we still managed to have a great time!

We were taken back in time when we went to order a pizza type dish from a woman who had just stepped out of the Medieval era. She was wearing a leather skirt that looked like she may have killed the cow herself to make it. From a distance I thought maybe she was just playing the part with her get-up. No, no. As we got closer I noticed her leg hair was a "tad" long and she had a bit of a dark mustache going. But that wasn't all. Almost in slow motion, she turned around to take a tray out of the wood burning oven and as she raised her arms.....well, I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

After enjoying a crepe with Nutella we called it a day. (I'm sure by now you're noticing a trend here.....I can't attend anything that ends with "Fest" without having a crepe with Nutella. I have zero self-control.)

Bethany and I spent Monday morning relaxing and being lazy. We took Stella for a long walk through the orchard and helped ourselves to some pears. We made the seviche style shrimp tacos for lunch and spent the afternoon chatting and relaxing. We finished the day at our favorite pub, Eva's. She couldn't come to our neck of the woods and not enjoy some schnitzel.

We dropped her off at her hotel in Frankfurt and said our goodbyes. Knowing I will see her again in about a month is a good feeling. I love always having something to look forward to!

Wine Festival in Wiesbaden

This past weekend Brad and I experienced our first go at a wine festival in Wiesbaden. You might compare this experience to the first time you went trick-or-treating on Halloween. You walk from booth to booth to sample wine from vendors all over Germany and being the lush *ahem* I mean wine lover that I am, this was a pretty fantastic concept. Ok, so it’s not free and you don’t dress up like a super hero (granted, you may feel like one after a few hours there) you get the idea. Tommy and Melissa were our partners in crime and we had a fabulous time.

I have to be honest though, the wine wasn’t all that great. Neither of us are big fans of Rieslings which is primarily what is produced in this region….blech. After several glasses of wine that made our faces tense up like we just ate a lemon, the chardonnay that was introduced to us by a friend was happily welcomed. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We stuck with that for the rest of the afternoon…and evening.

But it’s not just about the wine, there’s food, too! Lots of it. We started off with a pizza-like dish that was made with a sour cream sauce of sorts instead of tomato paste. Very light and tasty. But it wasn’t enough to fill our empty bellies so we moved on to a SomeWeirdGermanWord….wurst sandwich with caramelized onions. Wow, now that was delicious. If I could only remember what it was called. Next up was a pretzel that was about the size of my steering wheel; all that was missing was a barrel of nacho cheese to go with it. And that was it…..ok, that’s a lie – you can’t go to a festival without getting a crepe with Nutella on it (ok, ok – and Grand Marnier). And I’m officially heading to the gym as soon as I finish this.


The exciting part is….drum roll please…..there’s another wine fest right here in Mainz this weekend!!! And the really exciting part? My dear friend, Bethany, will be here to enjoy it with us! That’s right, our first visitor will be here this weekend and I’m beyond excited to see her. Can’t wait!

And there are many more adventures to come in the near future in the life of the Bingham’s…stay tuned. The next few weeks, no - the next few months are going to be amazing!!

Amsterdam Adventure....And Then Some

Obviously from the title Brad and I have checked off another fun adventure from The List....but we'll discuss that a little later.

It seems that so much has happened since my last post. I believe my exact words were "there are no exciting trips to speak of" and I'm quite certain that I jinxed myself (in a good way) by saying that. In a matter of two weeks our calendar has started to fill up throughout the rest of the year. And by "calendar" I mean figuratively speaking because I no longer have one. Apparently day planners and calendars are very rare here and now that my 2008-2009 At a Glance Planner ended in July, I'm completely lost. Ugggh.

Now I now the anticipation is killing you...."what are the Binghams' going to do next?!" Ok, probably not. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I just have this weird feeling that the minute I say "we're going to _________!!!!" something will happen to screw it all up and then you'll have to listen to me rant on here about how that really cool trip I told you about got cancelled. So I'm really doing this for you.

Instead I'll just recap the events of the past few weeks:

I spent Saturday before last on an all day shopping spree with Anica, Mariam, and Melissa. We started at a boutique-type outlet place in Wiesbaden that has great jeans marked way, way down (just my kind of place). Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in Frankfurt on a mission to find Melissa some appropriate business shoes for her munchkin-sized feet. A surprisingly hard task but we were successful. Before leaving Anica insisted we swing by her favorite, favorite, favorite ice cream place. I'm thinking some specialty gelato cafe, so you can imagine my surprise when we were standing in line at Haagen-Dazs. I chuckled on the inside but didn't have the heart to tell her Haagen-Dazs is, in fact, an American company and I've had it more times that I can remember. Oh well.

Brad was a trooper and hung out with Stella all day. I believe "welcome to my world" may have been whispered under my breath when he told me what a handful she was all day.

Sunday was A LOT of fun. Our German friends, none of whom are actually German, wanted to enjoy an American brunch. I made Sausage Casserole, a Blueberry Maple Breakfast Bake, fluffy biscuits, tons of fresh fruit and, of course, mimosas. We had a couple bottles of Champagne left from our wedding and we figured what better way to enjoy it than with friends. On top of that, Tommy and Melissa supplied the tasty Bloody Mary's. We will definitely have to do that again soon!

Tasty Champagne

Now for the really exciting stuff. It was decided on Wednesday that we should go to Amsterdam for the weekend. We'd been talking about it for months now and with the summer almost over we figured we'd better time than NOW? Amsterdam is approximately a 4 hour drive from here (I bet we could get there in 3 with Brad driving on the Autobahn) but with 5 people in one car we opted to do the USO Tour instead. Basically you get on a bus at 3:30 in the morning, sleep on the way (yeah right) and when you wake up you're in Amsterdam. We'll pretend that that is exactly how it went (have you ever tried sleeping on a bus?) Anyhoo, we made it. We spent the first part of our morning viewing the Van Gogh Museum. It's pretty amazing to be standing in front of an original painting that you've seen so many times before.

We made friends with a girl, Amanda, from North Carolina who was traveling alone. She and her husband had spent the last two weeks traveling ALL around Germany before he went back to Afghanistan. Amsterdam was her last trip before flying home. We all had a blast together!

Enjoying cupcakes (and NOT special brownies) with our new friend

I just really liked this door.

I was unaware that Amsterdam is a city with what seems like a squillion canals. It's actually only 4 main canals that form a semi-circle around the city but you can get practically everywhere on water. This was a pretty neat way to see the city and go from place to place, however, if/when we go back I would much rather rent a bike and stay the night.

Amsterdam is eclectic, to say the least. You will see just about all walks of life here. And I mean ALL. I suppose with both marijuana (which I don't even know if I spelled that right) and prostitution being legal, what would you expect? Sure, we visited the infamous Red Light District in broad daylight to see what that was all about....ummm, I don't think "interesting" is the proper term. But there is so much more to Amsterdam to see. I really enjoyed the Bloemenmarkt. It's the world's only floating flower market and it is a pretty cool sight to see. Unfortunately, they don't allow you to take pictures. We also visited the church where Rembrandt is buried. We just happened to be there while the massive pipe organ was being played. Amazing. The one thing we didn't get to do was see the inside of the Anne Frank House. The line was absurdly long and we figured that just gives us an excuse to go back.

Gotta love wooden shoes :)

We were back home by 1:00 am and spent Sunday relaxing and hanging out with the pup. We cooked burgers and dogs with Tommy and Melissa that evening and crashed early....well I did, Brad stayed up until 1:30 watching Tiger lose. :( So sad.

All in all, it was a good marble weekend!

Call Me Captain Random

Well, there are no super exciting trips to speak of this time. But that's not to say things have been uneventful so here are a few of the random things going on in the Bingham house....

You'll be impressed to know that within 24 hours of returning from St. Lucia, Brad and I were completely unpacked, ALL laundry finished AND we picked up on our little workout routine our first day back. In all of my life, I've never been able to accomplish this great feat. And now I know why. Following that first day, we fell off the workout wagon for a good 3 weeks. Oops.

Our little 10 pound pup has quickly grown into a 40 pound pup and has quite a ways to go. She seems to know that it is much more difficult to pick her up these days and has no problem REFUSING to come inside after potty breaks and walks. As soon as we start heading for the house she turns into limp puppy and will roll in the grass knowing we can't drag her through the yard. Nothing but ornery. She's also going to school on the weekends. We are now working with a new trainer who is fantastic and seeing how his dog, Friday, turned out only gives us inspiration to keep at it. Keep in mind, Stella turns into "Marley" at least once a day so we can use all the inspiration we can get!

Marley

Unfortunately/fortunately, softball is over for the summer season. I say unfortunately because I had a blast watching Brad play and I know he truly enjoyed it (for the most part). But it's fortunate because playing 3 games a week and tournaments on the weekends got old...really fast.

I have a small confession - I had a brief "meltdown" following our vacation. While it was wonderful seeing family, it really hit home how much I miss them and my girl friends. It occurred to me that the majority of my conversations throughout the day where with a dog. With that said, the power of prayer is quite amazing. Anica and Aadel (our friends that joined us for our Mexican Fiesta a while back) invited us to have dinner a couple of weeks ago at their place with a few friends. We had a blast!! And also met some really great people. It was just what I needed. I still miss my girls back home terribly but it sure is nice to have a few here.

Last weekend, Melissa and I went with Anica and our new friend, Mariam, to what Anica described as a "beach." It was more or less a small lake/large pond with nice white sand around it. Works for me! We spent all afternoon soaking up the rays, reading gossip magazines (in German) and chatting. Finally! Some girl time. We quickly made plans for a shopping trip this Saturday and I'm hosting brunch for everybody on Sunday. I'm tellin ya, ask and you shall receive.

I've also been introduced to my new favorite blog (thank you, Kasey B). Simplyrecipes.com. Check it out! Brad and I have tried multiple recipes from this blog and have yet to be disappointed. I highly, highly recommend the Eggplant Parmesan. Quite possibly my most favoritest thing we've had. Ever. And we've had some pretty good dinners. It's become almost tradition to make a homemade pizza on Sunday nights but it's been the same thing week in and week out - pepperoni with jalapenos. We decided to change it up this week and were blown away by the flavor of the Black Bean Spinach Pizza. I mean, WOW! And so easy. We've also had Baked Shrimp in Tomato Feta Sauce and my first try at Lasagna. All this week. Needless to say, we're back on the workout wagon.

In other news, the Audi is misbehaving. But you've gotta love the timing. I'll back up a little bit - a couple of weeks ago Brad and I were out driving around and I showed him that my black purse, the one I carry almost ALL of the time was starting to fall apart. He said, "well we never really got you anything big in Strasbourg for your birthday so let's go find you a good one." (I know, I have the greatest husband EVER.) So we looked around a bit but nothing caught my fancy and we called it a day. It wasn't 2 days later that the Audi was in the shop and wouldn't you know - it was the automatic clutch that needed replacing. Not exactly the "clutch" I was hoping for but beggars can't be choosers.














A trip is in the works for Labor Day Weekend. We're thinking Amsterdam but aren't 100% sure yet. There are a few details to work out but a good trip is definitely due. And for friends and family who are ready for a trip - get that passport out and come on! We're settled and ready for you to come visit!

Speaking of trips, Brad and I had put in for a lottery to travel to Edelweiss Lodge and Resort over New Year's and Brad's birthday. Since it's a very popular destination for military families and DoD employees that live here, it's quite difficult to get a reservation so they just set up a lottery system and we had to register by May to even be eligible. Well.....we got it!! That's right! Brad's 26th birthday will be spent on the slopes of the Bavarian Alps. Eeeee! So excited!

That's all for now. I know, this was a random post. Until next time....