Broccoli and Cheese- who would have thought...........

Dear Village People,

After our long drive surviving the Italian Autostradas yesterday we decided to stay close and play inside the chianti region. So we headed to a small township called Vagliagi which is seven kilometers away down a dirt track.

First up we passed some Etruscan tombs. Etruscans first settled in the Tuscany region even before the Romans did coming from the middle east. Throughout Tuscany you can see evidence of their settlement in building and tombs that remain today.

After a quick look at some old stones.......I am no archaeologist, we headed to Vagliagli, which means valley of garlic, no longer grown here, as the only thing they grow here is grapes for chianti!! About two thirds of the way there we find the road closed so we had to deter done another dirt track. Fortunately all is well and we arrive stour destination. It's a quaint lovely tiny tiny town with just two restaurants. Fortunately one is open and we have a beautiful lunch of home made pasta with Ragu for me and Pici (fat pasta noodles) with sausage and mushroom for Siobhan. Then as we we still hungry - driving 7 kilometers will do that to you, we asked for more and they brought out this grilled cheese from Piedmonte, like a sharper Brie in taste but similar in texture with grill marks and the best tasting broccoli ever!! Eaten together with some bread, it was exquisite. The broccoli had been steamed, then lightly pan fried with oil and salt. It was crunchy and incredibly tasty. Who would have thought it?

Then of courser, we needed dolce, as one does, so we opted to share a layered dessert of chocolate mousse, a rich vanilla custard with some sponge soaked at the base in yet more alcohol- a beautiful chocolatey trifle - molto bene!! Our hosts were the lovely Salvatore and Laura from Naples and Milan who had moved to Vagliagli to setup their restaurant and we were very glad they had.

We didn't need to eat that evening so played cards and enjoyed a leisurely time till bedtime.

Sleep tight and remember to eat all your veggies.


Kelly & Siobhan

Xxx