The 2011 REUNION TOUR Begins…with a relaxed drive to SFO with Tiffany + Tiffany as our backseat company laugh a minute entertainment. We even had the Colonna Fast Pass to fly through the Bay Bridge
Praise the Lord for bringing us together and giving us a second daughter!!! (Sam will always be our Princess, and now we’ve added a Duchess).
10 ½ hours and we’ll arrive in Frankfurt…with a short layover until we reach Milan Turin where we expect to meet Dan at the Turin
We then drive to the Bella Baita to meet Fabrizio and Marla…Dear folks who hosted us last year in the region just west of Turin
We did just arrive!!!! There is a cooking class with a couple from DC (originally from Buffalo...don't get Peggy started already:), and a couple from Tennessee.
They are making for us homemade pasta, bagna caldo, and other dishes that will be photographed later...or now:))) Homemade ravioli with cheese, mushroom and vegetable stuffing, smothered in roasted pepper and tomato sauce with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Light, buttery pillows of yum that bounced off the roof of my mouth only to spin wildly over the back half of a nebbiolo covered palate...amazing..(Jeff...for you!)
The rollatini with homemade sausage, steak, zucchini and wild mushroom sauce had an ephemeral, almost hypnotic, melt in your mouth flavor that reminded me of blissful evenings watching the sunset over Florence with the Jordans while sitting at the power table in the Bencista! (Jeff C ... that was for you...)
Bing cherry, apricot and orange/lemon zest with homemade pastry dough and cut out sun and moon crust shapes reminded me of the Northern Lights bouncing off the stratosphere as we sat by the beach fire at Gillin Beach House in Kauai with the Cooks/Nemys sleeping blissfully in the master bedroom. (Jeff that was also for you, and probably the last detailed description of food tastes...I'm just not good at making up word pictures about food, so the photos will have to suffice...of course if more blog fans demand this type of detail, who am I to ignore the devoted blog partners...so keep those comments coming in)!
For now, the flight to Frankfurt was uneventful, the fact that Peggy didn't have her boarding pass until the last minute in Frankfurt and the fact that our bags arrived with us in Milan, and the fact that the tiny car was large enough to fit our 2 huge bags in the trunk, and the fact that we met Danny exactly as we planned at 3pm in front of a train station in Torino, and the fact that we made it out of Torino to our B and B 45 minutes away without any maps...means God was with us and He is greatly to be praised!!!
This is a poor impression of the brick oven fireplace being built by the Nick Colonna/Danny Gubitz team this summer before we return from our trip...and here is a bear cut from old wood that still, for Jeff's sake, has its head attached to its body:)))
Oh yeah, does the mommy look happy to be with her baby boy???
So from all of us to each of you, as I wind it up for the night after 38 hours of travelling joy...ciao bella!!!
Tomorrow...the beard is gonna be shaved!!!
They are making for us homemade pasta, bagna caldo, and other dishes that will be photographed later...or now:))) Homemade ravioli with cheese, mushroom and vegetable stuffing, smothered in roasted pepper and tomato sauce with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Light, buttery pillows of yum that bounced off the roof of my mouth only to spin wildly over the back half of a nebbiolo covered palate...amazing..(Jeff...for you!)
The rollatini with homemade sausage, steak, zucchini and wild mushroom sauce had an ephemeral, almost hypnotic, melt in your mouth flavor that reminded me of blissful evenings watching the sunset over Florence with the Jordans while sitting at the power table in the Bencista! (Jeff C ... that was for you...)
For now, the flight to Frankfurt was uneventful, the fact that Peggy didn't have her boarding pass until the last minute in Frankfurt and the fact that our bags arrived with us in Milan, and the fact that the tiny car was large enough to fit our 2 huge bags in the trunk, and the fact that we met Danny exactly as we planned at 3pm in front of a train station in Torino, and the fact that we made it out of Torino to our B and B 45 minutes away without any maps...means God was with us and He is greatly to be praised!!!
Oh yeah, does the mommy look happy to be with her baby boy???
So from all of us to each of you, as I wind it up for the night after 38 hours of travelling joy...ciao bella!!!
Tomorrow...the beard is gonna be shaved!!!
Perfect, perfect, perfect! Those descriptions have caused me to go to the cellar for a Nebbliolo and some salami.....
ReplyDeleteKeep the food descriptions coming!!
Off it a great start though I had to search for the link.
ReplyDeleteJust watched the stage two of Dauphiné Criterium which ended in Chartreuse. Pretty cool. Are you all driving up there. Rent a bike and make the climb!!!
Amazing start. Give Danny a hug for us. Keep those descriptions coming. Elva says she's enjoying the food without the calories. Steve would rather have the calories. :)
ReplyDeleteoh, i do miss those flower covered hillsides this time of year! what beauty they have....and the little humble villages remind me to relax.
ReplyDelete