On Saturday, May 20, we were still coming off of the amazing high from the day we spent with Fabrizio, but we had to head back into town, as we had scheduled a cooking class in Montepuliciano with a lady named Barbara. This was a group cooking class where we would learn to make two different types of pasta and tiramisu. When I put the address to Barbara’s house into Waze, it told me that it would take 27 minutes to get there. So we started the morning off with a very small breakfast at our farmhouse (we were still full from Fabrizio’s dinner), and then headed to the cooking class. Once on the road, it was saying that we were 53 minutes away. Google maps sent us a different way where we were stuck on a 1.5 lane dirt road that was taken over by more than 20 cyclists. This was not an easy road to drive and we were constantly having to swerve to miss other vehicles speeding towards us. I tried to go fast to make up any time possible. Lindsey texted Barbara to say that we would be arriving around 20 minutes late and she stated that she would try and start late, but that there were four other people joining our class that had already arrived. We had finally made it to paved roads, but they kept winding throughout the mountain and city. Lindsey stated that she was starting to get car sick, but that she could make it. I assured Lindsey that it didn’t matter to me if we canceled the class and lost the money we had already paid using credit card points, if she didn’t feel up to it. She finally relented and stated that she just wanted to head back to the farmhouse. We texted Barbara and told her that we apologized, but that Lindsey ended up getting car sick and to go ahead without us. Then, I was able to pull over for a minute, let Lindsey relax and then find a new route back to our farmhouse that didn’t include the dirt road. Once we made it back, we took a two hour nap and woke up refreshed and ready to start our day over. Lindsey didn’t want to get back into the car, so we ended up going on a 2 mile walk around our farmhouse and see the sights in the Tuscan country. After our walk, we sat outside and watched a storm roll in. It was beautiful to watch, but as the storm got closer, we headed back to our room. We had the window open and realized that it was hailing. I have now seen hail on two different continents. After the storm rolled through, we took showers and headed downstairs to eat a delicious dinner at the farmhouse (pasta with mushroom and pork ragù, veal on top of a bed of fresh vegetables, and then an amazing cooking ice cream with raspberry sauce and cookie crumbles for dessert). Our bellies were full (once again) and we were ready for bed to try again tomorrow.
On Sunday, we woke up and decided to take a pasta cooking class at our farmhouse with the Chef. She was amazing! She taught us to make tagliatelle and picci pasta, along with cantucci (almond biscotti). As Lindsey and I made the pasta, we realized none of the sizes were the same. The Chef reminded us that our pasta was “rustic” and that it would still taste delicious. Once were done making the pasta, the Chef said that she would set up a nice lunch for us outside and would prepare our pastas with different sauces. This was absolutely gorgeous! We started off with our picci pasta with tomato and garlic sauce topped with fresh Parmesan cheese. We kept thinking that maybe she traded our crummy pasta for some that she had made in the kitchen, but as we were eating, we definitely found many rustic pieces that we had made. Then, she served our tagliatelle pasta with a wild boar ragù and it was fantastico! We were so full that we just couldn’t eat everything. Then they served us some tiramisù and our cantucci (almond biscotti) for dessert. We could hardly touch dessert, but they packaged up a nice bag of the biscotti that Lindsey is coveting. For dinner, I didn’t want anything heavy, but Lindsey had her heart set on going to this local place in Montepulciano that is run by young guys that were friends in school. I agreed and it was great! We ordered the small meet and cheese board and I had water, while Lindsey had two glasses of rosé. This was the perfect meal for us. We got back in the car and headed to the farmhouse to call it a night and begin planning our next adventure.
