May 30

geese at Podere Albanaia (the farm where we stayed)grapes lining driveway at Podere Albanaia

painting from the Tomb of the MonkeyLake of Chiusi

direct distributor right behind Rabarbaroprosciutto and melon, one of our favorite things to eat
view from distributor/restaurant where we had dinner
oil operation of the lady with the wet hair

Owen in the vinyardlate picnic at the farm



This morning we had hot gluten-free doughnuts and Owen enjoyed puttering around the farm a bit before we explored Chiusi some more. We toured another section of the Etruscan waterworks tunnels that came out at the church bell tower and then toured the Tomb of the Monkey, a very famous Etruscan tomb because of its paintings which are still quite vivid. It was near the other two (a few yards away from one), but as things go around here, they don't do tours of them all at the same time. We walked around Lago di Chiusi (the Lake of Chiusi), and Owen pretended to catch fish, looked at the geese, and ran down the pier. After a nap back at the farm, we drove toward Montepulciano (famous for its wines) and tried wines and olive oils at several direct distributors. One stop was at the farm of a older couple; we rang the bell as directed by the sign, "sonare campanello" and waited. After a minute of waiting, we were walking away when were heard a lady's voice hollering downstairs, and a man came out on the porch above us and told us to wait "cinque minuti." So, wondering what was going on, we waited and Owen picked up sticks and checked out the swings. Finally the lady came out - hair wet, but she was beaming at Owen and going on about him in Italian and how he should play on the swing. She She lead us into a small room where they had tanks of olive oil (maybe 30 gallons or so) and bottled oil on a shelf. They also had a small press. Their house was surrounded by olive trees, and these along with the equipment in the small room appeared to be their entire oil set-up. Selling olive oil here is like selling eggs at home; people just hang out a shingle and set to selling. Abram preferred this oil over the others, and I must say, it was lovely. Olive oil and wine are rather affordable here (8Euros/L for olive oil and 1.50/L if you have your own containter for wine) but are prohibitively heavy for bringing back home in any quantity. We had dinner at a roadhouse associated with one of the direct sellers. It was served at long communal tables, but was excellent. We had a 1/2 of a roast chicken and steak cooked in a large wood-fired oven. Outside, the view of the countryside (like all the views in this region) was stunning, and you could see the sheep they milked to make cheese (which Abram says is quite good. He reports that their peccorino is soft like Swiss cheese rather than hard like you get at home.)
We enjoyed a bottle of wine we had picked up while Owen played and shared some local salami made with pork and wild boar - yum!