In the morning we woke up and headed to the breakfast that the hotel included with our booking. They did a pretty good job of having lots of options to choose from. I won't list all the of the food but there are pictures below. Breakfast was pretty tasty and finally Deanna got to eat some fruit instead of just pastries and meat for breakfast. A lot of breakfasts around Italy are cold cuts, cheeses, pastries and toast. I also loved the automatic espresso machine. I could make a "Lungo" espresso and add some water to make my own delicious double americano.
We decided after breakfast that we needed a day to recover from all the drama of the previous few days. So we stayed in and relaxed a bit and I took some time to catch up on these blogs.
At lunch time we headed back over to the hotel's restaurant, Ristorante La Volpenera, and ordered some food to go. We ordered a panzanella bread salad, caprese salad, water and a bottle of Chianti Classico. We loved both of these dishes and really elevated them by adding some of our amazing balsamic from our tour the day before in Modena.
 |
| Panzanella Salad |
 |
| Fresh Mozzarella Caprese |
Before dinner we finally got some pool time. It was really nice to soak in the pool while looking out upon the Chianti vineyards and rolling hills.
We wanted to change things up and go out to eat outside of the hotel grounds so we spent some time researching restaurants within a 20 minute drive. There is a heavy meat diet on most menus but we are trying to look for menus that also offer vegetarian dishes and pasta without meat. We found a place that looked good and I called and made a reservation for us at 8pm.
We drove over to the Saraceni restaurant that is part of the Villa Machiavelli. Which we found out is literally where Niccolo Machiavelli lived during his exile from Florence. (Read about him here) We drove over to the cute little neighborhood and parked down the road in a public lot. We walked along the side of the road toward the restaurant, which had no sidewalks btw, until we reached the front of the property. It was confusing at first because the dining room was dark, but we were quickly met by someone who guided us across the street to an outdoor area to dine. It was really gorgeous out there full of olive trees and a nice surprise, but also we weren't prepared for being outside.
 |
| Ready for dinney |
 |
| Machiavelli's Vineyards |
 |
| Casa di Machiavelli |
This restaurant definitely embraces the Italian tradition of taking your time and eating at your own pace. Our dinner took around 3 hours and 20 minutes. We started with the Vegetarian Selection Starter (Grilled zucchini, eggplants and carrots, pecorino cheese with fig mustard, artichoke, seasonal vegetable flan, pappa al pomodoro bread soup) and L'insolito Plumcake (Spinach and parmigiano cheese with white potatoes and topinambur cream). For firsts, Deanna had the Bronze Cut pasta with zucchini and pine nuts pesto and crispy zucchini flowers although they were missing. I had the home made pasta creamed with 16 months aged grana cheese soft cream and black truffle chips. And to top it all off I decided to order a gigantic t-bone that they touted as their specialty. Deanna also ordered an additional bowl of sautéed vegetables. We accompanied dinner with a bottle of Chianti Classico from Machiavelli's vineyards.
All the food was pretty good and I think we would recommend this place. As for the steak I wasn't as blown away as I was hoping. I had a few really good bites, but overall the steak was a bit tough. It was not as marbled as what I want in a steak and why I usually order a Rib Eye and not a T-Bone. It may have also been a little overdone around the outsides.
 |
| Truffle Pasta |
 |
| T-Bone |
The lowlight of our meal was the group of people sitting right next to us that just kept lighting up cigarette after cigarette that was blowing directly into our faces. We do know that it's a cultural thing and we couldn't possibly ask them to stop, but it was pretty gross. I'm glad that in California we don't have to suffer through such ridiculous habits when dining.
 |
| #chainsmokers |
 |
| We both went into the wrong bathrooms, but I did notice this cool foot controlled water faucet. |
After dinner we headed home and passed out!
That is the end of Day 6.
No comments:
Post a Comment