Saturday in the Countryside

Saturday we went Chef Polegri's family's home to pick grapes for them to sell to a winery. It took 20 of us 2 hours to pick a little over 1/3 of an acre. I can't remember what kinda of grapes they were but I'll find out, they were for a white wine. Before picking the grapes, we ate the breakfast that Chef Polegri had picked up for us, it was rice balls and pizza. After picking, we washed the serious black stickiness off of our hands and took a needed water break. Here I'm drinking a lot more water then normal. We walked through some of the vineyards, the olive trees, and the interns' house. Chef Polegri takes interns from different schools, gives some where to live and takes care of some/most of their living cost and they work for free for him.



For lunch we had a Tuna and tomatoes sauce for our pasta. We have learned that people here like bitter salads and in the countryside they like very bitter salads.



After hanging out a little more, we drove back to the town and took a 2 hour nap. We all meet at the restaurant and we started walking. Chef Polegri told us it was a 10 minute walk, but I think it took about an hour. We walk very very slow and stop every 15 meters. But on our adventure back to the country side we found a Chinese restaurant(for when we can't eat anymore pasta). Once we reached the edge of the mesa, we took a cable car down the side of the mesa. Until about 15 years ago the cable cars used no electricity and just used water weight to push the two cars up and down.

Once we reached Chef Polegri's friends' home did was dusk and everyone was concerned we had to walk back to town. There were no lights and not many roads where we walked, so the thought of having to walk back was not the most perfect idea. Anyway, this house was a small castle. The view from the house was looking up at Orvieto, it was gorgeous. The family was restoring the house but the inside had modern comforts with old touches. We have a barbecue with tons of food, water, and wine. After dinner and cleaning up we got the terrifying ride back up to Orvieto. I do have to say Chef's wife is a better driver then he is.

I'll post pictures as soon as I can.