I know I have been extremely out of touch, but only because I was working at the winery like a fiend this entire season. I opened and served more wine that I thought humanly possible and gave so many tours that by October I was wondering if they were still interesting. My mind was put at ease by one visitor who wrote in the guestbook: “Best tour since the Vatican.”

My last day in fact was Friday so I now have plenty of time on my hands as well as a good splash of panic as the winter looms ahead. The good news is that it was great season and I had work that gave me a lot of pleasure. The grape harvest finished and the olive harvest began. I just sampled the new oil last night, freshly pressed from the harvesting of last weekend with friends Adrian and Gill. It is delicious. Which made me start thinking about all the things here in Tuscany that I love and although the road has been a poor one, how I have found pleasure in even the simplest things. I still don’t have my citizenship, but I have planted some roots here and in my heart if not on paper, I am becoming Italian.

You know you’re becoming Italian when…

You take inordinate delight in the olive harvest, carefully gathering every last olive because you know that after they are pressed you will feast on a deep green, spicy oil that awakens your mouth and makes you feel one with the earth.

You can tell the difference between the Vino Nobile produced by Poliziano and all other wineries.

You take pleasure in hanging out the laundry during the summer knowing that it will dry crisp and fragrant from the hot Tuscan sun.

You are resolved to having damp clothes in the winter because the sun has gone south for the winter and his cousin, the fog has moved in.

You find it wasteful if you have a light on or something plugged in when not in use.

You don’t cringe when you are dining with friends and they serve you tripe, or tongue.

You have abandoned some of your obsessive tendencies and learned to eat pork sausage without cooking the hell out of it.

You get excited for the first walnut of the season so you can make your wish.

Hearing sirens is an oddity and brings immediate concern for your older neighbors.

Scarves have become a major part of your wardrobe.

You carry a twenty tucked in your wallet for taxi fare in the event of an unplanned bus or train strike.

You know your bra and shoe sizes without looking up the conversion.

You can make bread or pizza dough without measuring ingredients and it is delicious.

The last sangiovese grapes to be harvested this year

Cinder snuggling in for a long winter's nap...

The other thing I love about working at Poliziano is meeting such fun people.  I had clients a couple of weeks ago who had lunch with us and shipped a huge amount of wine back to NY…and then invited me and Fabio to their rented villa for dinner.  He didn’t go.  I did.  It was terrific.  Joan and Patti were a riot and I spent a wonderful evening with them and their husbands celebrating Joan’s birthday.  They grilled the huge steaks this area is known for and I of course brought some wine to accompany it!  It was a treat for me to spend some time with such fabulous New Yorkers.

Tomorrow I’m spending some time with some clients from Holland who come down every year to buy wine.  They are searching for some old photos of Montepulciano so Fabio and I spent an hour on the phone trying to track down someone who sells them in this area.  It was harder than you’d think.  The only problem after we located someone was that he doesn’t speak English and they don’t speak Italian.  So I’m off to some old man’s house in Sant’Albino to see what treasures he has unearthed and will play translator.

My teaching has dwindled this summer so I’m just doing a few lessons on the weekends.  This works well since it’s my only free time for writing, reading and spending some time with Cinder.  13 in two weeks she’s still hanging in there, but her back legs are getting worse. I’ve upped her arthritis medicine and I’m just hoping that she’s with me a while longer.  She’s had a good life, but selfishly I’m not ready to say goodbye yet!  Marinella has been keeping Cinder in her garden in the afternoons and so she’s been hanging out with Ozzy and five cats… and this week two deer that were abandoned and brought to her son’s veterinary clinic.  Next stop will be a reserve since they now couldn’t survive in the wild.

I’m still awaiting news on my memoir.  It’s been with an agent for almost two months so fingers and toes crossed for some good news. Send some positive vibes my way per favore!

Oh and I’ve been here two and half years now and I’ve had one visitor.  Hint hint….

New friends Joan and Patti who invited me to a bbq at their villa

Bistecca gigantica!

Patti's husband Ross grilling our dinner!

Babysitting five kids means Cinder has learned a lot of patience...

Marinella's heart and her garden are big enough for a few new guests

Move over bambi...meet Mario

Okay, so where to begin.  It’s spring in Tuscany.  The swallows have returned.  Poppies are peeking out of wild grasses.  Ripe melons at the market butt up against baby artichokes and long verdant stalks of Asparagus.  Cold, foggy days have lifted and warm sunshine has returned to the hills.  And along with it some good news.  I have full time work throughout the season at Poliziano.  Fabio called me a few weeks back and said he wanted me to work with him for the whole summer.  Woo hoo.  It took two years to do it, but next month, I will finally see a real paycheck.  I’ve gotten back into the swing of giving tours and tastings to all the visitors at the winery and have been given some more responsibility so I guess despite my still suffering Italian, I’m doing  fine.  Yesterday, I actually did tastings in Italian.  Thank goodness the guests were supportive…I think the wine helps!  Met two great groups from New York in these last weeks and a family of 12 from Boston.   The best part of the job is meeting and connecting with such fun people.

I’m still teaching English and am now doing lessons on the weekends.  And of course, babysitting with Bonnie’s kids.  I’m sad to report that Bonnie’s family is heading back to the States in September.  They have been a real support for me here and I’m trying not to think about what next winter will be like without them.

I’ve been a little bit of a hermit in these last couple of months, mostly writing, but also just in my usual winter funk.  It’s amazing what a little warm weather can do to lift the spirits!

Thanks to everyone who wanted to know where the heck I’ve been.  I promise to get some more pics and updates soon and of course recipes.  I’ve learned how to make the local pici pasta so I’m going to attempt it on my own and then will post it here. 

Alla prossima...

A view of my apartment across Marinella's yard... My laundry is the one with the red t-shirt

My first attempt at putting up artichokes...Marinella's recipe

You can take the dog walker out of NY... My friend Gill's dog Perdie is staying with us

Wine tasting with a great family of five from New York... hugs all around when we parted ways

New friends from NY and Penn with Fabio as they decide which wine to ship home

In fact there are only four ingredients:

25 gr yeast cake (this is the fresh yeast you find in the refrigerator section not the dry packet)

250 grams water ( I use about two cups but we measured it exactly at Franca’s and she uses about 1 1/2 c.) The water should be room temperature, or tepid.   I use a 16 oz bottle of spring water.

500 grams flour  (About 4 or 5 cups — you’ll be able to tell when to stop when the dough starts coming together.  Franca and I both use OO flour which is a high gluten flour.  You can use a bread flour if you can’t find the OO but I regularly found it in the states.

Salt – This is crucial for taste.  Use at least a good tablespoon full.  It seems like a lot but it’s really not.

The method:

Franca makes her dough in her kitchen aid mixer.  She is the only Italian I know who has one and I long for mine every time I am at her house.  They are just way to expensive here to buy so I make mine the old fashioned way.  By hand.

Put your water in a bowl and dissolve the salt and the yeast cake.  Start adding the flour a little at a time until the dough starts to form.  Really, it’s that simple.  If you are doing this in your mixer it’s the same idea, use your dough hook and when the mixture starts to pull away from the sides, scrape it out of the bowl.  Move the dough to a floured board and continue adding your flour until you have a pliable, workable and elastic dough.  It will take a few minutes of kneading.  You don’t want the dough too dry so resist the urge to add too much flour.

The next step is to let it rise.  Put it in a clean bowl, you can oil it with a little good quality olive oil if you want.  Cover with plastic wrap, and then let it rise in a warm draft free place.   Franca does this slowly over the course of the day.  My recipe calls for two risings so I let mine rise for two hours, deflate the dough, separate into two pizzas and let the dough balls rise again.  This recipe will make one big pizza if you have a big pan like Franca does.  Or you can do my method and separate into two medium size pizzas.  This recipe is easily doubled.  When I had dinner with Franca the other night, she had doubled this recipe and made one big pizza and one big focaccia, which is basically the pizza dough baked with olive oil and salt.  She serves it as a second course with prosciutto.  Squisito!

When your dough is ready, you just have to roll it out.  Franca uses a rolling pin to do this, but I like to do it by hand and just spread the dough out.  I think the rolling pin method makes the dough a little tough.  If you do it by hand spread it out on a floured surface and then wait a few minutes to let it relax.  It becomes much easier to work with than if you try to force it into submission all at once.  You can then plop it right on a cookie sheet or put a piece of parchment under it.  Add your toppings.

Bake in a very hot oven.  250 c. (almost 500 degrees Fahrenheit or as hot as your oven will go!) for about 20 minutes.  Put it on the lowest rack.

That’s it.  It’s really very simple to do and it’s something you can put together in five minutes in the morning and leave all day and then bake when you are ready.  Toppings are up to your own creativity.  Franca puts a tomato passata, sprinkles salt and oregano and then mozzarella.  For the focaccia, she dimples the dough, rubs it with olive oil and then sprinkles salt.

So you would have some idea of the steps, I made pizza yesterday and it was delicious.  I used some tomato passata, salt, oregano, mozzarella and I had some leftover sausage so I crumbled that on top too.

Prova! And let me know how you like the recipe.

Franca assembling her pizza

Franca's focaccia develops a gigantic air bubble which she deflates.

The delicious focaccia which we ate with thinly sliced prosciuto

Franca's husband Paolo and daughter Christina

Ingredients to make your pizza

When the dough is ready it will be elastic and spring back when you poke it

What it looks like doubled in volume

My assembled creation

The finished sausage pizza hot out of the oven. YUMMY!

I started work at a nearby hotel.  It’s called Il Borghetto and the owner Elena is lovely– smokes a bit too much, but is sweet and attentive to everyone.  I was predisposed to like her as she rang my bell one night in early December and told me she’d been looking for the Americana.  She said she’d asked all over town for me since someone had mentioned that I might be perfect for the work she needed.  As much as I grumble about the lack of privacy in a small town, this was an example of it working in my favor!   Anyway, after three or four meetings and an understanding that I can still work at the winery, we decided to give it a go.  The hotel is right in Centro Storico.  It’s a medieval building so the architecture is phenomenal and the rooms have all been beautifully restored.  Here’s the link if anyone is coming to visit and wants a place close to me to stay:  www.ilborghetto.it/ospitalita.en.php

My job is basically reception; helping the guests; responding to reservation requests etc.  Putting my english into action!  We had a full house over the New Year’s weekend, so I got a good glimpse of what the upcoming season will be like.  Anyway, Elena needs help only in the evenings, so during the summer I hope to be working at Poliziano through lunch time and then for her in the evenings.  I spoke with Federico before Christmas and while he can guarantee me full time work for three months in the summer, my work schedule for spring is still not clear since the office is undergoing some shifting around.  I am waiting patiently.

I spent Christmas Eve with Anna and Federico again this year and it was a lovely night.  Happily no baccala this year, just a yummy homemade pasta with salmon. The eating frenzy continued throughout the weekend with Marinella inviting me for Christmas Day.  The food was fantastic, everything from crostini, and pasta al forno, to a stuffed turkey breast and all types of roasted meats, chicken, rabbit.  Of course there was tons of wine and then desserts.  Both she and Anna put out the cookies I’d brought along, so that made me feel good to contribute something to the feasting.  The Day after Christmas my friend Francesca and her husband (who is also my newest student for English lessons and I can tell quite motivated) invited me for lunch at their house.  The highlight was a beef fondue.  Really after the feasting that weekend, it’s no wonder my stomach came under attack last week.

I worked New Year’s Eve at the hotel and then went over to Bonnie’s house and spent the evening with her gang and our friends Gill and Adrian (of olive harvesting fame).  We drank some lovely wine, ate Adrian’s homemade chili, and played a “Friends” trivia game.  I was hopeless–the rest of them were devotees of the show and could quote even the obscurest lines.  Our plan was to go up to the Piazza for the bonfire and fireworks at midnight, but two of the kids fell asleep so we settled for watching fireworks from Bonnie’s rooftop terrace. We could see fireworks not only from the towns around us but as far away as Cortona.

The weather here is mild this week.  I actually sat outside the other day and did some writing.  The sunshine was a welcome break from the gray fog that seems to bring a sadness of spirit along with its suffocating damp.  My kitchen has been suffering from the wet and has mold along one wall.  Massimo gave me a dehumidifier to help and it was completely full after running it one night!

I heard from Signe the other day, the editor who is working on the revisions of my manuscript and she says she will have the book to me by the end of February.  This was a welcome piece of news.  With limited work, it’s a great time to get the memoir whipped into shape.

I heard from my Dad this week that my grandmother was in the hospital with some bleeding from her bladder.  They’ve sent her home now, but she will have to go back for some more tests.  I’m grateful that my Aunts–Krissy and Esther–are there with her and making sure she is well taken care of.  Please send some positive energy her way.

Tomorrow I head up to Piazza Grande and get my re-application for my permesso underway.  Seems like only a few months ago that I received it…Erm that’s because it was.  Pazienza. I’ve never been a patient person but if I’m learning anything in Italy, it’s essential for survival.

The hotel where I'm working part time

Elena in her holiday finery

Bonnie setting New Year's Eve table

Mark, Adrian and Tamara

Mark and Zack lighting fireworks while we countdown to the New Year!

Which brings me to today.  It’s now in my house and I am recovering from the panic attack which occurred last night when I realized I have two tanks of combustible fuel in my living space.  This was not helped by the freak lightening storm that was going on outside my window.  For someone who has always had a fear of the house burning down, this might appear to be insane.  While Mark was helping me schlepp the heater, he’d suggested that I should get an electric blanket for the nighttime and I’d mentioned my fear of fire and he looked at me and then at the gas heater and then gave me the look you reserve for imbeciles.

In any event, I am sitting in my kitchen with my new space heater glowing from a safe distance away and Cinder and I are feeling pretty festive.  I’m not really sure what’s going on with the weather, but the first snow of the year just began falling outside my window in big fat flakes.  Unlike last year, when I was quite depressed and panicky about everything, this year, I seem to have found some peace.  I am still quite poor, and have clothes that I’ve now been wearing for two years, and really you wouldn’t even give them to the salvation army, but somehow I feel like I’ve turned a corner.  I have a little sporadic work at the winery, some babysitting and more and more people are calling for English lessons.  It’s not much, but compared to last year, it’s HUGE.

I’m getting into the holiday spirit this year.  I just received a beautiful advent calendar from my favorite website (thank you aunt Linda) and so I have something to bring some joy to each day.  My friend Daryl sent me some maple syrup, which was wonderfully thoughtful, much like Daryl herself.  It’s unfortunately missing in action because she sent to my old address, but just knowing that eventually I’ll be able to have this treat which I haven’t tasted in almost two years, is awesome!  And my friend Louise has undertaken the mission to send me some books in English and my brand of tampons. (I know that sounds strange, but the tampons here are subpar because the Italian women don’t use them.  I haven’t met one yet who does.  So I’m quite excited about this gift!)

Other holiday fun includes recently finding a website which allows me watch American fims and tv programs in English!  Yippee.  I’ve already gotten caught up on some shows and am now embarking on my favorite holiday past time — watching the schmaltzy Hallmark and family channel Christmas movies which I adore.

And yesterday,  I put up my tiny Christmas tree.  Marinella kept it in her garden for me all summer and it’s now grown a bit bigger.  I added some lights and really it’s quite festive.  Cinder and I have no plans for the holidays, but we are content to be home, me writing and baking and she sleeping under her comforter.  She is recovering from a bad fall where she couldn’t stand up or walk for a full day, but seems to have rallied.

I know I haven’t posted in over a month, but now you are up to date on my little life.  I wish everyone a wonderful Holiday season and send you much love from Tuscany.

In case you were wondering what the heck a bombola looks like! This is the one for my stove.

December view from my kitchen window

Bonnie's kids are already in the holiday spirit

Erm... maybe it looks better in person.

The good news about the coming winter is it means another season of “new oil.”  The olive oil when it’s harvested is amazing, bright green and spicy and I was determined that this year I would continue my education of the Tuscan land and attempt the olive harvest.  I mentioned my desire to new friends Gill and Adrian Maggs who live nearby and they granted my wish without hesitation.  Gill and Adrian moved here about seven years ago from London with their three daughters and have lovingly restored an old farmhouse, half of which they rent out to guests. This is their website if anyone wants to stay in a gorgeous place outside of Montepulciano:  http://villalacasina.com/index-2.htm.  I’ve actually met almost all of their guests this summer since they send everyone to Poliziano for wine tastings.  We of course discovered this fact halfway through my first day of picking.  Some of my favorite clients this summer were guests of theirs too.

Adrian is not an expert olive harvester, and as an expat was ribbed soundly by the Italians for starting the harvest about a week before everyone else.  We were undeterred and what we lacked in actual knowledge we made up for in enthusiasm.  Gill and Adrian’s property didn’t have enough olive trees to produce the amount of olives needed to have your oil pressed separately (you need 300 kilos to take it to the local press) and so they asked their neighbor (the farmer who sold them their property) if they could do his trees and give him half the oil.  He was all too happy to do this and when we started picking I realized why.  Most of his trees were on a steep, neck-breaking slope and hadn’t been pruned or properly cared for in years.

I helped with three days of picking and I must say the olive harvest is much more pleasant than the grape harvest.  Maybe it’s because I’m tall and la vendemmia required walking down rows in a hunch for a week, and with the olives it was just about stretching and pulling the olives off the branches.  The weather was also delightful, which is good since you can’t harvest when the olives are wet.  I brought Cinder with me on the third day and she was like a puppy running around crazily, chasing the farmer’s sheep and dining on sheep poop.  She wasn’t much help with the olives but did enjoy sleeping on the net.  We filled 13 cassettes by the time we finished and although I couldn’t help yesterday because I was working at Poliziano, I checked in with Adrian and he finished last evening.  I’m going to go with them tomorrow to the press and can’t wait to see the beautiful oil that is the fruit of our labor!

Gill and Adrian's agriturismo

Adrian and Gill setting out the net

First olives on the net

Me pulling olives off one of the branches Adrian "pruned"

Not sure if the Italians would approve but I was a big fan of the British mid-morning coffee break w/lemon cake

The farmer's sheep came through at regular intervals, bells jingling as they grazed

Home Tree - the Avatar reference was to entice Adrian's daughters into helping pick

Daniela in home tree trying to get the olives at the top

Adrian, Tamara and Dominique with some of the harvest

In other work news, I did my first stint as a translator for a weekend.  Not Italian to English, which you’ll remember I did for a cooking class last year.  But English to Italian!  Anyone who knows me can tell you that I don’t have an artistic bone in my body.  Yes, I write and I like to cook, but that is creative not artistic.  Art involves skill and as I quickly learned lots of vocabulary in Italian which up until now, I had no use for and therefore no exposure to.  Franca, the artist who organized the class assured me that my Italian was sufficient and that the American artist coming to teach the class didn’t speak a word of Italian so my English was needed.  Okay, they were desperate so I agreed to give it a go.

It was actually a really fun experience.  It was a class of about ten students who were learning “country art,” the type of primitive, kind of cutesy stuff that is popular with my mom and apparently a bunch of Italians.  Who knew?  It was a bit slow going as the teacher, Terrye, who was from Oklahoma, was sweet as could be and a great artist but, as she freely admitted, wasn’t an experienced teacher.  This made translating what she was doing a bit hard since I had no idea…  She said, “Do what you like” a lot, which became the running joke of the course.  Fai come ti pare! It all worked out in the end and I enjoyed my time with the whole gang.  Also Franca the organizer and her husband Paolo were wonderful hosts and cooks so we all had fabulous meals over the course of the weekend.  My brain was tired at the end of each day, but it was a great experience and I’m glad I did it.  Still don’t have an artistic bone, but at least now I can tell you a little about how it’s done…in Italian.

Franca in the blue shirt is a local artist here and organized the course

Terrye supervising everyone's progress

The artists show off some of their work...

I checked on my Permesso last week with Siena and they said it should be ready in another week or so, so that’s good news.  Of course, I’m trying not to dwell on the fact that by the time I have it in my hand, work opportunities will be evaporating into the autumn fog, along with the tourists.

I’ve been the recipient of tons of tomatoes and plums over the past few weeks and I’ve tried my hand at making some traditional Tuscan recipes for tomato sauce.  I also made a plum applesauce, but didn’t attempt the marmellata that they do here because I want to see it being done first.  My creation came out good and I even succeeded in vacuum sealing the jars by turning them upside down, which was a trick Fabio taught me when I was working at Poliziano.  Basically it eliminates the need for the water bath after putting the jam or sauce in the jars.

With the cool temperatures today, Cinder and I took a long walk toward San Biagio.  The grape vines are getting heavy with their sangiovese grapes and the olive trees are preparing for another season’s harvest of the their precious oil! I’m also quite excited about this week’s trip to the market as I just got a text from my fruit vendor that he is back.  I’m looking forward to seeing him, as well as to my discount…a girl can’t survive on plums and tomatoes alone!

Our Gracciano flag throwers in the parade before the barrel race

Plums and tomatoes were "abbondante" in my house this summer

The great plum applesauce experiment

This year's olive crop...yum!

I also made my self-imposed deadline on book revisions and sent off a completed manuscript to my editor friend Signe.  Hopefully, she’ll have positive feedback.  I’m waiting to add an epilogue about receiving my work permit.  That would make for a happy ending!  Should be ready this week… Fingers crossed.  If you pray, say one for me, please.  I really need this!!!!!!

Yesterday, I helped Mark with all the boys who were participating in a flag competition in Piazza Grande.  Bonnie and Natalie are in New York having a girl’s weekend, so I pitched in to get four kids dressed in tights and tunics so they could participate for their contrada, Poggiolo.  I felt a little disloyal to be cheering for a contrada other than my own, but I’ll cheer extra loudly for Gracciano at the bravio at the end of the month.  It was a fun day, loooong, but fun.  The kids all received medals for their participation and Zack, the eldest, got a trophy with his squad.  For Americans, the kids really got into the Italian tradition.  It was also fun for me to see so many of my students that I teach participating.

This week I have a new student starting and my kids from Poliziano just got back from an English camp in Switzerland so I look forward to seeing how their English has improved.  They texted me in English for my birthday and I was quite proud.

Pre-birthday lunch with Janet and Ken and a gift of beautiful roses

Margaritas with Bonnie and Mark

The boys preparing for their flag throwing debut!

Kyle shows off his moves

I took way too many pictures, but they were so darn cute...

Did we win?