You guys. I want to tell you a little story about a ‘walk’ my partner and I took the day after my brother’s destination wedding in Tuscany. I’m sure you all want to hear about the wedding and that will come, no doubt. Be patient. For now, a small story to whet my whistle (yea, mine) in recounting a lovely little taste of Toskana we shared.
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We wanted to go for a walk, but my allergies were insane. I had also gotten bit 35x by some asshole bug the night before, so to say I was itchy, sniffly and uncomfortable would be an understatement. I was miserable. So instead of a walk, we hopped in the car for a drive. We had no intention of stopping.
As the discomfort cleared, we came upon the tiny town of Chiusure atop a giant hill. It was literally one street long (and it wasn’t long) with another street that wrapped around it to get you back to the other side. We parked. And relishingly made our way through. It was quiet. Slow. Just the way a small village in Tuscany should be.
By the time we made our way back around to our car, we glanced at one another and without word agreed we weren’t quite done here. So we sauntered into an abandoned ristorante for a glass of wine. Tables had been enjoyed, used, but no one else remained. My partner accidentally ordered a liter (as our server did not speak a drop of English), so we decided to order some bruschetta and eventually some caprese to help it go down. Not that it needed help. It was the house wine, bianca casa, and some of the best we had the whole trip.
Eventually we decided to taste the olive oil on its own and foodgasms followed. A farmer just in from tending his field dropped off handfuls of fresh picked cherries without saying a word. More foodgasms.
We drove back slowly, as our Tuscan friends would have us, and enjoyed the moisture in the air, the rolling fields, olive orchards, vineyards and mostly the beauty of doing nothing. The only sniffles at this point were the ones to come when it was time to leave.
