June 8, 2014
Morning in Tuscany
We were able to sleep in just a bit this morning. I took a little walk around the grounds before I met Darrell for breakfast in the main building. After finishing my delicious plate of Tuscan morning goodies, I went back to my room to organize my equipment, check email, and pack. Darrell took the car to go visit Giacomo Tachis, who's home was nearby. Giacomo has been ill, so Darrell decided to go alone. I took advantage of time by taking a leisurely walk outside the estate to see some of the nearby landscape. The sun was bright and strong, and the views beautiful. It felt just like a typical summer morning in California.
The shades of green in Tuscany are about as broad in spectrum as one could imagine. Even the Tuscan lizards have their own unique shade as seen in the following clip
The morning passed quickly. It was time to pack up and check out so we could make one stop nearby before hitting the Autostrade once more. We left the hotel and made our way through a number valleys and hilltops until we reached Torre Bianca. It wasn't very far away, but the terrain made it a little difficult to find. Torre Bianca takes its name from an ancient tower dating back to 1400. In the early 70’s was it purchased by the Mugelli family who specialized in the production of Chianti Classico wine and vinsanto. In later years it specialized in the production of high quality extra virgin olive oil, through the experience and the research conducted by the late owner, and dear friend to Darrel, Marco Mugelli, who was one of the greatest experts in the world of extra virgin olive oil. Torre Bianca is now carried on by Marco's son Matteo. Here is there website - www.torrebianca.it
The Torre Bianca estate has a small chapel, which is now also a memorial to Marco. We went inside to pay our respects to Marco.
Torre Bianca maintains a small market on the estate complete with all the necessities one might expect of a market in Tuscany. Everything from olive oil, wine, pasta, tomato sauce, and salumi, to limoncello and grappa. We stepped inside to take a look.
After our brief visit to Torre Bianca, it was time to hit the Autostrade to make our next destination north of Genoa. We headed west towards Pisa and made our way just south of the city before connecting to E80 and then A12, which runs along Italy's Ligurian coastline. There are 178 tunnels between Pisa and Nice. We must have driven through at least half of them on our way to Genoa. Between the tunnels we passed an occasional rest stop. Some had gas stations and food offerings. We finally succumbed to our growing hunger just before we reached Genoa. After a quick trip to the facilities, we grabbed a quick snack and washed it down with a very refreshing orange soda. This soda was special because it was made from the Presidio Slow Food IGP Orange from Puglia’s Gargano peninsula called Arancia del Gargano. The peninsula is famous for its citrus, which grows year round.
With our hunger briefly satisfied, we made it to Genoa and then headed north on E62. We were less than an hour away from the town of Serravalle Scrivia where we would visit the Villa La Bollina Resort Hotel and Restaurant.
Villa La Bollina Resort Hotel and Restaurant is run by Darrell's cousin Gianni Belforte, who was schooled in Hospitality and specializes in menu creation. We left the Autostrade and made the short drive to the hotel. Gianni came to greet us as soon as we pulled into the hotel. We checked in to the hotel and took a look at our rooms. Gianni then took us on a tour of the hotel.
Here is the Villa La Bollina Website - www.hotelvillalabollina.com
After seeing the main building, Gianni lead us across the grassy green belt to the reception hall where the resort hosts weddings and special events.
After the tour of the buildings and grounds, we went to our rooms to freshen up a bit. I went down to the lobby where Gianni told me that some of their guests were getting ready to leave the hotel for home. He thought I would like to see them depart, as they were leaving via their private helicopter parked out on the grass just off of the driving range. I grabbed my equipment to shoot some video and take a few pictures.
Now it was time to go shopping, so Gianni drove us down the hill to show us the Serravalle Designer Outlet.
The Serravale Designer Outlet is one of twenty one such Outlets located in nine different countries developed by McArthurGlen Properties. McArthurGlen is Europe's leading owner, developer and manager of Designer Outlets. Alan Glen, a long time customer of Corti Brothers and friend of Darrell's is the "Glen." Their designer outlets contract wear directly from all of the big names in clothing, shoes, purses, and jewelry and sell and well below expected prices. This makes this property a travel destination. We saw numerous tourists from Easter Europe, Russia, and Asia.
It was rather warm, if not approaching hot out, so the lemon slush from the Lemon Bar seem a perfect refresher.
After the designer outlet, we drove across the complex to visit a Mega Food market called Iper. It was a massive store which sold just about everything you could imagine in food and drink and more. It was like a cross between Walmart, Costco, Balducci's and Dean & Delucca. www.iper.it
Now it was back to the hotel for a tour of the winery.
Gianni schooled in resort and hospitality management specializing in menu creation. He had a tasting menu all set up for us for dinner with almost too many courses to count. Among my favorites were Vitello Tonnato with caper leaves, Tarare, Octopus with tomatoes, Pranws with Fava, and broiled Scallops.
Gianni's meal was true sensory overload. We were slightly startled, then pleasantly surprised when aerial fireworks started going off at the end of dinner. No, they weren't for us. They were a secret part of the catered wedding taking place across the lawn. Gianni told us that they never tell the wedding group about the fire works, if they aren't requested, but the always add them to the bill. They have yet to get any complaints about the practice.