Dinner at the villa

Last night we had the most amazing dinner made right in our villa by Daniela, a local girl who comes and cooks and cleans up. We started with a bread salad and fried sage.  I can't even tell you how yummy that was. The next course was penne al dente with rustic Tuscan sauce. The main course was chicken cutlets with ham and sage and peas. We've had the peas twice now and they are amazing. Not sure why but they taste divine. Dessert was peaches soaked in brown sugar. By far the best meal yet. Before dinner we went to a small town called Greve in Chianti. It had a cute market in the square (where I picked up some souvenirs), and some interesting shops. The butcher shop, where the meat was all hanging from the ceiling, some with hair on it still. It smelled terrible in there so I stayed just long enough to get a picture. We got pizza for the first time for lunch in Greve, and again, the pizza in Italy is way better than NY. Everything here is so fresh and light. On the way home we stopped in Volpaia and went on a wine tour. It was really neat to see all the old wine barrels and olive machines that they still use in Volpaia. Many places have gone industrial, obviously because it's faster, but not in Volpaia. They are one of the last places that press their olives with the old olive press. Very cool. It's been very hot, so we topped the day off with a swim in the pool while we waited for our dinner to be made. It was a fantastic day!  Today we plan to head into Siena for an afternoon tour and twilight dinner.