We have completed our fifth week in Greti/Greve/Chianti/Italy. It has started to feel like home. We are getting used to the store hours and restaurants. We feel comfortable with the villa, pool, and tennis court. We have not met any Italians, but that is the result of our language inadequacies. The Italians we come in daily contact with our friendly and interested in us and are a pleasure to deal with. There are minor frustrations still, but even those are becoming less. For example, we needed gas the other day to go on a road trip and learned that the gas stations, like other shops, also close between 2 and 4 PM. It is also hard to get used to no grocery shopping on Sundays or Wednesday afternoons. But, we have adjusted.

Next, are a few of our “Impressions on Italy and the Italians.” First, almost every restaurant gives you something free. It may be a glass of Prosecco, as an aperitif to start the meal, or a lemoncello to complete the meal, or it might be a small appetizer as you start your meal or some chocolate or other type of small dessert at the end of your meal. It is a pleasant gesture that we would like to see more of in the U.S. restaurants. Second, Rita is not used to seeing rabbit on the menus and in the grocery store. The rabbits stare back at you with big bulging eyes in the meat case at the grocery store. It is a little unnerving.

Third, the Italians, like the French, always serve the shell on their lobster, mussels, oysters, shrimp and langoustine. They do this in order to show the customer that the shellfish is fresh. But, it is pretty darn hard to cut those shells off. Usually, the restaurant is NOT willing to remove the shells in the kitchen. So, we have eaten very little shellfish. Fourth, the daily diet of the Italians seems more restricted than other countries we have visited. Dinner always starts with salami or ham, or fried zucchini flowers or some other appetizer, followed by a pasta, followed by meat, (very little chicken and no fish), and dessert. The Italians seem to pass on the cheese course that is so common in France. And… there is no such thing as a “Caesar salad” or garlic bread, or cheesy garlic bread or any garlic bread for that matter and last…. this is for all of you white sauce lovers… there is NO ALFREDO sauce in Italy… that is all American.

The pharmacies in Italy are wonderful. The Pharmacist is very highly regarded here, seems to be just as highly regarded as a doctor. Not only are drugs subsidized and therefore less expensive than in the U.S., but also, there are always two or three clerks in white jackets, referred to as Pharmacist/Doctors, willing to give you medical advice for free. And, they will sell you a prescription drug with out having to have a script, if you tell them what ails you and what you’ve used before.

The season in Greve is changing from summer to fall. The weather is slightly cooler, the nights are pleasant and most importantly the green, scrawny grapes we have been watching for five weeks have now turned a beautiful purple and the grapes are large, round and bountiful. The extra upper grapes have been cut away so that lower grapes can become larger. In fact, 6 kilos of grapes may be cut away to make the remaining 2 kilos of grapes better. This coming week, from the 11^th to the 14^th is the big 4-day wine festival in Greve. One of the biggest festivals held in Chianti. We are excited about attending the festival and tasting the Chianti wines. In addition to the red wine, we have found a few white wine grapes in Chianti.

We ate a great dinner at “il ristoro de lamole” in Lamole. It is on a mountaintop near Greve and is the Number 1 restaurant in Chianti, if not for its food, certainly for its view. You have to drive up the mountain with numerous hairpin turns on skinny-ass roads with NO guardrails to get to the restaurant. But, once there you can see for miles across the beautiful Chianti valley all the way to San Gimignano.   The presentations were as lovely as the food tasted.   We (meaning I) relied on GPS to get us there. That was a mistake. She (GPS is a she when it’s wrong!) took us to the wrong side of the mountain. To make up for loss time, I drove like a mad man, and not only did I make Rita sick to her stomach, she could barely unclench her white knuckled hands from hanging on to get out of the car, so we had to wait for her stomach to return to normal before she could eat. That was the first and only time I drove, and haven’t driven since!!! Rita drove home, to say the least.

This week we took a 4-day road trip. This time we went south to Siena, by way of San Gimignano.