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Tuscany, in Wine and Song
Several years ago my sister and I had the whimsical idea of inviting all of our best friends on a magical holiday we’d always wanted to take: we would spend two weeks in a large, country villa in the heart of Tuscany and explore the ancient cities and hill towns of the region.
After much planning and searching, we found ourselves arriving at a magnificent stone farmhouse nestled in the sunflower fields and vineyards of a charming fattoria between Siena and Arezzo. Our friends began to pour in from all over the world: diplomats stationed in Warsaw, architects from San Antonio, a World Bank consultant who had flown that morning from Azerbaijan with a huge tin of fine caviar in his carry-on, a movie star and her boyfriend, a professional singer, and many more. We filled all ten of the bedrooms with an eclectic and happy crew.
On our first evening, we had asked the local ladies to come in and cook for us a traditional Italian meal, and it was with great pleasure we watched them rolling out their pasta for a lasagna on a chilled marble slab in the huge farm kitchen, taking their cooking very seriously. We sampled the wine of the fattoria, as well as the local grappa, and all of us helped lay places for twenty at the gigantic travertine marble table that sat under a pergola overlooking the bobbing sunflowers.
Nothing could have been more beautiful than watching the sun vanish behind the rolling hills that evening. Excellent food made from fresh, local ingredients, good wine, the best of company. As we were sipping frigid limoncello to finish the meal, we were suddenly enveloped by the lovely notes of Schicchi’s most famous aria “ O mio babbino caro.” Our friend, in her floating soprano, had learned the piece and now performed it in the open air at sunset, each crystalline note echoing off the hills around.
It was a moment that will forever be caught in perfect memory for all of us who were there; the essence of a Tuscan summer, distilled into song.
