Chez Cherie Culinary Tour of Tuscany, November 2007
Here's a video slideshow that will give you a feel for our fabulous Tuscany Tour.
And here are some comments from those who joined us:
I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for a trip of a lifetime. Believe me, I've been on many nice trips all over the world but this one was coordinated perfectly. We couldn't have asked for a better group of people to travel with too.
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Bravo, you two! What an exquisite journey it was, and what a great job you did, from imagining the magic from scratch to maintaining a blend of order and fun throughout. We feel lucky to have been a part of the maiden voyage of Chez Cherie Goes Abroad, and we've spread the word far and wide -- or at least to future travelers that mesh well with others. Speaking of which, we really liked the group, too -- yet another element of the trip that seemed especially serendipitous.
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Thanks again for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Tuscany "up close and personal!"
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Thanks for the e mail addresses, and the wonderful trip! It was more than I could have ever imagined!
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Stand-out moments include:
The first gasp-producing view of Tuscany through the window, the first morning at Bagno Vignoni.....
Being invited into Patrizia & Massimo's kitchen, where Patrizia emphasized the importance of the 'red hex' (egg yolks)......
Hearing Celine Dion & Pavarotti singing the quintessential Italian duet, "I love you, I hate you, then I want to kill you" on the bus -- many times ......
Michela's beautiful accent, telling Cherie (re: shopping), "I wish I was in your feet"........
The young man at Martelli Pasta, who visibly swooned as he guided the pasta through the machine that cut it into stacks......
Learning the meaning of "tastes like pigeon".......and that arugula salad is actually 'bed of rocket'.......
The melodious sounds of Paolo's horn......
The extremely happy truffle-hunting dogs finding the 'pichinino' truffle, with their tails wagging fast enough to be invisible to the human eye.......
Genuino's panda-faced intensity and generosity with his kitchen.......
The operatic evening at Mel Gibson's Restaurant With No Name, which ended with a packed car pulling up to Leones and John falling out of it.......
Willie Wonka's passion for his work, and his description of the taste of ganache - "the aroma explodes in your mouth"......
The owner of Leones, checking out the mass quantities of empty wine bottle after our group's first dinner consumption, "We're gonna need more Chianti".........
The beautiful simplicity and comfort of pizza and beer with you guys by the Arno.....
And of course, the infamous night you came back to Leones with tales of being locked in a restaurant, with a madman -- down by the RIVER!
For all those memories, and so many more, we say "GRAZIE" many times over.
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What a great experience!!!Thanks so much for all you did to make the Tuscany trip a unique adventure of a lifetime!The especially unique aspect of this, in addition to the wonderful travel companions, was that we were really "out with the real people" of the region. It was fun being out of the tourists' mainstream...
