A hot August afternoon, a gathering of friends, and wine. Sounds like the perfect combination to me. Since it was a very hot day, I wanted to lighten things up and make a cooler wine choice. I contemplated serving a crisp chilled white or rose wine but ultimately decided to try making an Italian style
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Well, I have to say the trip from the Portland area to Seaside takes about two and a half hours. Our trip took us seven. Why? Because we ate and drank our way across the city and countryside winding our way through the mountain pass and down to the seashore. We left at a reasonable
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To strike or not to strike, that was the question (trains, buses and the underground metro). But really, the question was how many hours to strike? At first it was announced as 24 hours, then 12, then 8, and finally this morning before we left the apartment, we were told 4 hours. We planned on
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The feature picture of today’s post is of a building with original frescos that date back to the 1500’s. I can’t imagine not painting the outside of your house for hundreds of years. With the Portland weather we’ve repainted our house twice in 11 years! Ricardo thought it was great that the apartment owner had
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Podere San Lorenzo is a lovely place to spend a week. A few more pictures of the property. Our apartment is the small building in front to the left. The larger building in back was the original monastery. Chefs picking tomatoes for tonight’s dinner. While at Podere San Lorenzo we’ve met some very interesting people
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We are greeted by the most beautiful sunrise this morning. This view is from one of our apartment windows but I wanted to get the picture without the windows and screen. I was so excited to capture the moment I ran out of the apartment in my shorty jammies. Oh well, if any of the
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One of the advantages of living in the Willamette Valley in Oregon is the close proximity to a large number of the 700+ wineries in the state. If you are a member of any one of these local wineries you have certain privileges (depending on the winery) that usually include free wine tastings, pick-up parties,
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Once a month I like to share five interesting tidbits I have collected while working on the blog. Hope you find this month’s “sage” interesting, informative, and amusing. We’ve been doing a lot of freshening up and cleaning around here in the hopes that spring will arrive soon. To get enthusiastic about cleaning, a song
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Italophilia, a fellow blogger recently said, “Today is just one of those days when I am terribly terribly missing Italy. Troppo ? You might think and say, “when do you not”?? Well…okay.. you could be almost right there but today is not that daily “I wish I were in Italy sipping a glass of vino in my favorite piazza” feeling
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Do you ever have those days when you feel like you are trying to balance a thousand things on top of a high-pitched roof? With construction going on in the kitchen for a week now, I feel like I’m headed to the rooftop to fiddle. Loved the movie Fiddler On The Roof and to take the
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The Harvest or Crush (referring to picking and crushing the wine grapes), whether in Italy, California, or the Willamette Valley here in Oregon is one of my favorite seasons. This Wine Spectator article spells out some of the basics of the crush season. We have been visiting Italy in the fall for the last couple of
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