Day 22, Calabria Day 7

Day 22:  Calabria, Day 7

Quote of the Day: The A’s win the pennant, the A’s win the Pennant

Weather: On the warm side, too hot for THB to walk the vineyard

Note the odd shaped notebook

Department of Wishful Thinking: The A’s did not win the pennant. They were the fourth best team in the league and get to host the fifth best team in the league in a one game playoff. LB gets to go, KL and THB are on the road. If the A’s win the one game playoff they get to play the best team in the league in a best of 5 round.

Department of Reconsideration: THB ran into some issues when the Ukrainians on the Calabrian tour said they would blow the whistle on him if he did not rescind his concession speech. Rather than face impeachment, THB has agreed with the tour Representatives to provide more information on today’s event, specifically the 3+ hour lunch. THB rates the meal in the 2* category and thus is worthy of pics and description. The wines are good enough that several members of the tour buy the big red (aged 30 month in new oak barrels). #hopingforanothermeallikethisone

Checkout at a very considerate 10am. A longish bus ride southwest to the Serracavallo winery estate where we take a brief tour of the winery and vineyards and then will be tasting wines while having lunch. The day in pics:

Black olives, meaning they have ripened past the green stage 

Winery and upstairs is the dining area 

A new style lock on the toilet

The "animal" on the labels

The view from the deck outside the dining area

The warm appetizer: the "fried bread" with  lemon and salt...perfect

Co-leaders taking group pic

Potato souffle surrounding porcini mix and some great sopping sauce (chicory?)

One of the best dishes of the trip

Steak tartare with tartar sauce

Another winner

Risotto with elderberries and sausage;  the rice is the only non-immediately available food item, we're truly locavores for this meal. THB eats half, saving room for later courses.

Wheat and regular pasta stuffed with cheese 

Again, THB goes halfway, DB eats the whole thing because it's yummy

Pork belly and crunchy skin and potatoes. THB goes all in on the pork, just takes a bit of the potatoes

Venison with raspberry sauce

THB's hat serves as a bread basket holder

Easily the best meal in Calabria, not even close. And, in the top 3 meals of the entire trip (by THB's ranking)

2 white wines (the 2nd one is perfect with the potato souffle), one salty rose (yes, salty, THB thought it totally undrinkable), 3 reds (THB and DB liked the 2nd, aged 18 months in oak, the rest of the group liked and bought the 1st and 3rd red), and this dry not-sweet dessert red (also undrinkable to THB's taste)

 After lunch, THB suggests the chef come out for a round of applause. Some kid around 15 comes out wearing a chef’s apron (okay, he’s maybe 25). Two rounds of applause, sorry THB was too busy clapping to get a pic. And he was just hired for the day. Hopefully he's on his way to stardom, this meal was outstanding.

Old vines double protected from fire

It’s around 4pm, and we have a 1.5 hour drive to Pizzo for a gelati concoction that is well known. The gelaterias are in the old town, it is Sunday and the locals and tour buses are out in force. THB and DB share one and it comes pre-split so it is like we each order a regular sized portion.

Hot and muggy at 4 pm

At first THB thought the Lithuania Pavilion at the Biennale had moved to Pizzo

Patron saint of the Tartufo Moro

"English Soup" .... trifle flavored gelati

Coco is hoping for a lick or two of this massive offering

Half a moro

Some form of chocolate crumble on the outside and chocolate sauce on the inside, very sweet ($5.50 for two halves ... included in tour)

It's mostly downhill from the parking lot so there are tut-tut taxis that ferry a few back up

We leave Pizzo at sunset, here’s a pic of one of the two active volcanos in this area:

THB's arty pic of the day

Now it is almost 8 when we get to the Popilia County Resort that is our home for the last 3 days of the tour. The group is in “cottages” spread out beyond the large pool behind the main building. This is more like a golfing resort layout than anything we’ve seen so far.

THB and DB are in the haunted cottage: the key doesn’t open the door, the bags aren’t here after a 45 minute wait so THB goes up to the main building and takes them himself off the atv delivery van, DB can’t connect her i-pad to the wifi, the a/c doesn’t work (we are close to Lamezia so the a/c is controlled by the desk because “Italians don’t like a/c”, just like the Bram Hotel), the instructions on using the safe are incorrect, the soap dispenser in the shower doesn’t work (or at least THB can’t get the push down large bottle to work).

Maybe this is a warning shot from the Ukrainians on the tour?

And, we’re in a spacious two bedroom suite, way more modern than anything else on the trip. Hmmmm….semi-haunted?

Twin beds in first room

High ceilings, no head-ducking necessary

Stand-up shower just to left, no bathtub for DB

King size bed in main bedroom

DB and THB had already decided to skip dinner, a buffet of many salads. THB was not in the right frame of mind to assemble the grill, so that turned out to be a good advance decision; we snack in the room on various odds and ends THB has collected and kept in his backpack  (some from years ago…maybe many years ago).