Dov'e nel mondo Arielle?: The one about Tuscany

Tus·ca·ny [tuhs-kuh-nee]

Noun: a region in W central Italy: formerly a grand duchy. 3,578,814;8879 sq. mi. (22,995 sq. km).

Italian, Toscana.

This weekend, I spent my time under the Tuscan sun. Tuscany is a region in Italy and is often confused as a city. The region is filled with rolling green hills. Picture sand dunes only covered with green grass. So needless to say on Saturday, everyone through the Arcadia program packed their bags, got on a bus and travelled to the lovely region of Tuscany. While there, we got to spend our time on a little winery called Tenuta il Corno. It is usually only open in the warmer months but the owner was so generous she opened it up for us. There was this sweet little Italian lady—the owner—and she cooked two amazing meals for us and she also gave us a tour around the estate. Dinner on Saturday night and Lunch Sunday before we headed home were amazing! I am a little bummed I didn’t capture the dinner we had on film, but I did get photographs of lunch. Italians eat well! For dinner we started off with bruschetta, followed by that pasta course pasta with pesto and a pumpkin garnish. Next we had the most tender beef cacciatore type dish with potatoes and a salad. We finished with dessert consisting of a chocolate and vanilla cake muffin with chocolate liquor sauce. For lunch, we started with antipasti. It was cheese (with a honey garnish…try it!), a salami and this bread with olive dip thing (I didn’t like the sauce much). Then we had a soup dish, and lastly a pasta ragu (aka meat sauce and pasta). Needless to say, I was very hesitant to try some of the dishes but I enjoyed them all! She also taught us how to enjoy wine. We used ALL of our senses. The whole experience was awesome. She taught us how to look, smell and taste the wine properly. We tasted 3 different wines, a young white wine (Albios vino bianco), a Chianti, and lastly Chianti Colli Fiorentini (they were pretty good). She also spoke wisely about cooking, eating and valuing life. I loved her little Italian accent and wish you all could have experience it. The view was beautiful, the food was delicious and the people were so sweet. I have videos of the lady speaking and I am hoping to edit them and post them if I can figure it all out! For more information on the place head over here: http://www.tenutailcorno.com/ Here are some pictures of my weekend!