It’s amazing to think that when we visited the small town of Greve-in-Chianti 2 years ago, we would now be living here! Actually Olmastrino is about 3 miles outside Greve at Spedaluzzo, but our nearest village, Chiocchio, only has a bar, an enoteca and a restaurant! So Greve will be the town we go to for our shopping.
Greve is one of the closest towns to Florence in the ‘Chianti Classico’ part of Chianti, with a population of only 15,000. It’s named after the river Greve, which is more like a little stream! It used to be a very sleepy market town, until the early 70’s when the tourist invasion began, but does still retain some of its olde world charm with its wine museum, triangular square, restaurants, cafés and wine bars. Also there are many different fayres throughout the year to keep its links to the past.
There isn’t much for young people to do here, but for us old folk, into relaxing, checking out antique markets, flower shows, wine festivals and trying out the countless restaurants dotted in the town and surrounding countryside, it’s perfect!
Here is a link to the town’s website: http://www.comune.greve-in-chianti.fi.it/ps/home#
Greve's most famous son was the 15th century explorer, Giovanni di Verrazzano, who discovered the bay of New York. He is honoured here in Greve with this statue and immortalized in the famous Verrazzano narrows bridge on the Hudson river in New York.
After unloading our car, doing a massive clean of the flat on our first full day in Olmastrino, of course we are too tired to cook and so book a table at the nearby, ‘Locanda il Gallo’ in Chiocchio for our first restaurant experience...
Locanda il Gallo
A small an unassuming traditional 'Trattoria' that also doubles as a bed and breakfast, Locanda il Gallo is on the main Chiantigiana road at Chiocchio. The waiter/owner is very friendly and offers us an 'amuse bouche' to get things started well. As it is November we order a warming bowl of Polenta with a Cinghiale (wild boar) stew in a rich sauce. The house wine is Chianti Classico, a wonderful, sour cherry, high tannin,silky smooth accompaniment to our hearty dish! We are offered an interesting mulled wine to finish with for a very nice first experience.
A small an unassuming traditional 'Trattoria' that also doubles as a bed and breakfast, Locanda il Gallo is on the main Chiantigiana road at Chiocchio. The waiter/owner is very friendly and offers us an 'amuse bouche' to get things started well. As it is November we order a warming bowl of Polenta with a Cinghiale (wild boar) stew in a rich sauce. The house wine is Chianti Classico, a wonderful, sour cherry, high tannin,silky smooth accompaniment to our hearty dish! We are offered an interesting mulled wine to finish with for a very nice first experience.
Here is a link to their website and like many Italian restaurants and hotels, atrocious English translation!
(Original journal entry 17/11/01)
2 comments:
My lad! You've been busy! Get your blog onto Twitter.....I bet you'll get more followers.....tweet!tweet!
I'll certainly log onto you and follow your odyssey again...
This lad's profound!
Many thanks dear Caroline! My first ever blog comment... I have joined twitter, but haven't got my head round it yet. I think it might be difficult to say what I really want to in 140 letters... Please become my follower??? Thanks for checking it out though, it's bringing back some great memories!
Post a Comment