Snowy day Gizmo

Gizmo is our 5 year old Scottish terrier. He loves to watch TV, eat and sit on laps. We got a good amount of snow out here so we've been hangin out in the house. Here's some pics of Gizmo lounging and sporting his parka in the snow.

We have matching coats.

Afterthought

We returned from Italy about 2 weeks ago. We are back in East Quogue enjoying our last few weeks in the NY area and preparing for Christmas. We're staying at a great house...if your interested in taking a look, here is the link
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~hamptonsfarmhouse/.
I would love to be here in the summer becuase there's a great pool and the property is really beautiful. Winter in the Hamptons is very different from the summer but it's still a wonderful land of quiet, peaceful surroundings. It's still nice to take a stroll on the beach...no one around and you feel like you're in your own world.














Our Italy trip was great. There are a bunch of pics that weren't posted on our blog. If you want to take a look check out our flickr account at
http://flickr.com/photos/ilscfn/sets/72157611247326808/.
We had a great time and hope to do a southern Italy trip in the near future.

We're leaving for Vegas in two weeks. Our road trip is planned and I can't wait to get the hell out of here. It's freezing cold (yes, I know Vegas just had there fair share of snow recently), there's tons of traffic and it's too damn expensive. I have a real love/hate relationship with the NY area. This is my home and where all of my family and friends are but I really need to break free for a little while. We don't have a real plan in place but life is for living. Will we return to the tri-state area? Who knows.

Ilya works remote (from home) even though his office is based in NY. Once we're in Vegas his work day will be 6am to 1pm so that leaves us a lot of time to explore and do cool things. I was working for a financial company in Manhattan but now I am a free, unemployed bird. I've been spending most of my time cooking. Cooking is my by far my favorite hobby. I plan to post some receipes and meals, along with restaurant pics and info as we make our way to Vegas.

Animals of Tolfa

More pics from Tolfa

Here are some more pics from our time in Tolfa. Most of the pictures are from the grounds of Fontana Del Papa. The landscape and surrounding were really beautiful.

Thermae

So, yesterday we arrived at the Adler Thermae Spa which is in one of these thermal bath towns close to Sienna and Montepulciano. I really wanted to go to a real deal thermal spa and this spot was supposed to be great. We were told out of the 90 fully booked rooms we are the only English speaking guests. I'm kinda used to this because I go to the Korean spas back home but this is still a really strange experience...mostly because many of the European spa goers go naked. Ilya and I refuse and fortunately the rooms are so foggy you cant really see anything. Leave it to Ed! Anyway, the spa is great and there's a lot of cool stuff to do. The rooms are pretty disappointing. The hotel was built 4 years ago but everything looks way older. They could really revamp the decor in the rooms but whatever. The food is really good, too. We haven't taken any pics while we've been here. I dunno..I haven't seen anyone taking pics probably because people are naked or bathing most of the time. We're planning on going into Montepulciano tomorrow so maybe I'll have some new pics. In the meantime, here's the link if anyone wants to check out the spa.

http://www.adler-thermae.com/

I'll put up some other pics from throughout our trip. Post to follow.

Nicole

More food :)

Florentine Dining

I forgot Ilya ordered a risotto too.

Francesco and Raffaela

My dad suggested I meet up with Francesco while visiting Tuscany. Francesco is a lawyer in Florence who is involved with some vineyards in the Chianti region. Him and his wife Rafaella took us out for a traditional Florentine meal at a restaurant. We also went to a Florentine bar which I guess is kinda a hot spot with the trendsters. I don't remember the name of either (the restaurant was the name of an annual Firenze tradition where fireworks are transported from one end of the city to another. If the fireworks don't burn out it means good luck for the year. The name sounds something like brindoloni http://realtravel.com/a-206512-florence_attraction-scoppio_del_carro)

Anyway, we started the meal with fried cow brains...yes like mad cow disease. We also had these zeppoli like things with stracchino cheese and proscuitto...unreal. I also had pasta with black truffles. Ilya and Franceso had gigantic Florentine steaks. I tried some ofcourse. The steak was up there on my top 3 list of best steaks. The Florentine steaks are massive and dry aged. Ughhh we could not breath when we left. Pics of the food and dining expereince to follow.

Cecchini Butcher in Panzano

Sooo....there's this famous butcher is Panzano referred to as the "Cecchini Butcher" (not sure if he is related to my cousins the Cecchinis). http://www.panzano.com/cecchini.htm
After eatting and drinking at Fattoria Montellori, Montellori and the kind people at Villa St Andrea (another vineyard my father works with) treated us to this sick dinner at the butcher's restaurant called Solociccia. This was an experience like no other. We sat at a communal tables with a bunch of Italians while dish after dish of insanely delicious meats were brought out and shared amongst diners. We had meat balls that were barely cooked (too die for), roast beef, beef salad, an array of fried, typical tuscan vegetables. We also had the most delicious olive oil cake. Each dish was paired with wines from Montellori and Andrea. It was a great experience. Our camera ran out of batteries so the websites should give you an idea of what we're talking about. I should also mention that the inside of the restaurant was very cool and modern. Good times:)
http://www.solociccia.it/macelleriaing.htm



-NICOLE

Trebbiano grapes drying on bamboo shlves before made into Vin Santo.

Selene manages sales and marketing for Fattoria Montellori. After lunch she took us on a tour of the vineyard.