YCGL - Wednesday/Thursday, September 13-14 - Radda in Chianti to Oslo! - Final

 After the crowds in Florence, today was a relax day.  Erik took off on his ride and, while I had the car, I was not going to drive anywhere.  I slept late (except for a 9:00 breakfast), read, napped, tried to work on the blog, and walked around the estate.

Erik got back from his 50-mile ride about 3:30, took a shower and we got the bike back to the shop about 4:30.  This gave us time to get back to Radda to get to our Cooking Class!  When our travel agent found it was going to be two guys traveling, she was a little disappointed about having a cooking class set up.  I assured her that we both enjoy cooking and would be just fine.  

It was at the Hotel Leopold, a nice hotel in town.  The instructor was a very interesting lady named ... As she went through the menu, she said we would be making Chicken Cacciatore.  Erik went pale at that; he does not eat poultry.  Nor would he want to touch it.  After thinking about it for a while, she had an idea.  She talked to an associate who went out and found some rabbit.  So we had Pasta and Rabbit Cacciatore.  We had a blast!  We started with flour and semolina, some water and oil and made our pasta.  Then into the kitchen and chopping vegetables and the rabbit and started cooking, drinking wine the whole time.  I wish I had more pictures, but my hands were covered with flour or chopping or stirring or eating!



She also explained the Chianti wine.  


There are two regions that refer to Chianti.  Wines that are made in the specific Chianti region can be called Chianti and are designated as DOC or Controlled Designation of Origin.  That means that the wine must be made in this region.  It must be aged at least 3 months and made with at least 70% of Sangiovese grape.  Wines that are called Chianti Classico are made in a specific subregion and are designated as DOCG or Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin. They must be aged at least 10 months and be made from 80% Sangiovese grapes and the rest from local red grapes.

The black rooster is an interesting legend, or history?  When Florence and Sienna were competing for territorial boundaries, they agreed on a procedure.  A knight would ride from each community and where they met would be the boundary.  To insure that they would leave at the same time, they agreed that they would start when a cock crowed in each community.  The Siennese picked a healthy white cock to crow, while the Florentines selected a skrawny black cock that was kept in a box the night of before the race.  When the cock was removed from the box in the early dawn, the cock crowed and the rider took off.  He got well beyond the midpoint and thus Florence claimed the greater territory.  To commemorate that race, they put a black cock on the Chianti wine bottles.  Needless to say, we had a great evening.

Oh, and those wine bottles?  Before we left, Erik bought six bottles of wine at the estate and had them shipped over for my birthday!!!  What a guy!

Thursday, we had breakfast, settled our account and drove back to Florence's airport.  We caught our noon flight and got to Oslo at about 3:30. Liz got there about noon, so we met up at the National Theater train station and had a beer and lunch.  Then we split, Erik to meet Eliza who was flying in from a work trip to Tel Aviv and Liz and I to our hotel at the Holmenkollem Ski Resort.  We'll all meet up tomorrow at the AirBnb in downtown Oslo.



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