A BORGO IN ITALY

To truly experience a country one must venture outside the tour bus and become acquainted with its people. So if you have a hunger and thirst for Italy, rent a car and wind your way through the Tuscan hills into the heart of Chianti. There, near the village of Radda, you’ll find the medieval Italian “borgo” of Poggio San Polo where you can visit generations-old wine and olive oil producers, see a ceramic artist at work, and get to know two extraordinary Tuscan cooks.

Make your first stop at Podere Le Rose, the family home of Simonetta and Paola, and their father, Luigi. Lovingly restored by Luigi and his wife Maria, the thirteenth century building not only houses several generations, but is also the location for Toscana Mia, a hands-on cooking school run by the sisters. Whether you choose to stay in one of the guest rooms or join a cooking class, you’ll sit in on meals and be treated as one of the family.

There, in between instruction on how to shape gnocchi and the importance of stirring the Gorgonzola sauce in only one direction, kitchen talk revolves around Italian concerns—from what twenty-first century women are experiencing in a traditionally male-dominated society to the question directed at us, “Why do Americans open Italian cooking schools here?” Invaluable cultural tips are dispensed as freely as the olive oil (extra virgin is implicit in the term). For instance, do you know that in Italy, no one begins anything on a Tuesday or a Friday—not a business, not a marriage, not anything? This is a fact you’re unlikely to learn aboard a temperature-controlled bus behind a plate glass window.

Over glasses of Chianti Classico and a dessert of panna cotta dosed with homemade walnut liquor, you’ll learn the origin of Limoncello. A mention of the beautiful ceramic serving bowls will lead to an introduction to the local ceramica. Angela, a charming young artist, paints zucchini blossoms and lemons on pasta bowls and olive oil bottles while her children play outside with the garden hose.

Later, take a short drive to the Bencini family winery for antipasto and tastings of wines made from the Sangiovese grapes that thrive in the region. As you sip wine and munch on bruschetta grilled over an open fire, brushed with the estate olive oil, then rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with salt, you’ll no doubt begin to think of lodging for the night.

So, if you haven’t nailed down a room back at Papa Luigi’s, ask one of the Bencini’s to recommend a place in Lecchi or Gaiole. A recommendation from the locals could land you in the middle of your next adventure.

As you get into your rental car and head out the gravel road, glance in the rear view mirror. There, silhouetted against the blood-orange backdrop of a waning afternoon, the natives squeeze out the day’s last moments of “La Vita Dolce.”