So I joined an Italian gym called Fitness World that is run by Lou Ferrigno and is a time warp to an early 80’s Arnold infomercial. The funny thing is, Italians don’t really work out, or exercise at all. I mean they walk a lot, but really could give two you know whats about being fit. So its almost comedy to find all of the best looking Italians I’ve seen at the gym. I was asked by a woman in Italian “how many more sets do you have” on the bench I was using, but thought she was asking me “how long I’ve been working out” so like an idiot I told her “a couple years”. Needless to say I think I’ve claimed that bench as mine.
Yesterday was a mountain top experience for me. I’ll start by going back another day.
On Sunday we had planned that we would chill all morning at the house, pool, movies, reading, drinking, you know, just chilling. And then we would go to the market and get a huge steak and finally use our beautiful steel all wood barbecue. Like a little boy I’d build the perfect wood teepee that would burn for a solid hour before the coals would be just right to which I’d spread them out like a grilling ninja with the hot spot in the back against the wall to create a blazing oven and a warm spot up front. It was 4PM now so we thought we’d head out and get our groceries for the evening. Oh wait, it’s Italy, and no one does anything on Sunday. After driving to 2 markets both on separate sides of town and allowing depression to kick in, we sadly headed home with the notion that we’d just go out for pizza later and call it a day. As we pulled down our street, a small sign for an Agriturismo, that we’d missed until now, jumped out at us. An Agriturismo is basically a B&B. Shiloh called to see if they might be serving dinner to which Sarah, our angel savior of the night, said yes, and invited us up for dinner at 8. We got there a little early to explore the property, which was a gorgeous picturesque farm with goats and ducks and chickens and pigs and 3 of the most friendly hyper kittens. The sun set over the hills just as we were sitting down to dinner which was a prefix wine inclusive meal for get this $64 for the whole family. There were two other groups of 4 dining and that was it. Sitting outside overlooking the Umbrian skyline eating homemade pasta with my family as kittens beg for leftovers, come on!
Okay, so how is that not the mountain top experience? Because it didn’t involve me cooking a giant steak over an open flame. Monday happens, and all I can think about is going to the butcher and getting the sexiest ribeye and barbecuing. We headed to the biggest local market in Citta de Castello where to my surprise they had a massive dry aged perfectly marbled rib eye. I had the butcher cut me off a 3 1/2 inch 3lb slice of glory, threw in some pork sausages and danced to the cashier. As I stood admiring my inferno feeling like Francis Mallmann (Chef’s Table - Patagonia) I couldn’t help but lift my arms to God and thank Him for how blessed I am. I pulled the cow at a perfect medium rare, let it sit 15 minutes, cut the beast with absolutely no run off, and we at a barbarian feast. The kids passed out from a meat coma, and Shi and I watched Now You See Me 2, finished our 2nd bottle of Sangiovese and called it a night.
Side note, Shiloh started homeschool with the kids Monday and it has prayerfully been perfect! The kids are adapting nicely and Shi is killing it as a teacher, I am honestly so proud to be married to such an amazing woman. Getting into this routine as a family will be really good for us and I think tomorrow I might actually start writing. Camerotas are coming over for dinner tonight, we’ve got a whole chicken and a bunch more sausages and if it doesn’t rain you KNOW I’ll be back at the barbecue!
No comments:
Post a Comment