Wow, time truly flies when you are living out your life in the routine of things. Christmas was just here and New Year's eve is a day away! We have been invited to two New Year's dinners here in town followed by a grand community celebration in Piazza Priori, the city center of Volterra. We have local friends asking us to stay and friends from Costa Rica wondering when we will ever return. We are still totally loving our experience here in Tuscany and were reminded yesterday to hold the present moment in high regard. It is most important!
Out of whim, we decided to head out to a seaside city named Piombino, just to get out of town. It had been suggested to us many times by a friend who lives nearby the city. When we arrived, we were amazed by so much. It has stone fortress walls and a castle that sit high above a beautiful sea view, majestic! It is a station for ferry boats to islands near and far: Elba and Sardinia. Cool to know as we may embark on a trip to these locations sometime in the near future.
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| a mosaic in accents of gold above the local Chiesa (church) doors |
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| Piombino' s city walls overlooking the Mediterranean Sea (my photo) |
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| Castle wall crest symbolizing the Piombino Octopus (Polpo) sea serpent |
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| Castello walls |
We arrived into town very hungry, nothing new. We then proceeded to do what most Americans do...expect restaurants to be open after the midday meal time 3:30pm. We knew better, it was the end of Pomeriggio (afternoon). Pranzo (lunch) had been served at all restaurants and kitchens were closing until 7:30pm, the time of cena (dinner). We decided to do the Mary, Joseph and Jesus routine and go from place to place begging for someone to take us in for a meal. The cold weather helped boost the effect of this desperately hungry family. After being rejected by two restaurants, we walked a little while and came across a quaint Osteria named Mangiafoco. It had a presence of comfort when we walked in. The chef was sitting there, dressed in his white, customary clothing joined by friends and family finishing up a meal. We felt like we were intruding but asked anyway. Bill asked, "Sua restaurante Aperto?" as he was asking, I stood behind him in full site of the Chef and his company miming the universal begging motions: hands in prayer position, face falsely sad and needy, mouthing please in English. They all laughed and smiled at us. The Chef, whom seemed very kind looked at us with love. He paused and gave us a discerning gazed for a while (We felt like we were pawns going to the highest bidder somehow)...then, he smiled and asked "Cuanti personi Ci sono?" We looked at each other and said in unison, "quattro!" with excitement. He motioned to his waiter, give them a seat, fresh bread, water and white wine. We were elated and relieved! Hunger would soon be satiated.
The waiter, a young man of 23 years whom we later came to know as Walid (known by his friends as Beppe) spoke English wonderfully and helped to interpret so many things we wanted to express. Walid is from Morroco and is well loved and trusted by the owner/chef. He turned to us and asked us, "what will you have: meat or fish?" we all called out..."fish" in delight of the fresh meal we were about to have without a menu in sight! The Owner and Chef, a tall, robust man with curly hair and a beard came to our table and told us in his best English; " You are a lucky family!" we smiled and agreed with him having gratitude in our hearts. He then whisked himself off to the kitchen after he said goodbye to his friends.
Before we knew it, Walid was returning to the table with a bounty of food. He explained this was a short cut of the menu but we felt like it was more than we could have ever imagined. The first plate was that of Octopus, seared and presented over extra-virgin olive oil. It was seasoned in such a way to taste the sweetness of the sea and the spice of the terrain. Walid explained it was the specialty of the house. The region's famed fruit of the sea. Delicious!
Next came breaded and fried local fish with homemade potato chips with lemon then, bruschetta topped with roasted tomato, octopus, spices and flavors...delectable!
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| Piombino fish 'n chips |
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| Bruschetta |
Then, Walid brought out seasoned,breaded mussels on the halfshell, a sweet and simple but tasty addition to the table.
Once we were devouring everything and enjoying the many tastes of the sea, the Owner/Chef appeared from the kitchen and introduced himself. Daniele! He went on to explain that his family is much like ours by mentioning his wife is African, from Congo. And the very cute children we saw in and out of the restaurant were his children. We became instant friends! He asked where we were from insisting I was Costa Rican, although not an insult, it was not so accurate. He plated one last item to join the table. He called it "Stock fish" served warm with a tomato base almost like a stew cooked together with potatoes, large black olives and seasonings. We were well fed!
Daniele came out to the dining area to join us while snacking on a piece of proscuitto. He explained so much in Italian that we could understand and with what we could not, Walid helped us. He told us his restaurant was young. That he was a chef for 25 years at many other local restaurants and he finally opened Mangiafoco only a year ago. He explained that the "restaurant" was an Osteria: a place where there neighborhood comes and eats in the dining area, the kitchen is behind and the family's home is behind that. The place was a former neighborhood wine shop (cascavino) where locals came to hang out and drink wine, play cards, and socialize. He keeps the memory alive by inviting the remaining locals who always enjoyed visiting the cascavino to continue to come and be comfortable, much like the way ancient church sites come to be in present day: they change the faith over the centuries but the location for meeting never changes, a wonderful compromise of love.
A sweet anecdote: Daniele explained that the namesake of his restaurant was based on the character from Pinocchio: Mangiafoco (fire-eater). Mangiafoco was the evil puppeteer who controlled Pinocchio who had run away from home. Daniele was saying he resembles the character. To emphasize his point more, he described himself as Barbarosso. The legenary, Italian, red-bearded pirate. Come to think of it, he was quite accurate, except for the evil part!
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| Mangiafoco! |
By dinner's end, Daniele had begun talking about his family recipes and the friends whom were regular visitors. He showed us pictures of his family and friends some living, some whom passed on. He asked Walid to run to the kitchen because he wanted to share some local soft parmesan cheese and a sweet, Sangiovese wine his friend makes just for him. His friend uses Sangiovese grapes but harvests them later in November and brings them to wine without aging. Definitely like a dessert wine but of dark red coloring. The flavor resembling ice wine we've tasted in Canada. As we enjoyed the pairing, Daniele sat down and referenced his favorite music playing in the background on the stereo system. Then, out of nowhere, he breathes deeply and breaks into Operatic song. His voice was without training but naturally beautiful, robust. Daniele blushed a little bit but he wanted to serenade us, make us his friend. We sat in amazement, captivated. We told him he should be an Opera singer but he said " no , no I like Pavarotti,but no, I am a chef, not a singer." We understood his Italian clearly by this time.
After dinner, he ran to the kitchen this time bringing back in a stainless steel container, a live eel. His friend he named Capitano! He showed us that he could be a sweet soul who did not make every sea animal into dinner. His plan, to release Capitano into the river when the temperature got warmer, until then, he would continue to feed him worms and give him shelter. Very sweet. We left Daniele and Walid with hugs and handshakes and exchanged contact information to meet up again. Daniele gave Siena an old photo: a black and white of Piombino's coastline and he wrote her a message to keep as a souvenir. A definite item to cherish and include in her scrapbook for this year.
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| Il Capitano the Eel! |
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| The Piombino Coastline and Elba Island in the distance |
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| message reading: for Siena, a friend of Mangiafoco with much good and friendship |
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| Daniele & Bill! |
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| Liam & Walid! |
Just goes to show you that with hope, love and awareness of the present moment comes sweet serendipity beyond your wildest dreams! We just made lifelong friends and are very grateful!
Happy New Year, 2014, my friends!
