For our Tuscan dinner they cooked the Pici pasta we made and prepared it with a fabulous meat ragu prepared by Isabella. We had suspicions that perhaps they tossed all of our amateur Pici, but we were assured that we were indeed eating all of the Pici that we made.
For our second course, Carlo served the grilled meats with delicious side dishes (contorni) prepared by Isabella. When Carlo came around with the grilled meats we giggled like school girls as he served us with his Tuscan movie star looks.
Then, of course, Luciano came with his pecorino cheese, cold cuts, bread, Sangiovese wine, grappa, and vin santo. It was time to start working on an exit strategy for later as I wasn’t up for more dancing tonight. If anyone needed to take a turn with grandpa and dancing, it was Dana.
After they served dessert, I was ready to jet back to the room and crash. However it was such a festive night, Dana felt she needed to give grandpa just a little attention for the evening and all that he brought to the dinner. Meanwhile, me and a few others had a chance to talk to the grill master and wild horses couldn’t pull me away. Even Dana saying, “Lisa, come here! Come here!” Hey, I already had my turn the night before, it was her turn with Grandpa.
It was fun to sit with him and a few others and talk to Carlo and find out that he was also turning 50 this year and that he recently lost 25 pounds. His secrets are: Pasta only one time per week, 7 kilometers per day of walking, a very light breakfast and lunch, and meat and salad for dinner.
When I wondered back over to Dana, I found her in Grandpa’s arms. He got his dance.
