Just down the road from our hotel there was this little cheese farm and it was one of the tours the hotel offered. So we signed up for it and walked down the road for about 5 minutes and found the farm. At first we weren't positive we were in the right place, but then Chris saw people waving to us so we walked in. At first the farm seemed very small, but it actually was a decent size. They house over 40 cows there and there were several medieval cottage like structures on the land. We met a few of the others that were on our tour, they were from the UK. Our tour guide was this tiny little woman named Elena, She was adorable. She had a bow in her hair and was wearing the cutest sparkly pumps as she showed us this farm. Elena didn't speak perfect English so she would occasionally pause or try to get us to help her come up with the words in English, but for the most part we understood her. We learned that the farm is over 500 years old and their family bought the farm 20 years ago. Elena has lived on the farm with her family for that amount of time and she is also a natural medicine doctor. One of the first parts of the farm that she took us to had chickens, baby cows, and my new favorite dog breed the Volpino Italiano. One of the baby calves loved Chris and stood very close to him for the amount of time we were standing there. After that she walked us around to different parts of the farm and showed us a medieval cellar, and her gorgeous bedroom.
After the tour of the farm, we were brought to the little cheese shop where we figured the tour was ending and they wanted us to buy their cheese, but no, that was not the case. Off to the side of the cheese shop, there was a table set up with a table cloth and more than enough chairs for the 6 of us. along with a massive plate of fresh cheese and fresh vegetables with olive oil in the middle. There was also two pitchers of wine on the table. I took the wine thinking it was fresh grape juice, but it wasn't and it was very bitter wine. Chris drank it though, he'll basically drink any wine. We started to nibble on cheese and drinking water and wine when suddenly Elena stopped by to tell us that she was bringing out pasta next. She brought the pasta out and this was after we had already filled up on pasta and cheese. She kept asking us all to eat more and Chris and I were like, we can't eat the pasta, we are gluten free or sanza gluteni. She looked at us with a very concerned look and she said "I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She rushed out of the room with a very upset look on her face and when she returned she brought us rice crackers and olive tampenade along with a bowl of corn. We weren't expecting anything and it was so nice of her. We fully enjoyed the olive tampenade and the corn and more cheese. Then she brought out the fresh grape juice. The grape juice was right down my alley, it was delicious and I drank quite a bit of it.
As we sat around and chatted, the grandmother of Elena came and talked to us, but she didn't speak any English so she literally sat with us at the table and just talked Italian at us. We understood bits and pieces and tried communicating with pictures and numbers, but it didn't really workout so well. She ended up pointing at a painting and trying to explain the painting to us and it's importance and we only understood bits and pieces of that as well. The cheese maker also came in and started talking italian at us, which we understood nothing, and then Elena came back in and helped translate back and forth a little bit.
We felt so entirely spoiled by this little cheese farm and the family and what I like to call the "Tuscan Charm". Everyone in Tuscany was so warm and wanted to get to know you, like really get to know you and understand your life. After we all decided as a group that we were done. We all started to stand up and decide what we were going to buy. The group from the UK went first. They bought some balsamic, some cheese, and some Olive oil and they all said goodbye to us with hugs. Then we handed our stuff to Elena and after we purchased our honey, jam, balsamic, and olive tampenade. Elena came around from the other side of the counter and told us that she truly wishes the very best for us and our relationship and our life, to be honest it was so touching that I almost started to cry. Elena gave us both a hug and we were on our way. I'll never forget that lovely morning on the cheese farm.
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