Great Next to the Last Evening in Montepulciano

http://www.acquacheta.eu/english.html
Above is the review of the restaurant six of us went to tonight. I am stuffed and full of vino - and content.

A very sweet girl from Vienna invited us to eat at this restaurant tonight. I pass it every day when I walk Seymour and see it crowded every night, I have always wanted to stop. I didn't know this was the restaurant she had reserved for us.

They have 2 seatings - one at 7:30 pm and one at 9:15. We actually didn't leave until close to 10 pm and it was fine - it's Italy! People are always turned away from this restaurant because they do not have reservations. The good news is that they let Seymour into the restaurant with us. People are seated at long tables together. They have a menu of regular food and then daily food specials. They are known for their meat - very large steaks, duck, etc. Unfortunately I did not order meat! I had brochette with olive oil and tomatoes, some kind of pasta with mushrooms,a great salad and and some kind of dessert that they recommended - and of course vino rossa. I had lots of vino rossa. The good news is that our casa was only a block away - uphill, yes, but on the same street.

It was great company, great food and a wonderful way to almost end my stay in Montepulciano.

Our table consisted of 2 people from Australia who did not know each other previously, the young woman from Vienna who did the organization - and is hoping to come to Ft Worth to do a traineeship on equestrian stuff. (I gave her my email address just in case I could help her in anyway) a guy from New York who is an avid biker and has been coming to Italy for the past 6 years, my room mate, and me. And of course, Seymour but he didn't take up a seat.

I still have that afterglow of too much good food, good wine and good conversation. Seymour didn't get to eat anything so his afterglow never actually started.

I really appreciated getting invited because I was the only one who was not in a class with someone else at the table. Things just work out,sometimes.

Check out the restaurant review I attached to see more about this place.

Unfortunately, tomorrow we have a school lunch at another really good restaurant and then Fiorella is making us a great dinner, so good food - and calories - are everywhere!

On another topic, I talked with the director of the school yesterday because I could not go back to class with the teacher who taught the second half of our lesson each day. She has only been our teacher for a week. I know I said I was going to let go of my stresses and just get what I can out of the class, but I just couldn't with this person. She doesn't speak any English so she just couldn't deal with those of us who were at a lower level. She just started talking for long periods of time with our class mate who spoke pretty good Italian. The other 3 of us just sat there. it was that classmate that mentioned to me that the class was too fast and was willing to talk with the director with me. She is also the woman who offered to help me so we went to lunch together yesterday and reviewed some of my (many) problem areas. How I appreciate her!

So I met with the director of the school and she offered me a one hour private lesson in exchange for not going to the second part of my class. It was so helpful to talk to her and reduced my stresses immmensely. She also gave me copies of information that will help me with the basics that I have never learned. So tomorrow morning will be the end of my lessons. I have so much more to learn and don't want to stop learning. I definitely want to come back to Italy - soon Yes I know I have 2 more months here but after talking with people who are here from other countries and also have a connection to Italy, I feel that they are kindred spirits. I'm not sure Seymour feels the same way :)