Agriturismo

Saturday morning we went to an Agriturismo with a couple of the guys Mike will be working with and their families.

Essentially, an agriturismo is a farm style restaurant, and can be a bed and breakfast, too.  The one we went to is owned by one of the women who works in Mike's office.  They grow much of the food they cook and serve on their farm.  The orange trees in the picture above are all part of their farm.

We arrived for breakfast and had scrambled eggs, from eggs which she got that morning from her hens.  We also had some delicious bacon and sausage, which is very different from sausage at home.  At some point, she also brought out some bread and olive oil, from their olives.  Then we got some pastries.

This is a tart with apricot preserves that the woman had made that morning.

This is a croissant which was filled with apricot preserves as well.  I had a piece of the tart and it melted in your mouth.  Tommy had 2 of the croissants, which says a lot for a kid who normally wouldn't eat apricot.

To drink we had either water or this wonderful blood orange juice. I think it is the best orange juice I have had.  I imagine their groves are blood oranges.  After breakfast is when we were offered some coffee.  We all had cappuccino.   It was quite strong, and even with 3 sugars added, the kids were not fans.

She also brought out some grapes she had picked that morning.

There were some grape vines growing on the fence between the parking/pool area and the restaurant.

After breakfast, we sat around the pool for a little while.

It wasn't a large pool, but it was nice.  It looks like an in-ground pool, but the patio area was several steps above ground.  So they had to build the structure in order to have the pool. 

After a couple hours at the pool, it was time for antipasti.  This is essentially just appetizers, and we were all expecting a large platter with some appetizers that we could pick what we wanted to eat.  Instead, this is the plate that we each got

There were fried lemon chicken nuggets, olives, a cold eggplant lasagna, a hunk of cheese and a slice of bread with some wonderful pesto on top.  Maybe it was a pistachio pesto.  Since there was no way I could eat all of mine, and the rest of my family really only at the chicken, we had a lot to bring home!  All of it was delicious, and there was no way I needed to make dinner that night!

This is a picture of the orange groves from the patio.  You can't see the building from the road, so I am not sure how they get their business, but was a beautiful and peaceful place to spend the morning.