Of beer and birthdays: an Anglo-Belgo-Italian Odyssey

First off, we apologize for the long gap between blog posts, but rest assured that we're back with gusto. Since the last time we posted we've suffered through some nasty stomach bugs, traveled back to CA for the holidays, and celebrated the birth of our beautiful niece, Evelyn DeGroodt. But this last week was a busy one for the Todas - between the three of us we visited 5 cities in 3 countries in 7 days. We had a blast, but we're all glad to be home again.

The first city visited this week was London, England. This is certainly the weakest link in our travel chain since Val was just there for work on Monday, but we're still going to count it. No pictures but hey it's London, you can look it up. 

The second city on the docket was Brussels, Belgium. Devon took an early morning train on Tuesday to the Belgian capital with one goal in mind: great beer. The day started with a trip to Brasserie de la Senne, just northwest of the city center. Here is their ornately decorated front door (in an alley behind a supermarket no less).

The entrance may have been less than inviting, but the beer was delicious.

The second spot Devon visited in Brussels was the world-famous Brasserie Cantillon (both a brewery and a living beer museum). This hallowed ground produces some of the best lambic beer in the world, which Devon sampled enthusiastically. Their entrance was slightly more inviting, though the front door to the brewery was still unmarked and momentarily guarded by a shady looking bald man. This place deserves its own blog entirely, so I'll just leave a few evidentiary photos here.

A blended lambic beer called Kriek, made with local Kellery cherries.

An extremely rare 11 year old blended lambic called Gueuze, only available at the brewery.



After an afternoon enjoying some delicious sour beers, Devon headed back through downtown Brussels and stopped in the Grote Markt for a photo against a dark and stormy sky.



The next morning it was back on the train and off to a small town in West Belgium called Poperinge. Getting off the train, Devon was expecting to find a taxi stand or perhaps a tram line that would take him to his next holy beer destination, but there were none to be found. Instead he rented a bicycle and headed out on the open road. And by road I mean golf cart path.



Along the way he passed hop farms (complete with handy informational signs).

Here was the sign announcing his arrival at the home of one of the world's best beers (in the last few years the Westvleteren 12 has been rated as the single best beer in the world).



The famous Westvleteren 12. And some ice cream because, why not?



After enjoying a few of Westvleteren's fine offerings and picking up a few items "to go" from the gift shop, Devon hopped back on the bike and headed back in to town. He boarded a train headed back to Brussels, but decided to stop off along the way in the charming town of Ghent. A bit larger than Bruges but similar in feel, Ghent features grand cathedrals and sweeping bell tower views.

Oh, and a castle too.



If you're keeping score at home we've now covered 4 of the 5 cities on our list. Our final destination was a small town in Italy called Ponte a Bozzone, just outside of Siena in the heart of Tuscany. Val had her heart set on a Tuscan vacation to celebrate her 30th birthday, and so Marion and Devon grudgingly obliged her. We stayed at the Villa di Geggiano, a current national landmark and one of the former homes of the Governor of Siena.

The Villa itself was quite stately and impressive, with almost every major detail preserved from the late 1700s. It featured muraled sitting rooms for men and women, a bedroom with furnishings once used by the Pope, a grand ballroom, and even its own chapel. 



View of the gardens and an open air theater from the front door.



Reverse view of the garden and the villa from the open air theater. The statues on the left and right of the stage are comedy and tragedy, apparently the two key elements of any good wedding (the garden and theater were commissioned for the wedding of one of the family's sons).



So with the Villa being a national landmark and all, we stayed in the newly renovated guesthouse just off the main garden. It was once the stable for the horses that they used to turn the Villa's olive mill, but in 2000 it was completely remodeled inside to accommodate guests. 



The view from our bedroom window on a partly cloudy morning. 



The gate leading from the guesthouse up to the main garden.



And this is Alessandro, our host at the Villa and resident winemaker for the Geggiano label. Alessandro also gave us a tour of the inside of the villa and picked some fresh fruits and vegetables from the kitchen garden for us to try. Marion liked him quite a bit, though she did get bored during his villa tour and she started singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider to herself. 



The first night there we walked down to town for dinner. This was the road our host recommended we take.



Along the way to the east were olive orchards.



And to the west were Sangiovese vineyards.




This was one of the two restaurants in town. The other restaurant didn't open until 6:30, so with Marion's bedtime of 7:00, this was the only spot for us to grab dinner together.



Val and Marion shared a perfect penne pomodoro.





Devon had a pappardelle with wild boar ragu.



The next night we went back to the same place for dinner, and this time Val ordered the best gnocchi of her life.





And Devon had the wild boar pappardelle again. It was that good.



Our view on the walk back to the villa after dinner.



The next day we headed into Siena for some sightseeing and more culinary adventures. Our first stop was the Osteria le Logge, just off the famous Piazza del Campo. 





Val had tortelloni in a cacciatore sauce.



Devon and Marion shared a spaghetti carbonara.



And after that we shared the best pork chop we've ever had in our lives.



After lunch we fought through the rain and found the majestic Duomo di Siena.

Then it was on to Caffe Nannini for some hot chocolate and gelato. Marion had her own scoop (a first) and we learned firsthand what a sugar rush looks like.

Then we ducked out into the rain and headed back to the villa. Apparently Marion got hot on the cab ride back, and decided to hang out in the rain for a bit. 

We all cooled off and the next morning we drove back to Florence and flew back to Amsterdam. And with that our whirlwind week came to a close. Until next time, Ciao!