Il Desìo & a fiasco
Ieri, 9 luglio, Gamaliel and his cousin Ampelia and her partner John went to the Saturnia Hot Springs. It’s about a 3 hour drive one-way. I elected to stay home and George decided he was going to stay as well. They had a great time and the beauty of the hot springs is out of this world. Next time I’ll have to go for sure (but maybe stay a little closer). George and I walked up to Montefioralle and ate a prix fixe menu restaurant called Il Desìo. The owner tells you upon seating, this isn’t just a restaurant, it’s my home. The views were beautiful and each course was made from products from their land. The meal started with a meat and cheese tray that highlighted several ingredients including white beans, tomotoes, jams, and olive oil. The first course was a barley and vegetable salad. It was hearty and fresh. Then we had pork loin with a wine reduction sauce and mashed potatoes with garden herbs. I was pretty good about taking a photo of each before eating, but I only got the pork plate picture from George’s plate (halfway through), because mine was already consumed! The dessert was homemade biscotti and a marmalade made from their own Vin Santo which is a sweet dessert wine.
The meal came with a “fiasco” of house wine that was also very good and complemented the meal well. I had never thought about that word, “fiasco”, before and how it means something so different in English. There was nothing about this meal that was a fiasco. So, I got curious and looked up the etymology of the word when I got back to the farmhouse. While there are different theories on the origins of the word, it appears that fiasco may come from the Venetians. Specifically, from the glass blowers. When a glass piece had a defect in its creation, the glass maker would toss the object aside and later use the remnants of these “failures”, melding them together once again and make bottles that were called fiascos (fiasco- one bottle, fiaschi- more than one bottle). I also found it interesting that the expression “fare fiasco” or “far fiasco” in Italian literally means “make a bottle” but translates to meaning “to fail”.
great story and love the drawing
Sounds like everyone had a great day.