Chapter 2: Antica Macelleria Cecchini

You may be wondering why I haven't posted basically anything since arriving in Tuscany. Apparently I came at a very busy time. Here's the lowdown on what I've done so far.

1. Participated in a rediculously intense wine parade in Inpruneta - months of work goes into building floats and practicing the dances. Every night there is a family style dinner served at each team's "camp out." (there are four teams that compete for the best performance, one for each main street in the city.) Community is a huge deal in Tuscany and this was proven to me from the moment I arrived.

2. Ate a huge Tuscan family dinner and felt sick for two days after. They never stop feeding you here, I don't know how everyone is not overweight.

3. Went running. By the second day of feeling like I was about to die, I figured running would be the best option. Lets just say there are no flat roads in Tuscany.

4. Slept through Dario's wedding. Having been exhausted by the festivities of the previous week I passed out in the apartment across from the Macelleria where the stagista's (including myself) stay. One thing about staying a long time in one place is that you eventually burn out, unlike on vacation where you sleep when you return home.

5. Helped with a catering for a super rich Swiss man who owns lots of antique cars. He decided to do a tour through Tuscany so he invited all his friends to drive his cars and brought them to Dario's. We served them their meat in an ancient castle in Panzano which Dario owns. He basically owns the entire town.

6. Went to Pisa. Well if you call it an official trip. Riccardo needed to pick up a friend at the airport at 1:30 in the morning, so I tagged along to keep him awake for the drive. I took a picture of a picture of the leaning tower because Riccardo refused to take me to see the real tower at 1 in the morning.

7. Participated in a huge butcher festival. Once every five or six years there is a butcher festival outside of the Macelleria. Butchers from all over Italy and a few from Australia came to participate. I ate Kangaroo for the first time. I learned that Italians love noise. If there is something that makes noise they will encourage everyone to participate.

8. Became a Fiorentina fan - and am attempting to learn the soccer songs in Italian, but its pretty slow going right now.

Its interesting to see how business is run in Italy. Its very cash focused, but somehow the accounting system is fairly intense. I imagined that it would be lax and confusing, but it seems to be in working order. Dario manages his business very closely. Every meat mixture is seasoned by him in order to keep the recipes both a secret and consistent. The employees will grind and mix the meat, but when its seasoning time the entire bowl goes out into the butcher shop where Dario ensures that everything is done to perfection. Its very interesting to come into this atmosphere with a business degree and see the differences between cultures and the hierarchy of importance in this country vs. Canada.