Monday 19th August 2013

On Saturday we left the Multis and went South.

I won the stock war with Marcus Cargill, England’s leading clock mender, by the way. My Risotto Funghi Porcini Secci was a triumph, despite being made with the stock from already cooked chicken bones.

Marcus and MacLeish MacLeish, who returned to England on Saturday, had boarding trouble. They couldn’t check in on-line and had apparently only been allocated one seat in Club although they are two. But once on board, would you believe it – they knew the Purser. Had served them on a previous Club flight. So at once the cabin was re-arranged and they were together. Social kissing with Purser on departure from the cabin.

So on Friday was the final wine-tasting. I didn’t attend as it happens. But made a last-minute appearance and rendered the tasting mistress, who remembered me from last year, ecstatic. Apparently she’s wild for men, of any kind it would seem. Wine-tasting is not such a foolish past-time, despite the adjectives. At these Tuscan wineries you can buy good wine for reasonable prices. It makes sense to taste so you know what you’re getting. But it’s a precarious business. Sometimes the more expensive ones are not as nice as the cheaper  but you can never be quite sure. Will the wine travel? Will it adapt to the Northern climate of our own great country?

There is much room for angst, much agony.

As Prince Dmitri mentioned, the Multis are deeply serious people. They would not undertake an activity with no purpose. Their vision is all encompassing, they are true to their beliefs. They believe in effort and self-sufficiency. Only deficient staff fail to adore them and even staff who are lacking are not ill-treated. There is no snobbery with the Multis, as with me, Adrian Edge. They see a new open field, where all are free to romp to triumph or not as the case may be.

Then on Saturday morning the sad departure from Il Cortile for La Foce, where we’ve at least gained the most famous view in Tuscany, right before the villa, private, no-one else can see it. – even though it’s so famous. Angus Willis is to be my Mrs Bridges here. He’s planning quails and a pizza oven lighting. Fergus Strachan is stretched out in the sun near naked. Laura Malcolm and Matt Driver have also gained.

So my food is to be styled at La Foce by a world-figure in the food world.

But back to those last days at Il Cortile. What bursts of sunshine! At breakfast one morning, the Photo Multi (who incidentally condemned roses as entirely artificial: there are rose beds at Il Cortile) revealed that the maker of Benenden Sauce, now on sale across the world, is a neighbour at their new country house. Princess Anne was at Benenden School, so we wondered about Sauce Princess Anne. What would it contain? Bits of headscarf? Fragments of speeding tickets (the Photo Multi’s idea)? Dangerous dog enforcement orders? (the Blond Multi) and a meagre sprinkling of diamonds.

I omitted to mention that we drove back from the Brolio wine-tasting in the Multis’ open-top car. ‘You’re in the Jackie position,’ I said to Prince Dmitri Hersov. ‘Where’s that pink Chanel suit?’ We were both in the back. The Photo Multi took the wheel. ‘It’s more like stock-car racing,’ I said, as we careered over rocks on the white road back to the villa. Prince Dmitri and the Photo Multi did car noises, including car rounding corner on two wheels.

The Final Wine Tasting at Rocca di Castagnoli

The Most Famous View in Tuscany, Seen from my Private Loggia in the Villa at La Foce