Six Bar Tools I’m Taking to Italy

As someone who writes home-entertaining books (and articles and such), going away for seven months to Italy involves some planning of the bar tool sort--meaning, I can’t leave certain tools at home. Yeah, I’m a bar baby, or too spoiled, or just a glutton for traveling heavy and breaking my rented car and my permanent back. It’s not that I think I couldn’t make slurpable drinks during the next seven months without the following seven drink-making devices (at least I think I could), but I’d just feel so naked behind the bar (or at the counter). And not in the good “making-drinks-naked way.” And I need to make pretty drinks for my other blog as well. So, here’s a look into my suitcase.

1 and 2: Cocktail Shaker and Jigger
The below is my most-utilized cocktail shaker, the WMF Manhattan stainless steel cobble-style shaker. I love both how it fits me, and how it has a little elegance in its lines. It also packs up nice, and since I’ve used it almost every day for the last 10 years, isn’t something I’d leave behind. The jigger alongside it keeps me honest on measuring, and also keeps the shaker company.

3: Fine Strainer
A good fine strainer is used for drinks that contain fresh juice (which should be the only juice you use). I wanted to bring a juicer to go with it, but decided at the last minute that squeezing would work as long as I took the fine strainer to ensure no chunky-ness gets into the drink (or teeth).

4: A Hawthorne Strainer
This is the Oxo strainer, very portable, and a necessary extra just in case the built-in strainer on my shaker gets overwhelmed by the amount of drinks being made, or the fruit in them, or anything else. Can also work if I decide to use another shaker when out and about. A generally handy item to have, and small enough to not worry about packing.

5 and 6: Pug Muddler and Stir Spoon
Just in case you don’t know, a muddler is a sturdy baseball-bat-looking item used to ‘muddle’ fruit, herbs, spices, and to knock people on the knuckles if they try to steal your drink. Mine is a Pug muddler, which means it was made by hand with care by a gentleman named Chris Gallagher. It’s made from Mexican Rosewood (or Bocote), and is a substantial and beautiful thing, and one which, between us, I paid more than I would tell you for—but look at it! Pug muddlers aren’t available in stores, but you can email Chris directly if you want one (and you should), at jcgallagher08 @ hotmail . com (removing the spaces). The stir spoon is one of many I have, needed for stirring drinks.

7: Square Ice Cube Trays
I can admit it: I am addicted to perfectly square ice cubes. I can’t be completely happy without them (okay, okay, that’s going overboard. But I am awfully fond of them, and how them both melt slowly when whole and crack perfectly when smacked with the Pug Muddler, making them the ideal ice for the home bartender). My ice cubes are made in the the Tovolo Perfect Cube silicone ice cube tray, and I’m hoping they don’t get swiped when going through customs. Because customs agents probably want perfect ice cubes, too.

Basics: We’re Moving to Italy and Taking the Dogs

After about 11 (A.J.) or 12 (Natalie) years of working hard at multiple jobs (which we did enjoy, by and large), Nat and I decided to move to Italy for an extended break, which we’re calling our pre-tirement, as we know we’ll have to work after this break. And this blog is about that pre-tirement (and we’ll talk more about the whole pre-tirement later, too), and about taking our two little 80 pound dogs with us to Italy, and about Italy and the Niccone Valley, which is where we’re staying, and a lot about Italian food and drink, which we love. But I thought the first post should just be about the basics. So, here they are.

Starting October 6th, we are staying at a house called Cielo Chiaro, which means “clear sky” and is owned by the people who run Amici Villas--they’re folks my wife and I have rented from every other trip we’ve had to Italy (5), a nice British couple that rent Italian villas and apartments owned by local Italians and themselves. So, they’ve been very helpful. And they have a dog, named Oscar, so know where the vets are, which is also important. The Niccone Valley is an area right on the border of Tuscany and Umbria, though maybe 1 or 2 miles over the mountains from houses/apts we’ve actually stayed at in the past (that area is called the Morra Valley—all these valleys due to it being a hilly and valley-y area). It’s probably 1 to 1-1/2 hours from Florence, depending on traffic, and maybe 30 minutes from Cortona. The closest little village is Lisciano Niccone, which we’re a mile or two from (our house is a bit rural).

The best pizza place in the world, Nestor’s Pizza, is about 20 or 30 minutes away, and you can read a bit about it on this blog (which is a blog by an English guy living right in the area we’ll be in—he even self-published a book of hikes in the area, a book we now own). I’ve also written more about the Morra valley and general area (on my booze-ier blog Spiked Punch), though we won’t be in San Leo Bastia (the village I mention), but a bit south.

As far as what we’ll be doing: well, spending a lot of time at Nestor’s. And the other various restaurants in the area. The market in Umbertide (mentioned in the Spiked Punch blog post I referenced above) is on Wednesdays, so we’ll be there for that every week (and will post about it here). The retro flea market is in Citta di Castello on the third Sunday of the month, so we’ll do that then (and post about it here). I suppose drinking Aperol, reading, and relaxing will fill in the time outside of those moments.

Also, the dogs will learn how to hunt truffles (in my mind) and boars (in theirs). And I’ll let you know how it goes. So, come back and see how our adventure progresses (and read some Italian poems, and get some Italian recipes, along the way).