13. Tables

There was a wide assortment of tables at Il Poggio.


Elisabetta had scrounged and bought old--even antique--serviceable, solid, durable  tables and other furniture in Florence (fifteen miles distant) and in nearby villages so there were unique tables in every guest room, in the broad hallways holding lamps, in the ceramic display room, in the ceramica work rooms--and even a granite topped outdoor table seating about twelve people in the patio formed by the U-shaped main building.


The two most remarkable indoor tables, however, were the main work table in the kitchen and the big round table in the dining room.


The kitchen table had a thick wooden surface and trestle legs. Elisabetta had found it in a defunct monastery and somehow had talked the secular owners out of it. With the table were several heavy benches and chairs so about twelve to fourteen people could comfortably sit around it.


Pick-up snacks and meals were often served on it in the cheerful, homey-feeling kitchen. Guests and Il Poggio workers gathered there at all times for friendly talk and maybe a glass of the ever-present Tuscan Chianti wine.


And Elisabetta was almost always nearby on her stool in the hearth-side corner or at work with the tasks of cooking ON the table--since it was the primary work table of the kitchen--though not the only working surface to say the least. (There were working cabinet-tops and cupboards on every wall.)

The main dining room table was most unusual-- circular with matching chairs for about fourteen people. The center was a Lazy-Susan revolving platform for passing plates and bowls of food around--which was kept in almost constant motion during the convivial luncheons and evening meals. I have never seen another like it.

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