All good things come to an end, and I end up carrying those good things.

After our yummy lunch at Il Leccio, we still had two more appointments. (If you want to see a map of the Montalcino area with all of the wineries listed, click here. Unfortunately, only the numbers of the wineries are listed. This site gives you the legend.)

To get to our next appointment at San Filippo from where we had lunch, we had to drive back through Castelnuovo dell’Abate. By the road, there is this great big church.

We had some time, so we decided to check it out. Is part of an monastery called Abbazia di Sant’Antimo. The church is very old, from the 12th century. The interior was very plain but beautiful nonetheless.

Of all of the church type places we’ve visited, this one to me had the best “feeling” about it. It was very calm and relaxing. As you can see, there were some other visitors there, but it didn’t have the touristy vibe. It is still used for regular church services, and the monks go and pray there seven times a day. We only saw the monks in the distance, hiking. (Nuns like flowers, monks like to hike.)

The holy water holders at the door of the church were the coolest of all of the churches we have been to.

I don’t think they are the original design, but as things have started to fall down around the church, they started to make do and recycle.

The church as it stands now dates from the 12th century, but the original monastery on the site was built in 770 (!!!). It was used as a shelter and waystation for pilgrims and merchants traveling in the area.

We probably could have stayed there another hour or so, poking around and hiking in the area. But grapes beckoned!! As we left, there was time for one last photo:

I have to imagine that except for the telephone and electric poles in front, the area isn’t that much different than it was a couple of hundred years ago!

Our next appointment was at San Filippo. Tony at the wine shop recommended that we stop here. The owner, Roberto, is a good friend of his and Tony just loves his wine. Let’s just say that the Montalcino winemakes need to invest in some new names. On our way to San Filippo (179 on the map), we pass another place called Fanti San Filippo. When we were at Collosorbo that morning, she asked if we were going to visit any other places. We told her that yes, we were going to San Filippo. “Oh Fanti San Filippo! They make fabulous wine.” Fanti? What is this Fanti? But we put it out of our minds.

It came back to haunt us as we were rushing to get to San Filippo as we pass Fanti San Filippo. San Filippo - Fanti San Filippo. Sounds like the same place to me. Yeah, the map did say that San Filippo was no where near this place, but Fanti San Filippo sounds like the same place. Maybe we just didn’t hear Tony right. Of course we had to stop and ask if we had an appointment (no). So back in the car and speeding on our way to San Filippo. We were only a few minutes late!

No pictures at San Filippo though. Kind of a small place and Roberto was the one showing us around. I didn’t want to take up too much of his time snapping pictures right and left.

Very good, we bought a few bottles. (No surprise there, really.)

Our last appointment was at Tenuta Silvio Nardi, a very famous winery in Montacino. If you’re looking at that map, Silvio Nardi is 81. The one WAY up in the Northwest corner. Those dashed lines, they are all dirt roads. And not nice flat dirt roads, but uppy-downy roads with 48% grades and no shoulder and drop offs. I did not enjoy the trip out there. Or the trip back for that matter.

Our guide there was a german man. He’s been living in Italy for quite a while and working at Silvio Nardi forever. This was one of the best visits we had. He knew everything about the winery and the terroir and the history of the area. We monopolized him for 2 hours, walking through the winery, the vineyard, tasting.

The carving on the barrel the Silvio Nardi crest.

We also met the cellar master as we were touring. He was very nice and walked with us on part of the tour. I thought he was just hanging out, helping with the tour, but realized that he was waiting for us to leave so he could lock the doors. He he.

We finally got back to the tasting room, but because it was late, our host had to go around and unlock the doors. Jim found a hole:

I think it is the old cistern. There was water and leaves down in the bottom of it. When we got inside, they had us set up in the dining room. We had cheese and bread and olive oil and tasted and chatted for quite awhile.

We finally realized the time and left at about 6:45PM. We wanted to get some wine, but by then the cashier had already left. There was a fee to taste there, and thankfully we had the cash on us to pay for that! They were very gracious and ended up giving us a bottle of wine. He said it was because our fee was for a bottle of wine to taste but because we tasted out of the bottles that he opened for the group before us, we could take the bottle that we didn’t open.

We left and were about 10 minutes away from the winery when Jim asked “Do you have the camera?” DOH!! So back we went to the winery, thankfully he was still there cleaning up and retrieved the camera. On our way out the second time, we saw some deer, but they were too fast and so we couldn’t get a picture in time.

Montalcino was a little slower moving and so I had Jim stop so I could take some pictures. You can see the whole town in the first shot.

And then a close-up of the fortress.

And so we came to the end of our wine tasting experience in Montalcino. We did taste at one other place on our way out, Casanova di Neri, but the wine wasn’t impressive at all. Jim thinks the bottles were bad but I’m not sure. All four bottles that were open being bad? Sounds like a long shot to me!

We had a great time and learned a lot about the wine from that area. Everyone was very friendly and the pace was laid back and relaxing. Our advice if you decide to visit?

• Make sure you have a good map.
• Driving on the sidewalks is OK.
• Make appointments in advance at the places you want to visit. I’m not sure that it’s the type of place that you just walk into.
• If there is a fee to taste and it is more than 10-15 euro per person, it’s too high. Go someplace else. You can learn all the same information for a lot less money.
• If there isn’t a fee to taste, think about buying at least one bottle. You can buy a box from MailBoxes Etc. for 20 euro. They’ll pack up your wine and you can check it through with your luggage. The customs tax is only $1.50/gallon on wine, but make sure you declare it!
• But don’t bring back stuff that you can buy in the states. Check to see if the wineries distribute in the US. You can get it cheaper and without too much hassle when you are home.

But with all of that tasting and wine buying, someone had to carry it home:

Still not tired of wine…

Day 3 in the Montalcino area and no signs of getting tired of wine. Must try some more…

After a day in Montepulciano, Jim wanted to spend some time tasting in the Montalcino area. It is the home of the world famous wine, Brunello di Montalcino. If you’re a wine lover, you might have heard some of the controversy surrounding the Brunellos lately. By Italian law, Brunellos are supposed to be made from 100% sangiovese. However, one of the magistrates in Siena is claiming that some of the producers have been blending in other grapes to increase the quality of the wine. It’s been a big mess and the US is even talking about blocking imports of the 2003 vintage. (”We can’t protect the American consumer it if we don’t know what is in it” is their argument. GIVE ME A BREAK.) The details are nasty and sordid, but hopefully it will all be worked out soon.

We didn’t let this stand our way of trying some GREAT wine. We visited three wineries and had an amazing time at each one. The morning was spend at Tenuta di Collosorbo. This was a lot of fun. It started out a little rocky, as there are three signs to get to their estate. We turned in at the first one and announced to the gentlemen standing there that we had an appointment to taste wine. Well, that was news to them! Come to find out, we were at the wrong place. Oops! Once we figured out the mistake, they were very gracious and pointed us in the right direction. Of course, we weren’t smart enough to figure out which building and took a nice hike through their gardens before finally finding the office.

We had worked up a mighty thirst at this point, but couldn’t resist a peek in their cellars when offered. They also use old Etruscan caves for some of the aging of their wines.

These were proper Etruscan caves!! Our guide (I’m really bad at names. Can’t remember her name either.) said that there miles of tunnels down there. Some of them they hadn’t even explored and didn’t know where they went. Break out the mining hats, we’re going exploring!!

This was the best aging area that we visited. It was just what an Italian winery was supposed to be! Of course, they had other areas that were larger and more modern, but this was the best place. The walls were wet and covered in moss and mold. I know because when I was following Jim to get the first picture I smacked my head into the ceiling. I was pulling nasty crap out of my hair for the next 20 minutes. Not fun. I really needed a drink after that!

They had some beautiful wines. We bought a couple of bottles; one 2003 Brunello and one of their Terrarosa table wine. I had the Terrarosa with dinner for the past couple of nights. It was beautiful for a table wine. Sorry husband, but you said that I could drink it while you were gone!!

We were going to head back to Montalcino for some lunch before our next appointment, but she recommended a restaurant, Trattoria il Leccio, in the nearby town of Sant’Angelo in Colle. It was out of the way, but she raved about the food and so we decided to take the time and check it out. Sant’Angelo in Colle is this little farming town, with maybe 200 people living there. It is completely off the beaten track with nothing obvious to draw you there.

Of course, Jim and I loved it.

It is on the top of a hill (not a mountain like the M-towns) and surrounded by a wall. We parked below the city walls and walked in. It was quiet and sleepy and hardly anyone there. Except for a couple with a dog that kept staring at us. It was creeping me out.

Can you see the ceiling in the tunnel? (What is it with me and ceilings? It’s starting to scare me a little bit.) We were wondering if it was the original timbers or how many times they’ve had to be replaced.

For some reason, this parking job just cracks me up. He is totally wedged up against the curb in front of the car. When I first glanced at it, I thought he was hanging off the sidewalk or something!

A lot of the towns that we visited had flower boxes in the windows. They were so colorful with the geraniums and petunias in full bloom.

As we were walking around before lunch, we did find a place that rented rooms for holidays. It wasn’t a hotel or bed and breakfast really, the town isn’t quite big enough for that. The local doctor’s office is only open four days a week and only half days. Note to self, don’t get sick in Sant’Angelo in Colle. There’s only a 30% chance that a doctor will be in town.

Lunch was amazing. I was amazed that such good food could be found in this little town so far off the beaten track. Originally, they wanted to send us to another restaurant that was supposed to be better, but it was closed on Tuesdays. Go figure. I was not at all disappointed by what we had at Il Leccio though. I highly recommend it if you are tasting in the area.

The human visitors weren’t the only ones waiting for lunch.

As we were leaving, this kitty was hanging around the kitchen door. She kept poking her head through the curtains and looking around. It was obvious that she was accustomed to getting some lunch too!

After lunch, we had to head to our next appointment. Of course, it was driving across these dusty, gravel roads. I made Jim stop for random pictures.

Have you ever seen new vines grafted on to old rootstock? Me neither. I know why they do it in the states (phyloxera) but I’m not sure about why they do it in Europe.

Time for some baby pictures!!

Baby Olives.

Baby wine.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts the road signs in Italy and not being able to figure out what they meant. Here are some more examples:

OK, I got the bottom one. Watch our for flower munching, pooping creatures that can total your car. Got it. But what is the top one? Warning, road may crumble as you are driving? Shouldn’t they fix that before someone gets hurt? And how about these:

Exploding rocks? Exploding tires?

I’m not even going to guess what the bottom one means.

A little cheese anyone?

The whole point of our trip was wine tasting, wasn’t it? Well, on to the wineries! It was hot in Montepulciano and we had no wine!

Jim made appointments at two different places for us to taste. As we visited the different wineries, it wasn’t clear to me that they had tasting rooms like we are used to. You know, drive around Napa or Santa Barbara or wherever and just stop in for a taste. Except for the open house on Sunday, the places that we visited didn’t have anyone else there touring. They were pretty far off the beaten path, down a dirt road, past the third post on the left. I’m glad that husband likes to do his wine research before we go anywhere or else we would have been sorely disappointed.

The first place that we went to was Tenuta Valdipiatta. They were very nice. Sara was the lady that took us on the tour. She spend quite a lot of time with us, talking about the regulations and planting restrictions. A lot of the wineries have barrel rooms that are in old Etruscan caves. Valdipiatta had some original caves and then another area that they had expanded into. It was so nice to be in the cool after the hot sun!

This is the old part of the cave that they keep the wine in while aging. Speaking of Etruscan caves, did you know that that is where the word Tuscany comes from? Etruscan, Tuscan… I felt kind of stupid when she pointed it out.

It was a nice tour, and the wine was really good. We got several bottle of a white wine that was only 5.50 euro. I would have thought the wine would be much more expensive. But in the grand scheme of thing, we kind of felt scammed. She did let Jim know that there was a charge and she did give us a small discount on it, but it was EXPENSIVE. Thankfully, only one other place charged for the tasting and tour. But it was half of what they charged at Valdipiatta. So while I enjoyed the wine and the tour, I wouldn’t recommend one of the longer tours there. You can get the same information for free at the other places.

We next went to Poliziano (I can’t find their website…). I can not remember our guide’s name of me for the life of me but she was very sweet. And young. I don’t know that she would have been legal to drink in the US. (I’m getting so old that I am noticing this.) She was very knowledgeable though. There was another couple with us who had been touring around Tuscany. Very nice and lots of fun.

Poliziano is like the Mondavi of Tuscany. Well, maybe not that big, but they are large. They get really good ratings on their wine and it is something that we can get consistently in the states, which is important.

First stop on all of the tours is a quick look-see of the vineyards. You can see the town of Montepulciano on the hill in the background.

Poliziano had more modern aging facilities than the rest of the places that we visited. They didn’t have the luxury of Etruscan caves and so built temperature and humidity regulated basements. You can see the moisture in the air!

I think she said that the humidity was kept over 95%. I’m surprised my hair didn’t curl into ringlets after a few minutes in that room!

By law, the better Montepulciano wines are required to be bottled aged. How long depends on the type of wine.

Poliziano had these bins just sitting around with bottles of wine, growing older day by day. I counted 23 columns, with three bins stacked. Maybe 24 cases of wine in each one… That’s a lot of wine!! They’ll never miss one or two…. Kidding.

Because of driving and we weren’t sure about the craziness of the Italian drivers, we kept it to just those two wineries. Jim had a plan that we would drive back and have dinner in Pienza. It is a little town almost half way between Montepulciano and Montalcino (here we go again). I was slightly nervous about this because I wasn’t too sure about driving in the dark.

The roads are posted, especially when you get to an intersection. But the signs usually sneak up on you. We sat at intersections for awhile trying to decipher which way to go. I wasn’t thrilled about doing this in the dark and I didn’t have a map of Pienza (you let me down Rick), but darn it, we had a plan!

Pienza was the hometown of Pope Pius II. Actually, Corsignano was his hometown, but when Aeneas Piccolomini (from the library in Siena) was made Pope, he went back to visit. You know, show up all the bullies and everything. “I’m the Pope. I’m sorry, what did you say you are doing these days?”

Anyway, long story short, he went home, was saddened by the decay of the city and had it rebuilt. In about three years. And then renamed it after himself. He wanted it to be an “ideal Renaissance town”. The UN agreed with him (about 550 years later) and named it a World Heritage Site. It is a pretty little town.

One of the gates leading into the city. I bought a guide book from the TI just to the right (you can’t see it in the picture). The lady wasn’t there, so I just left the money on the register. I hope she eventually figured out where the money came from. There was some else waiting for her so I hope they explained it.

Pienza is the center of pecorino cheese country.

All of those hockey puck things are different types of pecorino.

We wandered around the town for awhile because we got there at about 5:30PM. We couldn’t have dinner because that is WAY too early in Italy. I don’t think any of the restaurants were even open yet.

So we walked around and just looked.

Not quite a hill town, but it still had some pretty impressive drop offs on the one side. I guess Pope Pius II decided that “ideal Renaissance towns” didn’t have steep roads. For that, I am grateful.

Someone had a sense of humor when naming the streets. The road in the back (the sign is covered with ivy), is Via della Fortuna, you can see Via dell’Amore in front of us, and behind us is Via del Bacio. First is luck, then love, then the kiss! I tried to get a picture of a kiss under the Via del Bacio sign, but the tripod wasn’t working.

Finally dinner at Latte di Luna. Rick, my friend, you steered us wrong on this one. It was lively with good food, but we got lost in the shuffle. The restaurant had several waitresses, and all of them came by our table at some point to drop something off during the course of the dinner. What of course that meant is that no one was taking care of us. Not that I needed to be taken care of, but we couldn’t get anyone’s attention either. So no cheese course or coffee for me at the end of the meal! Oh well, you win some and lose some.

Thankfully the meals the next day made up for dinner. Stay tuned…

Montepulciano

Day 2 of our wine tasting adventure was spent in Montepulciano. But first, we had to wake up. To the sounds of rocks being dropped. It is a law of Italy that construction follows us where ever we go. But we had a gorgeous view. We stayed at the Il Giglio, a nice little hotel in the town of Montalcino. They’ve gotten a lot of press recently in Wine Spectator and in Rick Steves’. Rick-y boy didn’t like the hotel that much, but there aren’t a lot of options. We thought it was nice. The owners were wonderful (and speak English) and we had the only room with a balcony! Of course, it was at the expense of room in the actual room, but who really spends that much time in the hotel room anyway?

I digress.

The views from the balcony were very nice. We had a good view of the side of the town and the hillside beyond:

Again, it was very hazy. I finally understand the term “Tuscan Hill Towns”. These places are steep!! You can see the slope of the hillside and how hard it must be to get up to the houses. You might be able to see some of the old wall, but I’m not sure.

There were TONS of sparrows flying around every morning, making a ton of racket too.

All those little black dots in the sky are the sparrows. Or maybe dirt on my screen. I can’t tell. But you can see one bird! Imagine about a billion more whizzing around.

The balcony had some nice planters and a pretty place to sit. There was a big ol’ planter filled with hen and chicks. One tried to escape, but only made it as far as the gutter.

Well, you can’t spend all day sitting on the balcony reading in Tuscany. You have to get out and taste wine! Jim had done his homework and decided that we would spend one day in Montepulciano and one day in Montalcino. The first day was Montepulciano.

Montepulciano is about an hours drive east of Montalcino. We decided the spend the morning in the town on Montepulciano and then the afternoon wine tasting. There is some sort of growing boundary that you pass through going from Montalcino to Montepulciano (Can you keep the two towns straight? I barely can.). I don’t know what it was, but poor husband was allergic to it. We weren’t in Montepulciano for 10 minutes before his allergies started driving him mad.

Montepulciano is the hilliest of the hill towns, in my opinion. But it is very pretty and quaint. I would say there were more tourists here than in Montalcino, but there really weren’t that many.

This was the last bit of shade we saw that day. It was bright and sunny and HOT. Well, hot for Italy in May. It was in the mid to upper 80s pretty much the entire time we visited. The winemakers said that it was more like summer time weather.

Walking under the city gates, I saw a sign that just begged me to go and look:

SECRET PASSAGE!! Almost as good as a hole to look in. It was disappointing though, because the passage was barred off. Actually it just led to a wine shop, which is a pretty good way to get people into the store, if you ask me!

The store advertised that they had some Etruscan tombs in the basement and we had to go and check them out.

Funny, I didn’t think the Etruscans knew how to bottle wine in glass.

Lots of little wine shops, some touristy places and lots of heat. We made our way up (and up and up) to the south part of town, climbing Mount Everest to get there. My calves got a workout that day. I was wearing strappy sandals and thought I was going to die.

The Medici spent a lot of time in Montepulciano. I wonder if they ever woke up and didn’t know where they were?

Because when you look at the main square in town, the city hall looks JUST like the one in Florence. I guess if something works…

The church in Montepulciano didn’t get it’s facelift. The front is missing the facade. So if you’ve ever wondered what those churches looked like before they went all “white and green marble” on it, here’s your chance:

The stripe on the church are ridges sticking out where the marble facades were supposed to be attached. Call me tacky, but I kind of like the big white fronts.

The Contucci family had a big palazzo on that square. In the basement, they still make wine. The cellars are open for you to tour and look around. It was a blessed blast of cool air but this was where Jim’s allergies really started going wild. I tried telling him that maybe he was allergic to wine, but he only had this to say:

A little later, I think all of the Actifed was getting to him, because he just stood there:

Measuring to see if perhaps one would fit in the door of the house? Sorry honey, I think they would exceed the weight allowance…

K, that’s enough for now. I gotta eat. I’ll finish up Montepulciano tomorrow!

Rounding up Siena pics

**Before I finish up the pictures from Siena, I need to make a clarification. Jim was the one that thought that the illuminated manuscript looked like the guy was flying a Jesus Kite. I apologise if you thought that I was the sacreligious one, that’s Jim. (BTW - if you google “Jesus Kite”, you get 347 hits. My blog isn’t even in the top 5)**

As part of the Museo dell’Opera in Siena, you could climb to the top of… some building. I’m really not sure where we were actually. Somewhere near the church because you climb out on top of the wall to nowhere:

Not to the very tippy top, but to the top archway. I’m all bummed because no one was down below while I was up top to take my picture. I met some really nice British people out there and their friends happened to walk by on the street at the same time they were up there. They got their picture taken! It doesn’t seem like you would be all that high up from that view. But if you look down the other side of the wall, it is pretty stinkin’ high.

We did get some great shots of the city up there. Amanda voguing in front of the Torre de Mangia:

The Torre de Mangia is the tower on the Campo (main square).

Jim in front of the beautiful countryside.

Me starting to get really nervous being that high:

It was really scary up there! You can’t tell, but the walkway is very narrow; only about 1.5 meters or so. The railings aren’t the high up and I would swear that I could feel the tower starting to sway. I’m holding on to the railing that lead to the stairway down. That was a trip too. It was a tiny little narrow spiral staircase. On the outside of the stairs, the risers were about 6 inches wide and on the inside of the spiral, I would say that they were about 2 or 3 inches. (Don’t you love how I am switching between metric and inches?) If you met someone coming the opposite way, someone had to stop and hug the walls. There was no concept of personal space in that stairwell.

**Note added later - Jim informs me that we were actually at the very top of that damn wall. I think I must have blocked that part out. Apparently there were TWO spiral staircases. I really don’t remember the second one…**

I quickly went down the stairs (which weren’t scary because I was surrounded by 6 inch thick stone walls) while Jim and Amanda took in the sights.

The rest of the museum was pretty typical; except for the relic room. They had some of the fanciest reliquaries that I have seen in Italy. They had the entire skeleton of some holy woman in a gilded box. It had glass sides and was arranged in a compact, decorative manner. It had gold bows and lace to pretty it up. It was odd, but strangely compelling.

As part of the “My Name is Duccio” combo ticket, we got into the baptistry too. It was a baptistry:

Fancy painted ceilings, big dunking pond in the middle. What I did think was funny was the collection box:

Of course, so a**holes thought it would be funny to drop their trash in there, but there is a pretty wide range of money in there. Did the American tourists just get tired of carrying the extra dollars around so they decided to drop them in there? There were Pounds in there too. Do you think that the church gets a good exchange rate from the bank?

Lunch was a small place just off the Campo recommended by my friend Rick (Steves). Very small, only room for about 25 people. There was no menu. Just the owner. He came by the table and rattled off the specials of the day. Had to listen quick because there was no going back. Jim mentioned that he wanted the mixed tagliatelle with the bolognese sauce. The owner said “per alle” and walked away. Good thing that neither Amanda nor I are vegetarians.

The food was very good. Everything was made in-house. We had a great view of the kitchen. The chef (I can’t remember her name …) was a busy woman! We all thought that the owner looked like a friend named Harry Gray. Amanda and I thought it was so funny and made Jim pose with the owner as we were paying:

If you know Harry, what do you think?

Every year on the Campo in Siena, there is a huge horse race. The different neighborhoods in Siena compete for bragging rights during the next year. They were starting to lay down the dirt around the outside of the Campo for the horse race (which isn’t until July or August - there are two dates listed and I can’t tell the difference) and I wanted a picture of Jim and Amanda.

I love this picture! Amanda riding her horse, Jim’s expression and the looks that the two guys to the left are giving Amanda. Priceless!!

No trip would be complete without a trip to the wine tasting place in town. One of the biggest in Siena is in the fortress. We hiked over there and tasted some wine. From the description in the book, it seemed like it would be a lot more exciting. No. They had three levels you could taste from and the same five or six varietals in each level. Amanda got a sample from a bottle that was corked. Ewww… We got her another taste.

Downstairs, they had a wine exhibition. Jim was all excited and could hardly wait for us to go down:

It turned out to be a dud. It was just a display of wine and grappa bottles from around Italy. It was roughly arranged in geographical order but there was no information about what was going on. Boring!

But I did see some interesting things. Do you notice anything different between the bottles? Besides labels of course!!

That’s right. One bottle is empty. Which do you think is the more expensive bottle? (Answers at the end of the post because I can’t find out how to type upside down.)

Well, with all of that fun, it was time to go home. We were lucky it hadn’t rained on us all day until we were waiting for the bus. We were the first ones on the bus and so were in the front seat home. Amanda got a great experience with the Italian bus drivers. SCARY!!

But there was another great sign that we were not in America any more. There was a very cute girl in the car in front of the bus. She was having a great time playing with the bus driver and watching us. I would guess about 6 years old? (Remember, my kids have tails so I am really bad at estimating age.) She wasn’t sure about having her picture taken though and squirmed up to the front seat right after this photo.

That’s right, no car seat! Maybe she’s old enough that she doesn’t need one but I don’t think so.

Coming soon - pictures from Montalcino!!

(The more expensive bottle is the Tignanello, the EMPTY one on the right.)