on the road again...

We are on a train going from Florence to Venice right now (well, at least we are writing it on the train – we don’t have internet access here, so we will have to wait to post this until we get to Venice).

This means that the Tuscany portion of our trip is finished, and I have to say that we are a little sad about that. Tuscany was the main reason that Leah chose to come to Italy in the first place, and it definitely lived up to all of our expectations (although I have to admit that our minds are not the only things that expanded in our time in Tuscany – I am sure our waistlines did the same).

As we mentioned earlier, we hit San Gimignano (known for its medieval towers, used to protect the aristocracy from attackers), Volterra, and Siena. We kind of ran out of time in Siena, as we visited late on a Sunday afternoon, and many things were closing. We did see plenty there, however/ Maybe the most impressive was the main square in town, where the city hall was the center (as opposed to most towns, where the church is in the center), and twice a year, they convert it into a track for horse racing. One rider from each of 10 (or12) neighborhoods in Siena rides for the pride of their area and bragging rights until the next race. They fit 15,000 spectators both inside of the “track” and in the balconies, and then bring in sand to line the actual racing portion of the track – quite a production, from what I understand.

Yesterday was our main wine tasting/buying day. We hit the towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano (both known for specific types of Italian wine), and then finished in Cortona (that of the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”, and Leah’s one must-see town in Tuscany).
Montalcino is famous for their Brunello di Montalcino wine, and we were able to taste several different versions of the wine. Lucky for us, there was a lady from Denmark, who had been an exchange student in Wyoming (of all places – sorry, Jeanne) that helped us at the Enotecha (wine shop). She was extremely knowledgeable and was actually able to help us a great deal because she spoke such fluent English. Unfortunately, the Brunello is a fairly expensive wine (and shipping rates are fairly ridiculous), so we weren’t abel to get as much as either she or I would have liked, but we did come out of there with some, and we are very much looking forward to receiving it in a few weeks.

Next was Montepulciano, which is famous for their Nobile di Montepulciano. These towns are maybe only 15-20 miles aparts from each other, but they are associated with specific wine regions that produce fairly different (or at least fairly different, considering their proximity) types of wine from the same grape. We got there about the time that everything was closing for lunch, so we sat down in the main square and had some lunch ourselves. It is a little strange getting used to everything closing for an hour or so in the middle of the day. After things opened up again, we went to the oldest wine procuder in town (Contucci), and received a tour from a man names Andamo, who must have been very passionate about his wine. He treated every visitor like they were both his first and last all rolled up into one, and did so with a great exuberance. It is people like him that make traveling to different places very gratifying. This wine was quite a bit cheaper, and that is a good thing, since Leah liked it A LOT, so we got a few bottles and are looking forward to receiving it in the mail as well.

Cortona was a little bit different in that we really didn’t go for the wine, but instead to just “soak it all in” (Leah’s favorite activity here in Tuscany). It is also a little different from all of the other towns in that it was extremely hilly. Everything in town seems to emanate either up or down from one flat street that runs through the middle of town. It was very picturesque (which I am sure played a role in the decision to film the movie here), and provides a breathtaking view from the top of the hill where it sits. It may be my imagination, but it seemed like there were more than the normal amount of female tourists looking to live out their own version of “Under the Tuscan Sun”, but I can definitely say that I can now see why they would pick such a place to do so.

After all of that driving around, we actually made it back to the winery, where we stayed for our three nights in the Tuscan countryside, before sunset, so we decided to share a bottle of their wine out on the terrace facing the west. It was yet another surreal moment in a trip that has provided many so far. After the sun had set, we left for dinner at the winery’s own restaurant (If you are still reading, and would like to hear more about the meal, please read on. Otherwise, ciao! We will post again soon from Venice)

The lady in charge of the Agritourismo (basically a B&B on a farm or winery) where we stayed was great, and dinner this night was a perfect example. I guess the restaurant at the winery is open for either lunch or dinner, but not both (as it is in a fairly remote area, and there can’t be much clientele for a restaurant as fancy as this). Anyway, they had a large group earlier in the day for lunch and had planned to close for dinner, as is normal. Well, instead, Coralia (the lady who worked with us) asked them to stay since we had at one time expressed an interest in eating at the restaurant, and this would be our last night with them. They graciously complied, so when we walked in that night, we had this beautiful restaurant all to ourselves. The only other people there were the chef in the back, and the waiter/chef that waited on us. I wish we would have taken a picture so we could show you how nice this was.

Seated in what was now our own private restaurant, the waiter started us off with some sparkling wine before telling us our menu options. After we ordered, he then brought us a bottle of their ’95 riserva chianti classico to have with our meal. The first course consisted of zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta cheese, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with a small amount of pesto. When we ordered, I thought that this meant they would cut some zucchini up into the shape of a flower, and then stuff that, but it turns out that they actually harvested the flowers from a zucchini plant and used those. It sounds a little strange, but it was very good. That course was followed by a pecorino cheese tortellini with eggplant. The pasta was stuffed with the pecorino (as you would expect), and then placed on top of an eggplant & garlic puree (for lack of a better term) and then garnished with fried eggplant slices. I think this was our favorite dish of the night (maybe of the trip) – even though I am not usually a big fan of eggplant, this was great. The third course was a spaghetti-type pasta with a sweet pepper red sauce and venison. They followed this with the main course – roasted pigeon with a twice-baked gold potato. Again, ordering pigeon sounded a little strange to us, but we thought we would give it a try and it was definitely worth it. The flavor was great, and the meat was very tender. Lastly, they brought dessert out to us. Leah had a lavender-mint mousse with strawberries and I had an Italian version of flan – both were very good. The whole experience was just amazing – we definitely felt spoiled at the end of the night.

That is it for now. Hopefully we will be able to post again soon with great stories of Venice.

Kris & Leah