NB. I am including a small sample of pics in the post below. Please visit our website "The Smallzone" to view the complete set of Tuscany/Cinque Terre pics, as well as pics from other trips we've taken in the past.
We’re back from 5 days of glorious Italian food, wine and sunshine.
Day 1 - Ryanair morning, Black rooster* afternoon
Taxi pick up at 3:15 a.m. (and the bastard came 5 minutes early!) Grumble. 10 minute taxi ride to Victoria Coach station to catch a 1 hour 15min bus to London Stansted Airport (a big fat lie as it can in no way be called London!). Arrive at Stansted before 5 a.m, and once again it amazes me how many other crazy people out there are willing to take a 6 a.m. flight…the airport is packed with way-too-cheery-for-5-am-people. Grumble. We are leisurely getting a Starbucks coffee when our flight status suddenly changes from “Please Wait” (no, not “Go to Gate”) to “Final Call”!!! It’s then a mad dash to the gate which feels like a mile away, a full grande coffee goes smashing to the ground, not-so-young people (us included) with suitcases are running up and down stairs, down long halls. We get to the gate and boarding has not yet started. Ryanair bastards. One of these days someone will have a heart attack or seriously injure themselves. Good morning to you too. We get on the plane and promptly fall asleep. When we awake we are in sunny Italy (Pisa to be exact) and the morning seems like a distant nightmare.
After a minor rental car blip (long lines, and for some reason we are quoted 450 euros instead of the 130 we got quoted when making the reservation), we are on our way – seeing what a Fiat Panda is made of as we pummel down the Fl-PI-LI highway on our way to the Chianti region. First stop is Castello Vicchiomaggio, a winery with a restaurant which unfortunately cannot serve us as they are busy entertaining a big bus load of tourists. Down to their wine shop we go for our first taste of Chianti Classico in Chianti, this is probably not the best idea on empty stomachs.
Back into the car in search of lunch. Two to three km later we run into Greve, one of the famous Chianti towns. We duck into one of the restaurants in their main square and proceed to enjoy one of the best meals on the trip. Bellisimo. Nothing better than a plate of perfect pasta (parpardelle with wild boar ragout for me, pasta with tomato and pecorino cheese for Ed), and some fabulous house Chianti. Yummy. Unfortunately we cannot linger though as we have our first winery appointment at 14:30.
A short 10 minute drive from Greve, we arrive at Fattoria Casaloste in Panzano, a small 17 ha. organic vineyard run by Giovanni and Emilia. Emilia shows us around. They are originally from Naples, but Giovanni’s life dream was to own a vineyard so they moved to Tuscany around 15 years ago, found a dilapidated farmhouse with a vineyard, spent 4 years fixing it up and working on their first vintage. Fast forward to today, and they now make some of the finest Chianti’s in the region, and continue to make their wines with strong personal commitment and care. It’s a family-run business with Giovanni in charge of making the wine, and Emilia doing everything else i.e. marketing, finances, winery visits in addition to taking care of the family.
Our next stop is Felsina, in Castelnuovo Berardenga. Felsina is on a completely different scale to Casaloste. The winery boasts over 300 ha of vineyards, and a stunning cellar to match. Felsina is famous for it’s commitment to producing 100% Sangiovese Chianti’s. Aside from the wine tasting, we also get a chance to sample their special olive oil line, where the same care and attention, as well as focus in single varietals goes into making the oils, and the varieties all have distinctly different flavours.
We then head to Casalore Il Libbiano, our Bed and Breakfast on the outskirts of San Gimignano. We are warmly greeted by Andrea (the proprietor), and manage to take a quick dip in the pool and admire the B&B gardens before scrumptious dinner, then a good night’s rest. It’s been a long, but fruitful day.
Some pics from Day 1 (L-R): Parparedelle pasta, Fattoria Casaloste Winery, Felsina
Haul for the day: 6 bottles red wine
*A note on the black rooster, which is the symbol of the Chianti Classico region: Legend has it that the feuding towns of Florence and Siena agreed to settle their border disputes by each setting off from their respective towns, a representative on horseback. The border would be set wherever the 2 representatives eventually met. The night before, Siennese threw a big celebration, and all ate and drank including the town’s rooster (a white rooster). The Florentines on the other hand, went to bed early, and did not feed their town rooster (a black rooster). Early the next morning, the black rooster was no longer able to take the hunger pangs and begins his crowing early. Florence’s rider therefore sets off earlier, and thus the Florence region (incl. Chianti Classico) is bigger.
Day 2 – Tuscan towns, Brunello di Montalcino
Breakfast at 8:30 and then we’re off to visit 2 Tuscan towns. The first stop in San Gimignano, with it’s distinctive skyline of towers. We climb the tallest and enjoy some great views of Tuscan countryside. Tuscany is incredibly beautiful, filled with rolling hills lined with rows of olives trees, grape vines, and of course the distinctive cypress trees. Many of the Tuscan towns are perched on hilltops.
Our next stop is Siena, one of the major Tuscan towns and forever rival to Florence (they have a long rich history of fighting) to stroll through her medieval alleyways, see the famous Piazza del Campo and her beautiful Duomo. We stop at a restaurant in one of the alleyways for a plate each of Pici, a pasta specialty of the region. Pici is essentially short, fat, spaghetti – absolutely delicious in a simple tomato sauce and a generous dousing of grated Tuscan pecorino cheese. Accompanied of course with a pichet of Chianti vino rosso. Yummmm.
Refueled and ready to go, we head south to Montalcino, home of Brunello di Montalcino, for our only winery visit of the day. Altesino is a well respected producer of Brunello di Montalcino. On arrival we are greeted by 2 big German Shephards (one of which saunters over and takes the time to “mark” our car), and 2 young American ladies manning the office on a lazy Sunday and in charge of giving the wine tours. Brunello di Montalcino has DOCG designation, just as Chianti Classico does. Both DOCGs require a predominance of the same grape i.e. the Sangiovese, however Brunello’s are famous around the world for being meatier, richer wines - the kind you hide away and forget about for a couple of years, as they become better with age. We splurge on a 2001 Riserva which we’ll hide away in the cupboard.
Next and final stop for the day is the hilltop town of Montalcino. At the pinnacle is a fort which has great views, and also happens to have an Enoteca where we share a 3 wine tasting – 1 Rosso di Montalcino (lighter, younger red wine), 1 Brunello di Montalcino, and 1 Supertuscan. We splurge on a 2001 Supertuscan, another for hiding away in the cupboard.
Some pics from Day 2 (L-R): San Gimignano, Sunflowers, Montalcino Wild Boar
Haul for the day: 3 bottles red wine, 3 packs of pasta
Day 3 – Florence, Ristorante “La Tenda Rossa”
We spend Day 3 taking in the sights of Florence. Florence is like a big open air museum, with works of art all over the place. The Medici family (rulers of Florence for many many years) were great patrons of the arts and supported Renaissance artists such as Boticelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.
No visit to Florence is complete without a visit to the city’s Duomo, and boy what a Duomo it is. It’s massive. We climbed the 483 steps to the top of Brunelleschi’s famous dome for some close up views of the dome’s frescos, and some amazing views of Florence and surrounding country side.
Once back down, a short stroll south takes you to Piazza della Signoria, essentially an outdoor sculpture gallery. Cooly looking over the hordes of tourists is Michelangelo’s David (or at least a replica, the original now sits in the Accademia), Cellini’s bronze statue of Perseus, Giambologna’s almost moving Rape of the Sabine Women, and Ammannati’s Neptune fountain. The Uffizzi (one of Florence’s main museums and a treasure trove of Renaissance art) was unfortunately closed for the day, so we instead took a short stroll to Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s oldest bridge, with a jimble jamble of jewelry shops lining the bridge’s walls.
Once we’d had our fill of Florence sights, we drove down to San Casciano in Val de Pesa to check into Villa I Barronci, another B&B to be closer to Ristorante “La Tenda Rossa”, one of the most famous restaurants in Italy, where we had a reservation for dinner. With the expectation of getting hammered, we had previously arranged for the B&B to drive us to the restaurant and the restaurant to drive us back to the B&B. This arrangement worked out quite well, since as expected, we had more than the recommended daily allowance of alcohol with our meal. We opted for the tasting menu. So we each had :
• A glass of prosseco to accompany our amuse bouche.
• A glass of San Gimignano white accompanied starter 1 (3 preparations of a strange crustacean creature), and starter 2 (fresh spaghetti and seafood in a pesto sauce).
• Another glass of white (not sure what but a “meatier” white) accompanied main course 1 (chicken ravioli with crisp bacon).
• A hearty supertuscan red (and in the case of Ed, 2 glasses) accompanied main course 2 (pigeon).
• Pre-dessert was a scoop of sage sorbet (initially strange but actually very good). A glass of Vin Santo (Italian dessert wine) accompanied the main desert.
All very good food and wine, but when compared to the glorious food and wine orgy at Cordeillan Bages in Bordeaux last year, we were sad to say, a little disappointed, but it was nevertheless a great way to end our 3 days in Tuscany.
Some pics from Day 3 (L-R): Duomo, View of Campagnile from Dome, David
Haul for the day: 1 wild boar salami
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