Ciao a tutte from bella Italia
May 15th, 2009, 04:46 AM
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Ciao a tutte from bella Italia
I'm posting from the picnic table in the vineyard in beautiful Montalcino, where our apartment is. Evidently the wi-fi signal doesn't go through the 2 foot stone walls. But this is truly a beautiful place to do my promised email checking for work.
We took this vacation through Untours, since I had no time to research and plan but needed this trip badly. They have proven to be a fantastic outfit. Harriett, our local rep, is wonderful and full of information and tips. She came to Florence her Jr. year of college, met her husband and has been here some 40 years.
I am loving being here. The countryside is just gloriously beautiful and wine comes from the taps.
We took this vacation through Untours, since I had no time to research and plan but needed this trip badly. They have proven to be a fantastic outfit. Harriett, our local rep, is wonderful and full of information and tips. She came to Florence her Jr. year of college, met her husband and has been here some 40 years.
I am loving being here. The countryside is just gloriously beautiful and wine comes from the taps.
May 15th, 2009, 07:08 AM
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Hey Grasshopper, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat's up? I hope you will be doing a live feed from your trip, I'd love to follow along.
I too am a big fan of Untours, they really do a great job of finding the perfect places to stay.
Tell us more...
I too am a big fan of Untours, they really do a great job of finding the perfect places to stay.
Tell us more...
May 17th, 2009, 07:17 AM
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Our flight was the only thing I arranged myself, although UnTours will do that for you as well. Wanting to maximize my time off from work, we flew Monday night at 7 pm.: SFO to London to Frankfurt to Florence, expected to arrive in Florence at 10:25 the Tuesday night. A two plus hour delay in Frankfurt found us arriving, exhausted, at 1:00 am. We taxied to our hotel and Jill immediately fell asleep. I’ve never done well with the whole jet lag, time change thing so I think I might have gotten an hour or two worth of sleep 10 in 10 minute chunks.
We had a choice to meet the UnTours representative, Harriett, at the airport at noon on Wednesday where she was greeting the other people starting their two week Italy vacations, taking them by mini-van to Siena where she helps you pick up your rental car and then caravan to the individual farms or apartments. We opted to pick up our own car in Florence and find our way to our vineyard apartment ourselves.
Picking up the car was easy and we even found driving out of downtown Florence was not so bad as we had feared. Jill is doing the driving on this trip and she’s been great at adjusting to Italian roads, a sluggish stick shift and our relatively powerless Fiat. We rented a GPS system from Avis but after 30 minutes we turned her off. We knew from the detailed directions that UnTours had provided us with that we were to head towards Siena and GPS lady tried to send us in a completely different direction than the road sign said. We went the way of the signs and she kept telling us to find somewhere to turn around. We haven’t turned her on again yet.
In two hours we were in the town of Montalcino! I fear I am not as good a navigator as Jill is a driver so when I discovered the page stapled to the main directions that took us to our apartment, I realized we had overshot our mark. So we backtracked about 5 k and found the dirt road that we turned down to get to our farm. Aside: There are a lot of dirt roads around here, leading to most of the hundred plus individual wineries. Cars are quickly covered in a layer of dust and dirt. Sudden steep hills find you stalling out in first gear and rolling back to get a second start, until you get accustomed to your own routes and know where to speed up and or gear down.
We were greeted at Le Chiuse, our vineyard, by Lorenzo, the son of the owner. He greeted us warmly and showed us to our apartment, La Cappella, which was the old farm’s former chapel. It’s very spacious and has anything we need for our two week stay; living room and kitchen, fireplace, modern tile bathroom and two bedrooms. I have the downstairs bedroom which was originally the main part of the old chapel. A solid double door with two windows leads out of my room to the yard and on either side are holy water fonts!
Le Chiuse has a pool (that is not heated and having recently been filled I doubt we’ll be jumping into it) and lawn areas with picnic tables and patio chairs. Vineyards surround us and beyond them we can see olive orchards. In the 1980s there was a terrible freeze in Tuscany and most of the area’s olive trees seemed to be killed. But in fact the rootballs remained living so while all the trees were taken down to their bases, new trees grew from those rootballs. Olive growers realized that they could force their trees to grow more fruit more quickly by allowing two of the shoots to flourish, rather than one main trunk, so many of the trees in the area have two main trunks and all look rather young.
But Brunello di Montalcino is what the area has really become famous for in recent years. Montalcinese are quite sure that their Brunello is the best wine in Italy. There are over 100 private wineries in the area and many welcome visitors for a tasting, a brief tour, and an opportunity to buy their bottles. The town of Montalcino has countless enotecas and wine shops where one can taste the different Brunellos (and the less expensive but also good Rosso) and purchase wine. The enotecas also have short menus with small plates you can order to compliment your wine tasting.
While we were unpacking, Harriett arrived with our welcome booklet, filled with loads of information about the area and maps and tips for things to do. She invited us to an Orientation the next morning at 10:30 at Restorante La Torre, adjacent to Monte Oliveto Abbey. This would also include lunch at La Torre and then a tour of the Abbey. We also met Le Chiuse’s owner, Simonetta Valiani, and her daughter who were delivering our initial supply of “groceries”; milk, espresso, cheese, eggs, salami, bread, jam, fruit, and other staples to get us started. Our kitchen has a coffee maker, toaster, and all the necessary dishes and cooking needs. Other visitors here have given me tips for where to buy the best produce, bakery goods, and seem to delight in cooking in their apartments. (Personally, I’m looking forward to trying some of the too many ristorante, enotece and trattorias to mention! I can cook at home.)
After Harriett left I finally was able to take a welcome nap on my very comfy bed on my Altar and Jill did the same in her loft upstairs.
We woke hungry and eager to explore so made our way back to Montalcino. The town is a bit of a challenge. The streets are very narrow and you can drive through most of them, you can only park in designated areas, mostly at the edges of the town and in parking lots outside of the walls. Everything is uphill here! In both directions! Of course, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit. Readers of “Vanilla Beans and Brodo” will recognize our first stop at Caffe Fiaschetteria in Piazza del Popolo, Montalcino’s “main” square. I had sipped many an espresso there vicariously while reading Vanilla Beans and was surprised how small it was. But there was the Medici statue, tucked under the dark niche at the end of the piazza, and the bell tower rose above us and chimed the hour while we sit and sipped our first Brunello of the trip, and munched the complementary crustini topped with olive oil. We ran into Harriett who introduced us to two other Untourists from Atlanta who had the apartment on the second floor above the store across from the caffe. Soon we were joined by a second couple, Untourists from Maine. The piazza truly was a place for meeting!
After a couple hours of chatting and drinking, Jill and I excused ourselves and headed on to Bar Grappolo Blu, the ristorante mentioned often in the book, run by Maria Pia. It seemed to be filled with mostly Americans and English was the predominant buzz. We were seated at the two places at the wall end of a table for six. A short time later, a single gentleman was seated at the other end and before long we were talking. Hans is a recently retired Architect from the Netherlands who is pursuing his lifelong dream of walking from Rome to Eindhoven. He told us about his journey and promised to send us his photo journal when he finished.
A bit about food in this southern end of Tuscany: So far we have had four meals and there are clearly some trends. The antipasti is crustini with chicken liver pate mixed with vegetables, or simply crustini (toast) with olive oil drizzled, various salumi, and perhaps some olives. Risotto, pasta and zuppas are heavy and filling. The pici is a local pasta kind of like a very fat spaghetti usually with your choice of a sauce and cinghale (wild boar) or simply with tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. The main entrée choices are heavily meat oriented; wild boar, guinea hen, rabbit, or bistecca. Mixed green salad comes as kind of an after thought to the entrée. And of course all is sopped up with saltless Tuscan bread and washed down with wine. Before this trip I joked with friends that I didn’t know if I could drink 10 glasses of wine a day. I am stunned to see just how close to that I’m getting! If I’m not careful I could marinate my liver on this trip; wine at lunch, wine at dinner, and a glass of wine in the apartment in the evening from the lovely bottle Lorenzo left us on our arrival. But after just four meals there is a certain repetition (we’ve had guinea hen 3 times!) and Jill’s asking, “Where is the pizza?”
Our orientation at La Torre was helpful indeed. Harriett shared many helpful ideas for making the most of our two weeks here. She gave us the essentials of driving in Italy, shared, important information about doctors, hours to shop, best eating spots and good ideas for trips afield. We met other Untourists and then enjoyed a long leisurely lunch in the terrace restaurant. Following lunch we meandered down to the Abbey where we were met by a young guide from Siena who took us on a detailed and interesting tour of the Abbey.
Last night we attended a rather special villa/winery tour and wine tasting dinner in Murlo. Sarah, our guide, is a transplanted Brit, 42 years in Tuscany. The ten of us who had signed up met at the Murlo car park and then followed in a caravan to Campriano where we met the handsome young villa owner and vintner, Ranuccio Neri. The views from the villa are amazing; wide expanses of rolling hills in various shades of muted greens and vineyards, olive orchards and forested areas. He showed us the old family chapel, the grounds and then the wine cellar, from which he turns out about 25,000 bottles a year at the present time. I thought it was interesting to find that there is a mobile bottling outfit that travels from small winery to small winery, performing the bottling function for each, eliminating the need for that processing equipment. After the tour we were treated to a wonderful 4 course meal, each course with it’s accompanying wine, blanco, rose, two chiantis and finally a vinsanto. After espresso we took the chance to purchase a few bottles and then headed back down the hill to our respective apartments. This would be a good place to note that Jill does not care for wine, so I have my own designated driver.
Driving back in the dark, Tuscany unfolds a different beauty. It is incredibly quiet. It had rained while we were eating dinner so the dust was tamped down and everything had a fresh clean smell. Swallows darted in front of us as we drove up our dirt road to the apartment (or was it a bat?) and we found a frog on our doorstep when we got home. The winery cat was waiting to greet us.
Life on a working vineyard is alternately deadly quiet or hums with the sound of farm machinery. Occasionally the farm dogs bark and a tractor rolls by. One thing you can be sure of is bugs! We have found various spiders, centipedes, and other assorted bugs in our apartment. We have taken to just escorting them outside rather than squashing them. After all, we are the guests here.
We had a choice to meet the UnTours representative, Harriett, at the airport at noon on Wednesday where she was greeting the other people starting their two week Italy vacations, taking them by mini-van to Siena where she helps you pick up your rental car and then caravan to the individual farms or apartments. We opted to pick up our own car in Florence and find our way to our vineyard apartment ourselves.
Picking up the car was easy and we even found driving out of downtown Florence was not so bad as we had feared. Jill is doing the driving on this trip and she’s been great at adjusting to Italian roads, a sluggish stick shift and our relatively powerless Fiat. We rented a GPS system from Avis but after 30 minutes we turned her off. We knew from the detailed directions that UnTours had provided us with that we were to head towards Siena and GPS lady tried to send us in a completely different direction than the road sign said. We went the way of the signs and she kept telling us to find somewhere to turn around. We haven’t turned her on again yet.
In two hours we were in the town of Montalcino! I fear I am not as good a navigator as Jill is a driver so when I discovered the page stapled to the main directions that took us to our apartment, I realized we had overshot our mark. So we backtracked about 5 k and found the dirt road that we turned down to get to our farm. Aside: There are a lot of dirt roads around here, leading to most of the hundred plus individual wineries. Cars are quickly covered in a layer of dust and dirt. Sudden steep hills find you stalling out in first gear and rolling back to get a second start, until you get accustomed to your own routes and know where to speed up and or gear down.
We were greeted at Le Chiuse, our vineyard, by Lorenzo, the son of the owner. He greeted us warmly and showed us to our apartment, La Cappella, which was the old farm’s former chapel. It’s very spacious and has anything we need for our two week stay; living room and kitchen, fireplace, modern tile bathroom and two bedrooms. I have the downstairs bedroom which was originally the main part of the old chapel. A solid double door with two windows leads out of my room to the yard and on either side are holy water fonts!
Le Chiuse has a pool (that is not heated and having recently been filled I doubt we’ll be jumping into it) and lawn areas with picnic tables and patio chairs. Vineyards surround us and beyond them we can see olive orchards. In the 1980s there was a terrible freeze in Tuscany and most of the area’s olive trees seemed to be killed. But in fact the rootballs remained living so while all the trees were taken down to their bases, new trees grew from those rootballs. Olive growers realized that they could force their trees to grow more fruit more quickly by allowing two of the shoots to flourish, rather than one main trunk, so many of the trees in the area have two main trunks and all look rather young.
But Brunello di Montalcino is what the area has really become famous for in recent years. Montalcinese are quite sure that their Brunello is the best wine in Italy. There are over 100 private wineries in the area and many welcome visitors for a tasting, a brief tour, and an opportunity to buy their bottles. The town of Montalcino has countless enotecas and wine shops where one can taste the different Brunellos (and the less expensive but also good Rosso) and purchase wine. The enotecas also have short menus with small plates you can order to compliment your wine tasting.
While we were unpacking, Harriett arrived with our welcome booklet, filled with loads of information about the area and maps and tips for things to do. She invited us to an Orientation the next morning at 10:30 at Restorante La Torre, adjacent to Monte Oliveto Abbey. This would also include lunch at La Torre and then a tour of the Abbey. We also met Le Chiuse’s owner, Simonetta Valiani, and her daughter who were delivering our initial supply of “groceries”; milk, espresso, cheese, eggs, salami, bread, jam, fruit, and other staples to get us started. Our kitchen has a coffee maker, toaster, and all the necessary dishes and cooking needs. Other visitors here have given me tips for where to buy the best produce, bakery goods, and seem to delight in cooking in their apartments. (Personally, I’m looking forward to trying some of the too many ristorante, enotece and trattorias to mention! I can cook at home.)
After Harriett left I finally was able to take a welcome nap on my very comfy bed on my Altar and Jill did the same in her loft upstairs.
We woke hungry and eager to explore so made our way back to Montalcino. The town is a bit of a challenge. The streets are very narrow and you can drive through most of them, you can only park in designated areas, mostly at the edges of the town and in parking lots outside of the walls. Everything is uphill here! In both directions! Of course, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit. Readers of “Vanilla Beans and Brodo” will recognize our first stop at Caffe Fiaschetteria in Piazza del Popolo, Montalcino’s “main” square. I had sipped many an espresso there vicariously while reading Vanilla Beans and was surprised how small it was. But there was the Medici statue, tucked under the dark niche at the end of the piazza, and the bell tower rose above us and chimed the hour while we sit and sipped our first Brunello of the trip, and munched the complementary crustini topped with olive oil. We ran into Harriett who introduced us to two other Untourists from Atlanta who had the apartment on the second floor above the store across from the caffe. Soon we were joined by a second couple, Untourists from Maine. The piazza truly was a place for meeting!
After a couple hours of chatting and drinking, Jill and I excused ourselves and headed on to Bar Grappolo Blu, the ristorante mentioned often in the book, run by Maria Pia. It seemed to be filled with mostly Americans and English was the predominant buzz. We were seated at the two places at the wall end of a table for six. A short time later, a single gentleman was seated at the other end and before long we were talking. Hans is a recently retired Architect from the Netherlands who is pursuing his lifelong dream of walking from Rome to Eindhoven. He told us about his journey and promised to send us his photo journal when he finished.
A bit about food in this southern end of Tuscany: So far we have had four meals and there are clearly some trends. The antipasti is crustini with chicken liver pate mixed with vegetables, or simply crustini (toast) with olive oil drizzled, various salumi, and perhaps some olives. Risotto, pasta and zuppas are heavy and filling. The pici is a local pasta kind of like a very fat spaghetti usually with your choice of a sauce and cinghale (wild boar) or simply with tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. The main entrée choices are heavily meat oriented; wild boar, guinea hen, rabbit, or bistecca. Mixed green salad comes as kind of an after thought to the entrée. And of course all is sopped up with saltless Tuscan bread and washed down with wine. Before this trip I joked with friends that I didn’t know if I could drink 10 glasses of wine a day. I am stunned to see just how close to that I’m getting! If I’m not careful I could marinate my liver on this trip; wine at lunch, wine at dinner, and a glass of wine in the apartment in the evening from the lovely bottle Lorenzo left us on our arrival. But after just four meals there is a certain repetition (we’ve had guinea hen 3 times!) and Jill’s asking, “Where is the pizza?”
Our orientation at La Torre was helpful indeed. Harriett shared many helpful ideas for making the most of our two weeks here. She gave us the essentials of driving in Italy, shared, important information about doctors, hours to shop, best eating spots and good ideas for trips afield. We met other Untourists and then enjoyed a long leisurely lunch in the terrace restaurant. Following lunch we meandered down to the Abbey where we were met by a young guide from Siena who took us on a detailed and interesting tour of the Abbey.
Last night we attended a rather special villa/winery tour and wine tasting dinner in Murlo. Sarah, our guide, is a transplanted Brit, 42 years in Tuscany. The ten of us who had signed up met at the Murlo car park and then followed in a caravan to Campriano where we met the handsome young villa owner and vintner, Ranuccio Neri. The views from the villa are amazing; wide expanses of rolling hills in various shades of muted greens and vineyards, olive orchards and forested areas. He showed us the old family chapel, the grounds and then the wine cellar, from which he turns out about 25,000 bottles a year at the present time. I thought it was interesting to find that there is a mobile bottling outfit that travels from small winery to small winery, performing the bottling function for each, eliminating the need for that processing equipment. After the tour we were treated to a wonderful 4 course meal, each course with it’s accompanying wine, blanco, rose, two chiantis and finally a vinsanto. After espresso we took the chance to purchase a few bottles and then headed back down the hill to our respective apartments. This would be a good place to note that Jill does not care for wine, so I have my own designated driver.
Driving back in the dark, Tuscany unfolds a different beauty. It is incredibly quiet. It had rained while we were eating dinner so the dust was tamped down and everything had a fresh clean smell. Swallows darted in front of us as we drove up our dirt road to the apartment (or was it a bat?) and we found a frog on our doorstep when we got home. The winery cat was waiting to greet us.
Life on a working vineyard is alternately deadly quiet or hums with the sound of farm machinery. Occasionally the farm dogs bark and a tractor rolls by. One thing you can be sure of is bugs! We have found various spiders, centipedes, and other assorted bugs in our apartment. We have taken to just escorting them outside rather than squashing them. After all, we are the guests here.
May 17th, 2009, 11:02 AM
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This is bringing back memories of the trip Margie and I took to the area in October of 2008. We spent two weeks in Montepulciano, and visited Montalcino a couple of times:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...2&tid=35172790
I'm particularly interested in following your experiences with Untour, which we've never used, but we've thought about it from time to time. I'll follow this thread.
- Larry
http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...2&tid=35172790
I'm particularly interested in following your experiences with Untour, which we've never used, but we've thought about it from time to time. I'll follow this thread.
- Larry
May 17th, 2009, 12:28 PM
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Staying in a working farm among the luscious grapes and the winery must be a different and relaxing experience, Caterina..
Actually I should start calling You Santa Caterina..After all you are sleeping at the Altar..
Not too many of us poor Mortal can say that!!!
Actually I should start calling You Santa Caterina..After all you are sleeping at the Altar..
Not too many of us poor Mortal can say that!!!
May 18th, 2009, 08:55 AM
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Saturday, or everyone else is out and about on weekends!
I don’t know what it is about this place but both of us are sleeping late into the morning. At home I rarely rise after 6 am. Maybe we are still adjusting to the time change. We have heard that this is the day of the famous Breschia to somewhere to Breschia Classic Car “Race”. Ironically, I was in Florence eleven years ago when this 1000 mile Giro rolled through town. We considered going somewhere to watch part of it, but figured that our noon start would find us too late. So we headed toward Montepulciano instead. On the road to Pienza we found ourselves going the opposite direction of the “race”. Countless cars sped by with the tour sticker on their side doors. The roadsides were dotted with spectators, careening to get the best photo as the cars flew by. We stopped ourselves and tried to take some pictures, but our vantage point was not well chosen and they flew by before we could get a good shot. One comment about Italian drivers; they sure do venture over the center line a lot!
The trip through Pienza and on to Montepulciano is just amazingly beautiful. There’s something about this patchwork landscape of alternating geometrically perfect vineyards, newly mowed hay fields, slightly less perfect olive orchards and wide expanses of wildflowers, dotted with soldier straight lines of Italian cypresses leading to stone buildings that really pleases my sensibilities. The variegated greens go on forever and are nearly impossible to capture in photos. Every dozen or so miles, a hill town appears in the distance. We zipped through Pienza, where the Giro was in full swing and the streets were lined with spectators waving and cheering. The town appeals to both of us and we vow to return before we leave Tuscany.
Montepulciano is a bigger hill town. It was crowded with tourists on Saturday. We were hungry so stopped at Fattoria Ristorante Pulcino, along the rim road, amazingly with free parking right outside. Inside were a row of huge wine casks, 15 or more feet tall. Tables and chairs were strewn throughout the big room, amid countless products for sale; wine, olive oil, honey, salumi, biscotti, cheeses, pasta, even saffron. All in every possible size and quantity. Jill ordered a plate of salumi and cheese, I ordered a panino of proscuitto and pecorino. We asked to taste wines. Our server brought a flight of three wines for me to taste; a chianti, a rosso, and a vin nobile. Jill wanted to try the vin santo. She bought a bottle at Campriano as a gift for a friend but thought it tasted like “prune juice”. I sort of think all Vin Santos taste like prune juice so I couldn’t tell her if it was a good one or not. The latter was definitely better, at half the price. Our meal was embarrassingly big. We each managed to eat about half of what was presented to us. We bought 3 bottles of wine (the rosso, the nobile and the vin santo), two packages of biscotti and left 60 euro lighter.
Sunday found us getting another late start (ok, this isn’t about jet lag anymore!). We had a fantastic breakfast of tuscan bread (with salt!) toasted with peach jam and went crazy with the little espresso maker in the apartment. Completely revved up and over caffeinated, we headed toward the small village of Castelnuovo del Abate and the Abbey of Sant’Antiamo. I just read the chapter in Isabella Dusi’s second book, “Bel Vino” about her evening with Guisseppi, the owner of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona and his story of coming to own the Castelnuovo.
The Abbey was crowded with visitors and most of them seemed to be Italians. We encountered a few Germans but no Americans. Maybe Sarah and Rannucio are right: maybe there are very few Americans here now. The Abbey is beautiful and we took lots of pictures and visited the cool quiet inside. We poked around looking at the little town, and then drove down a long gravel road following signs promising a ristorante. About two kilometers down the gravel road we were rewarded with Ferraiole. At this point Jill was getting a little fed up with the sameness of Tuscan restaurant menus. After brining our requested bottle of aqua minerale con frizzante, our server recited the menu for the day; antipasti - a plate of assorted salumi et pecorino, primi – risotto, pici, zuppa with beans or ravioli with ricotta and spinachi, entrée – cinghale, roast pork or bistecca. We both opted for the ravioli and roast pork and ensalata mista. I asked for a glass of red wine. This meal was GREAT! The home made ravioli were light and melted in the mouth. Just a light dousing of olive oil and a sprinkling of parmesean kept them light and natural. The roast pork was also tender and moist and olive oil and rosemary turn roasted potatoes into something unearthly.
We headed back toward Buonconvento, stuffed to the gills and ready to pick up some additional staples at the Coop. Oops, Coop is closed on Sunday. So instead, we had a gelato and came “home” to read, internet and relax.
OK, this bug escorting business is getting to be a full time job! We have had a frog on our stairs, moths (big, small and HUGE) on the walls, spiders crawling everywhere, and waspy looking flying things. The chapel ceiling must be 20 feet up and the things quickly get out of reach. I turn out my light and wonder what’s going to fall on me, or venture down during the night to take a bite.
I don’t know what it is about this place but both of us are sleeping late into the morning. At home I rarely rise after 6 am. Maybe we are still adjusting to the time change. We have heard that this is the day of the famous Breschia to somewhere to Breschia Classic Car “Race”. Ironically, I was in Florence eleven years ago when this 1000 mile Giro rolled through town. We considered going somewhere to watch part of it, but figured that our noon start would find us too late. So we headed toward Montepulciano instead. On the road to Pienza we found ourselves going the opposite direction of the “race”. Countless cars sped by with the tour sticker on their side doors. The roadsides were dotted with spectators, careening to get the best photo as the cars flew by. We stopped ourselves and tried to take some pictures, but our vantage point was not well chosen and they flew by before we could get a good shot. One comment about Italian drivers; they sure do venture over the center line a lot!
The trip through Pienza and on to Montepulciano is just amazingly beautiful. There’s something about this patchwork landscape of alternating geometrically perfect vineyards, newly mowed hay fields, slightly less perfect olive orchards and wide expanses of wildflowers, dotted with soldier straight lines of Italian cypresses leading to stone buildings that really pleases my sensibilities. The variegated greens go on forever and are nearly impossible to capture in photos. Every dozen or so miles, a hill town appears in the distance. We zipped through Pienza, where the Giro was in full swing and the streets were lined with spectators waving and cheering. The town appeals to both of us and we vow to return before we leave Tuscany.
Montepulciano is a bigger hill town. It was crowded with tourists on Saturday. We were hungry so stopped at Fattoria Ristorante Pulcino, along the rim road, amazingly with free parking right outside. Inside were a row of huge wine casks, 15 or more feet tall. Tables and chairs were strewn throughout the big room, amid countless products for sale; wine, olive oil, honey, salumi, biscotti, cheeses, pasta, even saffron. All in every possible size and quantity. Jill ordered a plate of salumi and cheese, I ordered a panino of proscuitto and pecorino. We asked to taste wines. Our server brought a flight of three wines for me to taste; a chianti, a rosso, and a vin nobile. Jill wanted to try the vin santo. She bought a bottle at Campriano as a gift for a friend but thought it tasted like “prune juice”. I sort of think all Vin Santos taste like prune juice so I couldn’t tell her if it was a good one or not. The latter was definitely better, at half the price. Our meal was embarrassingly big. We each managed to eat about half of what was presented to us. We bought 3 bottles of wine (the rosso, the nobile and the vin santo), two packages of biscotti and left 60 euro lighter.
Sunday found us getting another late start (ok, this isn’t about jet lag anymore!). We had a fantastic breakfast of tuscan bread (with salt!) toasted with peach jam and went crazy with the little espresso maker in the apartment. Completely revved up and over caffeinated, we headed toward the small village of Castelnuovo del Abate and the Abbey of Sant’Antiamo. I just read the chapter in Isabella Dusi’s second book, “Bel Vino” about her evening with Guisseppi, the owner of Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona and his story of coming to own the Castelnuovo.
The Abbey was crowded with visitors and most of them seemed to be Italians. We encountered a few Germans but no Americans. Maybe Sarah and Rannucio are right: maybe there are very few Americans here now. The Abbey is beautiful and we took lots of pictures and visited the cool quiet inside. We poked around looking at the little town, and then drove down a long gravel road following signs promising a ristorante. About two kilometers down the gravel road we were rewarded with Ferraiole. At this point Jill was getting a little fed up with the sameness of Tuscan restaurant menus. After brining our requested bottle of aqua minerale con frizzante, our server recited the menu for the day; antipasti - a plate of assorted salumi et pecorino, primi – risotto, pici, zuppa with beans or ravioli with ricotta and spinachi, entrée – cinghale, roast pork or bistecca. We both opted for the ravioli and roast pork and ensalata mista. I asked for a glass of red wine. This meal was GREAT! The home made ravioli were light and melted in the mouth. Just a light dousing of olive oil and a sprinkling of parmesean kept them light and natural. The roast pork was also tender and moist and olive oil and rosemary turn roasted potatoes into something unearthly.
We headed back toward Buonconvento, stuffed to the gills and ready to pick up some additional staples at the Coop. Oops, Coop is closed on Sunday. So instead, we had a gelato and came “home” to read, internet and relax.
OK, this bug escorting business is getting to be a full time job! We have had a frog on our stairs, moths (big, small and HUGE) on the walls, spiders crawling everywhere, and waspy looking flying things. The chapel ceiling must be 20 feet up and the things quickly get out of reach. I turn out my light and wonder what’s going to fall on me, or venture down during the night to take a bite.
May 18th, 2009, 08:58 AM
#19
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AnnaMaria, I don't know about Santa Caterina. 
Too much wine. But tomorrow we are going to Siena to pay a visit to the town of my Patron Saint. We will be sure to go to Santa Dominico to see her head and her thumb.
Larry, Untours has been great. While you could certainly plan all of this on your own, it's been nice to have them, and Harriett, as a safety net. And they've made some nice introductions to us.
Ciao Swandav, my Euro friend. And thanks to everyone else for reading along.
Too much wine. But tomorrow we are going to Siena to pay a visit to the town of my Patron Saint. We will be sure to go to Santa Dominico to see her head and her thumb. Larry, Untours has been great. While you could certainly plan all of this on your own, it's been nice to have them, and Harriett, as a safety net. And they've made some nice introductions to us.
Ciao Swandav, my Euro friend.
And thanks to everyone else for reading along.
May 18th, 2009, 01:32 PM
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Thanks, Grassshopper
I just noticed your handle contains three s's, so perhaps it parses better as grass-shopper than as grass-hopper.
Since you got out to Montepulciano, you're in our old stomping ground. Had you continued a bit beyond the Fattoria Ristorante Pulcino and taken a right on the via della Montagna (towards Monticchiello), in a little bit you would have reached Sant'Antonio, where we stayed for two weeks back in October, 2008 (I gave a link to our trip report in an earlier message). So the places you're visiting all sound very familiar - I wish I were there with you.
I gather that Untours sets up nice accommodations, and gives you a general introduction and a local resource and backup person, but other than that, you're basically on your own to plan your own activities (as we were, having put it together ourselves).
I love your breezy reporting style - I'll keep reading and participating vicariously.
Larry
I just noticed your handle contains three s's, so perhaps it parses better as grass-shopper than as grass-hopper.
Since you got out to Montepulciano, you're in our old stomping ground. Had you continued a bit beyond the Fattoria Ristorante Pulcino and taken a right on the via della Montagna (towards Monticchiello), in a little bit you would have reached Sant'Antonio, where we stayed for two weeks back in October, 2008 (I gave a link to our trip report in an earlier message). So the places you're visiting all sound very familiar - I wish I were there with you.
I gather that Untours sets up nice accommodations, and gives you a general introduction and a local resource and backup person, but other than that, you're basically on your own to plan your own activities (as we were, having put it together ourselves).
I love your breezy reporting style - I'll keep reading and participating vicariously.
Larry
