Thursday, May 31, 2012

Oh what a wonderful day we had! We signed up for a tour of three towns and two wineries in the Tuscan countryside.

We left at 8:30 this morning and it was almost 9:00 when we got home. I lost track of the hill towns we visited – none of them for very long, but long enough to go pretty much from one end to the other in all of them. The villages were all on the road the ancient pilgrims would have taken from Rome to Jerusalem. We have a map of the area so we are hoping we can mark all the spots we visited.

The wineries were wonderful. We had lunch at the first one and we tasted so many wines I lost track. This particular winery is well known for their white wine. But we also had several glasses of red, as well as some truffle and olive oil. We finished our meal with a glass of “sacre vino” – the wine used for religious ceremonies. It was very sweet, but I liked it. We are having six bottles of the white wine sent home to us. Oddly enough they have distributors in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but you can only buy from the winery.

The second winery we visited is best known for their red wine. I’m not usually a red wine drinker, but this is so smooth I may have been converted. We also have six bottles of red being sent, but after all the wine and a couple of shots of grappa we probably would have purchased anything. This is a small family business, and Fabiola (one of three sons) gave us the tour. His Dad, Mario, brought out the grappa and the special “reserve” wine. Mama was there to take our orders and our guide, Lorenzo, says she is the boss.

Out traveling companions were a couple from Florida and their daughter and her boyfriend. We were in a small van and Pat and I had seats up front with the driver. We offered several times to switch places but no one took us up on it – what luck for us!

We went to a small restaurant around the corner from our hotel for dinner. Because we wanted to sit outside we were told we might have to share the table for four with another couple. Shortly after we sat down the daughter and her boyfriend arrived so we ate with them.

We took so many photos today that both of our cameras need to be charged before we can even download them.

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