Elba to Tuscany
Trip Start
Jul 10, 2007
1
12
21
Trip End
Jul 28, 2007
Montepluciano, Tuscany, Italy, Italy
Saturday, July 21, 2007
The ferry ride was uneventful, which is always good, and we began our drive across Tuscany towards the winery Castello Banfi. We had made reservations before leaving the US to have lunch at the winery.
We got to the winery early, and wandered around the grounds. We also had two glasses of aperitif before lunch. Well, lunch was this five course meal each with a wine paring and was soooo good. We had some of the best food we've had yet there, and the wine was excellent. There was also LOTS of it and about three of the five glasses in I was like, "Jay, I think I'm going to puke." I never did, and we ended up taking a break before our cheese course. It was a lot of food and a lot of wine, though. Jay, being the driver, was being much more careful about the wine than I was.
After lunch, which took two and three quarters hours (seriously), we decided we weren't interested in the winery tour after all, and went to check into our agritourismo. We had a pretty drive over to it, and didn't get lost.
By the way, if you were going to give directions to my house from say, my In-law's house in Syracuse, how would you do it? You'd do something like, "Take the I-81 south to the (I forget what happens in MD to get from 81 to 95) to the 95 south. At Jacksonville, cut over to the 75 on the 301. Take 75 to 275, get off on exit number 30 (Ulmerton Road). Take a right at the first light, take the first right after the country club, we're on the right x houses down #y." In Italy those directions would be like, "Follow the signs to Binghamton, then to Harrisburg, then to Philadelphia, then Baltimore, then Washington, then Richmond, then Greensboro, then Atlanta, then Jacksonville, then Gainsville, then Tampa, then St. Petersburg. Follow the signs to Indian rocks Beach, then the signs to the Feather Sound Country club." And then, there'd be like a sign to my house. Bizarre. You navigate by going from point a to point b to point c. And there are no kilometer markings that point x is y kilometers from wherever you are. There are a bunch of signs with city names on them at every corner so you know where to go.
After checking in, we drove over to Pienza to check it out. It was a cute medieval city with walls and castle and churches. We also saw a restaurant that was a little off the main road and had a view over the valley below that we made note of.
We then drove around on some dirt roads, saw pheasants, and saw all of these signs saying that the truffle hunting rights were reserved. Apparently, truffles grow wild in this area.
We never did get hungry again after the massive lunch at the winery, but we did follow the dirt roads to a little hill town called Monticchiello, which had a few bars overlooking the valley. We went to one and had some local Montepulciano wine while watching the valley get dark as the sun set. It was the perfect ending to a great day!
Comments
Big horned sheep
All the way to Italy to see a BIG HORNED SHEEP?
well...
YOUR son...I just married him. Truly though, this surprises you??