Day 6: Under the Tuscan sun

Today’s plans required an early start so the alarm went off at 7am much to the chagrin of the younger set.  We grabbed our breakfast and the car and set off for Chianti for, guess what?  Wine tasting!  We started at the Verrazzano Castle and Winery outside Greve in Tuscany. We got to hear the history of Giovanni Verranzzano who discovered the Bay of New York and many other areas of the east coast in 1524 and for whom the Verranzzano Narrows bridge is named. We toured the Italian gardens and the wine cellars in buildings dating back to 1000 AD. And the views over the Tuscan hills were spectacular!

Then came the wine tasting.  We got to learn about the sangiovese grape, what makes a wine a chianti classico versus a chianti classico reserva.  We even tasted a lovely rose from the same sangiovese grapes.  There was about 20 people in our tour group including us:  two from Israel, two from Portland and then everyone else seemed to be from Texas!  During the tasting, they brought out big platters of bread soaked in olive oil from olive trees on the property.  But I was prepared!  I had brought several slices of GF bread with me and so I only asked for some oil to dip it in.  When I explained about “senza glutine”, the guide popped into the kitchen then came out and told me that they’d see to me shortly.  I waited what seemed like an extraordinary amount of time to deliver some olive oil but what I got was freshly baked GF bread soaked in olive oil!  Ten gold stars for this winery! We decided to buy a bottle of the Chianti Classico Reserva, the rosé and the olive oil.  Ere squisito!

Then we were off to explore Greve in Chianti – often referred to as la porta di Chianti or the door to Chianti.  While we found the market place very quaint, the town didn’t speak to us so we moved on to Panzano.  And were very glad we did.  This is a charming village (about 1000 residents, but with 3 butcher shops!) built into a hill over looking acres of vineyards.  The views were incredible!  We stopped there for lunch and found a lovely little trattoria with a walled garden offering simple but delicious food.  I had a salad with tuna and olives, Frank had the best pasta with tomato sauce he says he’s ever had.  Gillian loved her chicken with olives and roast potatoes and Duncan’s beef strips and white beans were very tasty.  There was no searching for “senza glutine” menus or anything so complicated.  Just good, simple yet delicious food.

Then on to the next winery!  Fattoria Le Fonti – a family run winery down the hill from the church in Panzano.  No organized tours, no thousand year old gardens, no ancestors who discovered a new world.  Just the woman who works in the office and the four of us in the wine cellar tasting about 7 wines – including two vertical tastings for the Chianti Classico and their “Supertuscan” wine.  We decided that we really liked the rosé and the supertuscan wine and walked off with bottle of each.  No fancy bread or tasting fee but we did get to spend time petting the family dog.

Next stop:  San Gimignano, a medieval walled town to the west of Panzano.  We arrived in the late afternoon and parked outside the city walls.  The entire city is contained within the medieval walls and the town is a spectacular example of historical preservation.  We wandered the steep, cobbled streets and popped into many shops selling leather, ceramic, original art and other magnificent items.  We visited the cathedral which was really interesting:  there were frescos covering the walls on both sides of the church.  We did a great job playing “guess the New Testament story” for one set of paintings but didn’t do so well with the Old Testament version.

Then the obligatory gelato stop before the serious souvenir shopping began. I wanted to find a ceramic olive oil pourer that didn’t have “tourist to Italy” written all over it.  Duncan wasn’t looking for anything in particular but in one of the art galleries we stopped at, the work by Antonio Breschi really spoke to him and so he has an original work of ink on paper as his birthday gift.  I also got a smaller one to frame and hang in my office.  We got the obligatory water color of the town from a local artist and were all set to leave when….. it happened.  We wandered past a shoe shop which I normally wouldn’t have looked at twice but Frank noticed some boots that he thought I might like.  I decided to humor him and look at the boots when I saw them:  the cutest hand made Italian leather shoes ever created just for me.  I am so enamored of these shoes that I can’t even take a photo of them yet because they are just so adorable.  And completely impractical and not even something my podiatrist would countenance.  But I bought them anyway!  And as soon as I have figured out which clothes do them justice, I’ll post a photo but for now, you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Needless to say, we closed most of the shops in the lovely Tuscan town, so we headed back to Florence for our last night in Tuscany.  Frank is becoming quite adept at the Italian style of driving: no blinkers, ignoring lane lines, pretending scooters and motorcycles aren’t there, etc.  So we made it back into town with little hassle.  We were a little skittish trying to decide where to eat dinner tonight after last nights extortionately expensive fiasco so we picked a restaurant from the guide book we brought with us and headed out to find the designated trattoria.  And we never made it because within three blocks of the hotel, we found another restaurant advertising a “senza glutine” menu and we thought we’d try just one more time…

And we are so very glad we did.  The food was excellent and reasonable priced – as was the wine.  I had homemade GF tagliatelle with wild boar sauce!  And GF chocolate souffle for desert!  Gillian had roast pork, similar to what I had in Pisa yesterday, and the boys decided to go for the local specialty:  bisteak Florentine, aka a T-bone steak.  While they decided it was very tasty, it wasn’t anything  better than we could get at home.  But they enjoyed it just the same.

And so, our time in Tuscany comes to a close.  We head tomorrow for Lombardy in the north for our final days in Italy before battling the evil Ryan Air to take us to see family in Scotland.

Step count:  a measly 12, 945 or 5.57 miles (we spent too much time in the car on twisty Tuscan roads!)

Nun count: just one.  But a very happy and smiling nun she was.