Tuscan Hill Towns Day 6
Tuscan Hill Towns
DAY 06 - May 10, 2005 - Overland to the "Wine Road"/Home-Hosted Lunch - Siena
Our wake-up call was at 7 AM but both of us were awake and thinking about getting organized for our travel day. We put our luggage out at 8:00, had breakfast, paid our phone bill, and said goodbye to Eduardo who had come by before class to see us off this morning. We had a wonderful time together in Florence but our time went all too quickly. At 8:45 I helped to take the luggage from the hotel to the bus with a couple of other members of the group as the big bus could not come within 100 yards of our hotel. We were able to leave at 9 AM and it is great to have such a full size tour bus with so much room for carry-on bags as well as elbow room for all of us. Giulia said there was no need for us to rotate seats during this trip.
We have a new bus driver, Dominico, who will be with us now for the rest of the OAT trip. He did an incredible job navigating the narrow city center streets with all the traffic. We headed South, out of town, to the Chianti region, the skies were overcast with a prediction for rain showers today. It was already starting to rain as we made our way up the winding hills on SR 2, the road leading to Greve in Chianti. Along the road we saw many wild irises, small red poppies, and many other late spring flowers which were just beautiful. The hill sides are very verdant - extremely different from when we were here in September of 2001 when it was very dry.
We traveled along the famous "wine road" that runs through the Chianti region. We drove through the vineyards, stopping at the small village of Greve in Chianti. As we entered this community, it began to rain in earnest but most of us had umbrellas and Dominico had three to share. The bakery was the center of life in the town with people lined up 8 deep to purchase fresh bread for the day. Unfortunately, we did not find it until the end of our 20 minute stay and the line was still too long, but boy, did it smell delicious!
Continuing up the winding roads we also saw large clay production factories making bricks, roof tiles, as well as terra cotta planters and decorative yard ornaments. It was all I could do to keep Gennie inside the bus. The vineyards are just starting to sprout their first green leaves. Giulia gave us a brief history of the wine country and especially the Black Rooster Label which is the authentic symbol of the wine cartel of this area.
We visited the Castello d'Albola where we were given a brief tour and an explanation of the wine industry in Tuscany and the importance of the Chianti specialties. We were offered generous tastes of their main line of wines, a chardonnay, Chianti Classico, and Chianti Reserva, and then a dessert wine, followed by a Grappa. They also served excellent bread, a delicious olive oil also produced there, and a variety of Italian cold cuts with cheese. Of course, there was an opportunity to buy the wine and many people chose to do this.
At 12:45 we traveled a short distance to a small village Of La Piazza where our hostess Paula and her Tuscan family served us a traditional meal in their home - the Azienda Agricola Masseto. We were able to tour the whole estate and even see the small apartments they offer for rent during the tourist season. This was a great opportunity to learn about local life and see how much work in involved in the upkeep of one of these old villas. Several if our group had brought gifts for our host family. We gave her a photograph of Colorado wild flowers that Vic had taken last summer!
We drove for about an hour more through the beautiful green hills and came to a small castle or fortified villa called Villa Lecchi where we were shown to our rooms. We had time to unpack a bit and then explore the little village before we had to meet our group at 6:45 for a welcome drink and a talk by our hotel manager. She told us how her family had purchased the estate and renovated the property to prepare the grounds and old buildings for this unique hotel. It was very interesting and certainly a feat of no easy accomplishment!
At 8 PM we had another fantastic meal of soup, pesto pasta, chicken, turkey rolls, fantastic egg plant and potatoes and then dessert of crème broullet. Wine and water were also served with dinner, We had the opportunity to share stories with our new found friends and enjoy each other's company. At 10 PM we returned to our room to finish the journal and get ready to send. Unfortunately for the next two days we may have trouble getting them off as the place is out in the country, have only and old computer with a dial-up system. I will try to get them off when we got to one of the communities tomorrow. If not, I will try to use the dial-up. We are in the real Tuscan Hills.
Accommodations: Villa Lecchi Hotel Meals: B, L, D
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