The Hills of Tuscany

Monday March 2^nd 2009:

The next morning we were originally scheduled for a bike tour, however since it was raining we decided to look into other options. The lady at the front desk helped us book a day tour into Chianti, San Gimignano, and Siena, literally 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave. We ran across town (which was somewhat difficult, since I had hurt my foot in Rome) but just made it before the bus departed. Since it is difficult to get to these places by train, especially some of the rolling hills of Tuscany, and it included three cities and a wine tour, we thought it would be a good way to get introduced to the magic of Tuscany.

Our first stop was a small town called San Gimignano. It was very quaint and cute, complete with little cobblestone streets, medieval buildings and a beautiful view of the Tuscan hills. This was probably one of the most cute and picturesque towns we visited, and we had fun just wandering the streets and taking pictures. On our way out, we made sure to visit the
"World champion” gelato place. I laughed at first at the name, but as it turns out it was well deserved. Kevin and I split a mixture of Mango and blackberry, and it was only $1.30, and absolutely fantastic. I had eaten gelato before, but this was by far the

best I had ever tasted. The texture was smooth and remarkably solid (not ice) and the flavor of each was poignant, only a small spoonful would overwhelm our taste buds.

Our next stop was Siena. We first had a tour by car of some of the most important sights. Our tour guide was very Italian, and quite longwinded. Siena was very “clan-like” and there were statues around the city stating the territory of the 17 clans in which made up Siena. It was also a banking district, and as our guide said, “There is no mafia here, the banks did well enough. The banks have no need to kill anyone, you can’t pay your bills if you’re dead right?” After our tour we had some free time to walk around the city, see the Demo, and “feel” Siena. It is really quite a beautiful city, and the Duomo is also gorgeous. It was interesting to learn that the construction of the Duomo was halted because over half of the population was wiped out by the black plague.

The next stop was Chianti, specifically a winery. This was a “bio” winery that produced wine, lavender essential oils and soaps, vinegar and olive oil. It was a gorgeous place which looked over more rolling
hills of Tuscany. It was interesting to see the distilling process of vinegar, some of which is aged up to 30 years. He also said that one of his sweet
wines comes from a recipe (that he found in a shed) from the medieval monks who previously owned the land. When we went to do the tasting, the different types of olive oil were already on pieces of bread. At first they immediately dismissed the possibility of finding an alternative way for us to taste it, until I deliberately asked for some olive oil in a spoon. He was a little surprised, but agreed. Their innate problem solving tactics were a little frustrating, but we still got to taste everything and it was delicious! We hit a “bump in the road” on our drive back to Florence when Kevin realized that we didn’t have our free olive oil that came with one of our orders. Our group was rather small, and we began discussing the possibilities of retrieving these items amongst ourselves. Our tour guides had stayed behind, so it was only the tour guides in training, the bus driver and the tour. We tossed around many ideas, but then one of the group members said, “Why don’t we just turn back? We’re only 10 minutes out?” And we did. Kevin was a little embarrassed (although it was the error of the winery) but everyone was very nice and understanding about it. Plus, we got our goods!

That night was pretty low key. We bought groceries and ate a picnic in our room, then wandered the streets of Florence, wandered in circles around the Duomo, and collapsed into bed.