Since Italy was not part of the original plan for my birthday trip, we had some major catching up to do, as far as research and mental preparation. So of course, we did what I assume everyone else does when preparing to travel overseas - we had a movie marathon of romantic comedies set in Italy, including one of my favorites, "Under the Tuscan Sun."
In the movie, when Frances arrives in Italy, she helps one of her fellow Tuscan tourists write a postcard to his mom. As we traveled through Italy, I thought of her vivid description of the city and market: "the bells in the distance go din don, din don, and the grapes burst in my mouth - I can almost taste the purple."
When I stepped off the plane in Italy, the air was clean and crisp and soft. Perfect weather, beautiful rolling hills - and we were still at the airport! Our first Italian adventure was in the city of Florence. We explored Florence for a couple of days, and then took a side trip about 45 minutes outside of the city - a tour of the Chianti Classico wine region of Tuscany.
We left the city and immediately started seeing the “creepy Italian trees” – another Under the Tuscan Sun reference – the Italian cypress trees. We loved them – and I’m planning to do some research to see if the Alabama climate will support them. I think they’d be a great in-between-houses border for our backyard.
If we had done any real research (besides movie-watching) before our trip, we might have learned that Tuscany is a region in central Italy, and the city of Florence is the regional capital. But thankfully,we had an excellent tour guide who shared lots of fabulous facts about the region and the wine-making process. As we drove, he would stop the car at the best views, and we all passed our phones and cameras to him so he could hang out his window and snap photos. Sometimes he would even pull off to the side of the road for the photo-stops.
We arrived at the first vineyard and our guide stopped to introduce us to the star of the Chianti region - the sangiovese grape. Since it was June, the grapes were VERY VERY green. One of our fellow tourists asked if she could eat a grape, and our guide said, "yes, if you want to get very sick!" Typical harvest time for the sangiovese is September - October, so they still had a lot of ripening to do!
The first winery we visited was housed in a 13th century fortress. The picture below is the outer façade through that archway you’ll find the tasting room, and this patio offers a pretty grand view (seen in the picture above).
Once we finished checking out the lay of the land, we headed inside to check out the behind-the-scenes action. I know that wine-making is a very fickle process – but seeing it up close, there is really a lot of science that goes into every bottle.
After the cellar tour, we headed out to the gardens to check out the scenery -
We’re planning to use this as a model for our backyard landscaping (haha).
And finally, it was time for us to taste the goods! The wine was paired with different types of cheeses, and of course we had the staples – olive oil and bread.
We left one winery and headed to another – this one was in another 13th century villa in another village about 20 minutes away. Before our dinner, we went up to the loft of the house to check out the amazing view – one side was the beautiful countryside and one side was the charming little town.
We headed inside for the grand finale – our Italian dinner. First up, antipasto (which honestly, I could have eaten everything on this "appetizer" spread and called it good for the night.
Next up – pasta!
We ended with some dessert wine served with Biscotti.
A few more Italian trees as we headed back to the city....
And a parting photo with our tour guide - one of the best features of the tour! We LOVED Tuscany, and if we get a chance to go back to Italy, this will definitely be a repeat on our list!
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