It's time to do me!: Tuscany Wine Tour!

January 23, 2011

Today was another early morning! We had to meet at the train station at 8 a.m. to get on our “Private Coach Bus” as a group. Once we got into the train station and the location they told us to meet at we realized that we were basically the only college students and we would be traveling around Tuscany with a Brazilian couple who wouldn’t stop kissing, two girls from New Zealand, and quite a few cute old ladies. On the bus they explained where we were going and informed us that parts of the Twilight movie New Moon and the movie Under the Tuscan Sun (or as the Italians say it, “Under the Sun of Tuscany”) were filmed in areas where we would be walking today. So on our hour and a half bus ride to Montepulciano they played the movie New Moon – in Italian! Haha. But the scenery on the bus ride was so incredible! We were among the rolling hills some of which were snow covered, some were extremely green, some were covered by farm land, some covered by houses…it was beautiful! Our bus ride was awfully curvy going up hills, down hills, around hills, spiraling every which way.

When we stepped off the bus in Montepulciano there was snow covering the roofs of buildings, the hills, the trees…it was truly a winter wonderland! The streets of Montepulciano are practically vertical and are very curvy and you will notice that the buildings in the city curve with the streets and the roof of one building could be at the same height as a base of another building – that’s how steep the streets are! But walking the streets fulfilled every single vision I have ever had about Italy. We walked along this one street where if there was a break between buildings on the left you would overlook the hills, and if you looked to the right you would normally find steps that would lead higher and higher behind buildings. We made a stop to use the restroom and to warm up at this coffee shop which had the most delicious-looking pastries – it was the oldest coffee shop in Montepulciano that had an amazing view!

We continued down the streets as our tour guide would tell us different little stories about the city and the streets and we found ourselves at Rosso and Nobile di Montepulciano for a wine cellar tour and tasting! We were each given a wine glass with a white napkin for the tasting after being explained the incredible wine cellar’s history. We learned the white napkin is to judge the color of the wine, and we were also given bread with olive oil throughout the tasting. We had 3 different wines, all of which were of different age which gave it the different flavors. Not only did the wine contain grapes, but there was also plum in the wine as well. The first one which was the youngest wine was my favorite, but the older two weren’t bad either. After our tasting we walked more and wound up in Piazza Grande in which the parts of the movies were filmed. The one building in the Piazza was a courthouse and another was a church in which Danielle and I both lit two candles. We had free time to go explore more and get lunch. We ate at this little trattoria where I got Zuppa Toscana soup. Let me just say that Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup is nothing like what I had! My soup was kinda like a bean soup and was so extremely delicious and filling, but I still tried a piece of Lauren’s pizza which was topped with spinach and ricotta. I ended up getting this apple pie-ish pastry from the coffe shop and ate it on the bus to our next stop which was Pienza.

Pienza was an extremely small town with not a whole lot in it, but our tour guide explained the church which he was disappointed to find was closed, so we couldn’t tour the inside of it. So we walked to this cheese shop for a tasting of Pecorino cheese, and I could smell the cheese at least 500 feet before we actually entered the building! We got inside and a woman had prepared three different versions of Pecorino cheese for us to taste: one cheese was partially seasoned, one was seasoned for 6 months, and the last was seasoned for longer than 6 months. The more aged the cheese the harder and more crumbly it was and the stronger the taste..I kinda only liked the partially seasoned one because the others were a tad dry and strong for me. Since the church in Pienza was closed they decided to take us to this church that was in a valley and was of a romantic style. It was crazy to think that earlier in the morning we were freezing because of the snow, and once we arrived at the church it was so green and sunny! Lauren and I had an epiphany walking around the church because everything around us was so beautiful and we couldn’t even imagine what our lives would be like if we never visited Europe, or came here on this trip! I have realized that I would take out 12 loans if I had to in order to come here because this experience is worth more than anything in my life.

After our pit stop at the church we made our way to our second tasting and last stop on the tour! We were greeted by the owner Mario who was a precious old man. We were shown the bathroom which weren’t inside the building, but rather just inside a little door from the outside which meant the toilet seats felt like ice cubes! We went inside and after our tour guide translated what Mario said we found out that Mario’s shop is not only a wine cellar, but also a museum that contained very old tools. He showed us the huge stainless steel containers where the grapes start becoming wine. He explained the green glass pieces that sit on top of the wooden oak barrels. The glass piece shows the amount of wine that is inside the barrel because it will continue to evaporate and more wine may need to be added. Also, water is placed on the top tier which allows gas bubbles to escape the barrel, but won’t allow air from the outside to enter. After the tour of his enormous wine cellar he took us through this underground tunnel into the area in which we had our tasting.

They had these two tables all decked out with 2 large wine glasses, one small wine glass, silverware, and a little plate with bruschetta topped with olive oil and tomatoes. Our first wine was the youngest wine called Rosso di Montalcino, and was placed into the smaller glass. We then went on to taste the same wine called Brunello di Montalcino, but one was a 2005 and the other was a 2003. It’s crazy how a two year difference changes the taste so dramatically! All throughout the tasting of these wines we were brought out a tray of three different meats and a large basket of bread. Before our last wine we were given Pecorino cheese and a shot of Grappa which put everyone over the top! The owner Mario passed the mini shots of Grappa around and counted down for everyone to take the shot at the same time. Grappa is the nastiest and strongest alcohol I have ever tasted in my entire life and it made everyone instantly warm! Our last wine was called Brunello di Montalcino Vigna “Piaggia and was considered the daddy of all wines. It was a tad too strong for me, but I could tell it was definitely a really nice wine, especially with the company of the Pecorino cheese. I ended up buying the 2005 version of Brunello di Montalcino, and Mario gave us an extremely good discount on the purchase. We gave our thanks to Mario and his wife and headed back to the bus for the ride home. They ended up playing Under the Tuscan Sun on the ride home and it was really good, but we weren’t on the bus long enough to finish it, so hopefully when I get home I can watch it again! I would definitely claim today as the best day in my entire life, I have never seen such beautiful things or be at such a loss of words…I just can’t believe I feel this way and it’s only the 3^rd weekend we’ve been here! :]