Castles and Wine

At present I’m slouched in a comfy chair at the La Perla Hotel in Siena, one block off Piazza del Campo. The Internet doesn’t work in our room, an oddly shaped, stinky (sorry Lonely Planet, but “musty” doesn’t go far enough…this warrents stank) nook on the top floor overlooking both the Duomo and the Basilica dei Servi. It’s late…not to uncommon for travel scribing. The local college boys are roaming the streets proudly belting their fraternity songs and what not…I think school just got out.

We’ve reemerged from a rejuvenating, active and peaceful three days at Tenuta di Spannocchia, just outside of Rosia in Tuscany. Big props to Scott for hooking us up. Spannocchia is an 1100 acre nature reserve, working organic farm/vineyard/olive grove, educational and historical center originally built in the late 12^th century. It is what remains from the share-cropping system that, surprisingly, lasted until the 1950’s in Italy. Our room was in the main building and allowed us to spread out in style.

The days were full of morning jogs, long walks through the adventurous trails, swimming and exploring. The landscape looked quite a lot like Vermont…minus the vineyards, cypress trees and castles. On Tuesday, we did a three-hour, round trip hike up to the “Castiglion che Dio sol sa,” (“Castle that only God knows”) and spent some time exploring a 13^th century castle. Every night at 7pm, all the guest, interns (there are 8 working this summer and a couple of WOOFers) and program participants (there was a group of PhD art-philosophy students there for 5 weeks) met for wine and casual conversation. At 7:30pm sharp, dinner was served, usually lasting 2-3 hours. The food was phenomenal (risotto, veggies, and Wednesday night brick-oven pizza night!)…all the wine was produced on site and is certified organic. Bizarrely enough, yet not too surprising, we met several people with Vermont and Western Mass roots…waxed Vermont Yankee if you can believe it. A crew of interns was either from VT or went to school in VT. We also met and had a fab time hanging out with Suzanna, a farmer from Shelburne, MA spending time at Spannochia to seek inspiration. On our final day, Randall (one of the owners) gave us an historical tour of the grounds. All told, Spannochia was a very cool and unique Italian experience.

On Thursday, we jumped back in the car and took the round-a-bout road to Montalcino, home of the famed Brunello wine…round-a-bout is no joke…we were on dirt roads most of the time. We tooled around the very quaint, but uber ritzy village and soaked it in. We scaled the Fortress to get a 360 degree view of

the area including some of the village’s stunning architecture. We had lunch on the front patio of Enoteca Osteria Osticcio where I had by far the best glass of the trip…a 2004 Brunello from Il Paradiso di Manfredi. Carrie had a very tasty Spumante Italiano from San Crisioforo. After a fun little tasting of more Brunello, we trekked around the village to take in some of the architecture and vistas provided by the hilltop location.

The drives throughout Tuscany have been absolutely breathtaking…rolling hills, vineyards, olive groves, farms and cypress trees. We made two more stops at vineyards in Chianti. The first was at il Molino di Grace, where we really enjoyed their 2006 Chianti Classico. The artwork was weird, but in a fun way. For lunch, we came upon a quaint little village named Radda in Chianti. Had an awesome bruschetta (one of the best thus far) at La Bottega di giovannino finished off with a tasty macchiato and mimosa. Took a lot of great photos here. Finally, we finished off our Chianti vineyard tour at a small place just outside of Costellina in Chianti. La Croce was a small operation. Had a solid Super Tuscan and a great 2006 Chianti Classico Reserva.

We did hit some unexpected turbulence in Siena, not expecting a large, sprawling city, but thank Jasper for roundabouts. They saved our butts on countless occasions…we may have enjoyed them a little too much.

We’ll catch up on Sienna the next go around.

Parma-Olive-Vine Goodbyes,

PS: Favorite quotes so far:

“Americans are always crying and running. Italians laugh and walk.” (Italian woman retold by a 21 year old from Brooklyn)

“How do pregnant women not drink? With all this wine??!” (Carrie)

“I got high once in VT.” (Random Canandian dude after introductions)

Charrie