We have spent the majority of our time in Tuscany exploring the Chianti region. Meandering down the winding country roads taking in the beautiful views of gentle rolling hillsides covered in grape vines and olive trees and dotted lines of cypress trees. In amongst this vista are the old farmhouses and the odd castle made of stone with red terracotta roofs - it transforms you back in time. Every 3 - 5 minutes you pass through another delightful small village with a smattering of houses and which may include a delicatessen and pasticceria.
We love going into a delicatessen to get the fillings for our sandwiches, they sell cold cuts of meat, cheese, antipasto, wines, oils and some fresh bread. Will it be prosciutto, salami, pancetta, which cheese (fresh, medium, strong)? We make a small greeting with the owner and point to the meats and cheeses we want and use fingers to agree on the weight! After much chatting which may include NZ and our champion rower Mahe Drysdale we wander off with our small packages - as you revisit these places every second day for a new selection of lunch ingredients.
Chianti has some amazing hilltop villages that are must see's. We visited San Grimignano with its medieval skyscrapers (14 of the original 70 remain), Monteriggione which was a fortress and has a 14th century church and intact walls and many torture museums which Connor enjoyed (see his blog), Siena was the largest with many beautiful piazzo's including the famous the Piazzo campo where a famous horse race is held each year. Volterra has a 3,000 year history. There were also the beautiful little villages within 10km of where we stayed in Chianti in Greve at an agrisutrismo which was located on a working farm with grapes and olive trees overlooking the village (about 1.2km walk through the vines to get there).
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| Siena - Piazza Campo |
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| Duomo Siena |
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| Siena |
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| San Gimignano |
We had a wonderful stone farmhouse - a former haybarn and the kids loved the swimming pool. We also had a wonderful day in Florence that Katie has written a blog about.
We visited a spectacular castle winery and did a tour of the castle, the cellars and had a wine tasting. We learned that true Chianti top quality wine must have a symbol of the Black Rooster on the bottles neck. The Black Rooster symbol can only be used on the Chianti Classico wine, this is regulated by a government department to ensure specific rules are followed in the creation of this wine. The vines must not be watered using only natural irrigation hence vines are planted on sloping hillsides.
We have discovered a very special place of Italy here in the Chianti region of Tuscany and one day we will be back.
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