Cruising through Chianti Country
What a magic day. Woke up to beautiful weather for a relaxing stroll to our meeting point about 20 minutes along the river. As usual we were about 30 minutes early for the 10 am start time but the rest of the gang were there as well. – except 2 ! Now these are small escorted wine tours for maximum of 8 plus the host. The other 4 people there were great and we were talking easily but as it passed 10 am expected the late comers to arrive and be a nuisance all day. They didn’t show and we left at 1010 – with extra room in the van! Knob kiss. Ilaria our hostess was fantastic with that winning combination of knowledge, charm and wit. I would need to check her birth certificate to confirm she was actually Italian! The drive up through the hills was great even on the ridiculously narrow roads. After about 45 minutes we stopped for our first wine tasting . The wine villas in Tuscanny are exactly what you expect – magnificent structures set amongst a jaw dropping scenery. We had a tour of the rather small winery before sampling 3 reds – no surprises the most expensive tasted the best. Then onto Panzano for lunch with the Mad Butcher. Very interesting place and lunch was basically more meat then you could poke a stick at – and I did poke mine because some of it was raw! Great group we had to socialise with so all too quickly the day was passing. Then it was onto a larger vineyard and even more stunning villa. Another tour and another 4 wines to taste – and chocolates. At both places we also got to sample some great olive oil. Our final stop on way home was in Greve for a Gelato and then back into Florence where we asked to be dropped off at the Palazzo de Michealangelo or something like that which had yet another, though slightly different, stunning vista of Florence, just on sunset. Judging by the hordes this was a well know fact!
The tour was organised by the Tuscan Wine Society @ 100€ each, great value. There are some things you can’t put a value on though and this was simply one of the best ever organised tours I have been on. I don’t play we’ll with others usually. Florence was fast becoming a firm favourite and we still had one more day to go
flashman181 