Petersontravels

On the final day of our Tuscan wine trip we checked out of our hotel and headed north towards Florence.  Before we departed I noted a fog bank in the valley below the Castle and had to get some photos.  Very cool!

The fog we saw on the valley floor would be repeated quite a bit during the first part of our drive.

We drove north for over an hour until we reached our first stop of the day, Castello di Monsanto.  This was our last winery visit of the trip.

We had excellent weather so we took a vineyard tour.  You can see a platform in this photo at the top of the hill and right in the middle of the vineyards.

Gorgeous views in every direction from the platform!

Group photo time!

One last shot as we were heading back down the hill (“Poggio” in Italian).

We took a tour of the aging cellars, with more of the huge neutral-oak tanks.

They also have some wine aging in a tunnel that connects the winery owners villa with the wine making building.  This long tunnel (maybe 200 meters?) was built completely by hand.

There are spots along the sides of the tunnel where they are storing wine, and you could see roots sticking out of the tunnel walls.  We are about 30 feet below ground here.

The library wines were in easy reach of the winery owner.  Not sure how often he comes down to grab a bottle, but I’d surely try this 1962, my birth year.

Here is the lineup of wines we tried in their tasting area, directly adjacent to the tunnel.

This is where I had my two favorite wines of the tour!  First up is the 2022 Chianti Classico Riserva, an excellent expression of Sangiovese!  Love this wine!!

The second wine that we were very impressed by was not supposed to be part of our tasting, but after three of us asked separately about it they opened this Chardonnay, which is excellent!

William is hopefully already working on acquiring some of these two wines from his contacts in the wine business (he works for a distributor).

Our last stop was lunch at the Michelin Star restaurant Osteria di Passignano, set amongst the medieval Abbey of Passignano.

The entrance to the restaurant was very inviting.

The Tortelli Mugellani with Wild Boar Ragout was excellent!  I stopped taking photos after the first course, but it was all amazing!

Our tour director Filippo pulled out all the stops for this final meal, as they were pouring some great wines!  They were all really good but the Tignanello and Solaia, both by Antinori, were excellent!!  What a great lunch!

After lunch we drove the final 45 minutes to our hotel in Florence where we said goodbye to our expert wine guide Alessia and our wonderful driver Max.  Thanks so much for everything you two did for us!

We checked into the Hotel Bernini Palace, located perfectly in the center of historic Florence, just in time to take a walk as the sun was starting to set.  A short 3 minute walk from the hotel is the stunning Basilica of Santa Croce.

The area just above the main entrance was still lit up by the sun.  We will be visiting this church later during our time in Florence.

To the left of the church is this statue of Dante Aligheri, the famed classical Italian writer of “Dante’s Inferno” fame.  The statue was built by Enrico Pazzi in 1865.  I’ve gotta admit, I haven’t read any of Dante’s works.

One of the wonders of Florence is the plethora of “wine windows” along the narrow roads and alleyways of the city.  You hit a button or ring a bell and order a glass of wine through the little window.  These windows started in 1559 when Cosimo Medici allowed noble families to sell surplus wine from their homes, bypassing taxes.  These small openings became more important in the 17th century during the bubonic plague, allowing safe transactions without close contact.

We still had some light so we walked along the Arno River, with this view of the Uffizi Gallery, a definite highlight of Florence we visited the next day.

Also on the Arno River is the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, which seems to be perpetually packed with tourists.

After crossing back over the Arno River we turned back towards our hotel and had this view of Palazzo Vecchio.  It seems everything looks better at sunset!

One last shot from our first night, the Fountain of Neptune directly adjacent to the Palazzo Vecchio.  It was commissioned by Cosimo Medici in 1559 to commemorate his son’s marriage.  It sustained considerable damage over the years and was restored in 2019.

Coming up, we have a guided tour of the Uffizi and Accademia galleries, the main reason most tourists visit Florence!

On our 6th day of “Discovering Tuscany” we visited the small town of Pienza, known for it’s relationship with Pecorino cheese. On the way there we visited a couple of sites right off the road. First was this artwork set amongst a group of cypress trees.

I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Maybe a fancy wine decanter?? An alien with weird appendages?

Our next stop was supposed to be a surprise by our driver, but I ruined it a few days prior while asking if he could stop here. This villa was seen in the movie “Gladiator” as the home of Maximus (Russel Crowe).

Here is a shot avoiding the gate. Multiple scenes for the movie were shot in Tuscany.

We then stopped in the medieval town of Pienza for a quick stroll. Here is the central square.

A view of the Pienza Cathedral. We walked inside but the exterior view seemed more photo worthy.

We then stopped at a local Pecorino producer, Caseificio Cigusi, for a “light picnic”.

Alessia and Max started pulling out cheeses and meats….and bread and wine….this was supposed to be a snack! We had lunch scheduled in about an hour. You will not go hungry on one of these trips!! I think Max was looking at the plastic cups and thinking “we’re serving wine with this?”.

The view from the picnic grounds is stunning. Every view in Tuscany seems to be stunning! In the background is the medieval town of Montepulciano. Yes, every town in Tuscany appears to be “medieval”.

The cheese place had these rocks set up as cute little sheep.

It’s almost like they are inviting some drunk idiot to get a photo here!

Maybe 10 minutes away was our second stop of the day, Salcheto winery.

During our tour of the fermentation area our guide advised that they were using these new tanks made by a company called Mythos. This system captures the CO2 gases from fermenting grapes and then uses it to control the process, even using the gas to push the wine up over the top of the “cap” (when wine ferments a cap is formed on top made of all the skins and seeds).

They even had one of these Mythos tanks in the aging area. I have two main hobbies, wine and high-end audio. I’m starting to look at some of these winery owners/winemakers the same as high-end audio geeks I know, spending ungodly sums on interconnect cables and crazy expensive amplifiers because they think it might sound one iota better. I’ll let you decide where I stand.

Here is the lineup of wines. I found it telling that their best wine (to our group) was their white, the Vernaccia on the right, a varietal which I have not tried previously. It was excellent!! The Riserva was good, but their flagship Salco was not for me. I will be keeping an eye open for Vernaccia in the future.

The “light lunch” after the Pienza “snack” was a bit much for me! The winery does command an awesome view of Montepulciano!

After our lunch we stopped in Montepulciano for a brief visit. This is the view looking east from the edge of the town. Lake Trasimeno can be seen in the far background.

Piazza Grande in the middle of town has several impressive buildings! This is the home of their City Council.

While directly adjacent is the Cathedral of Santa Maria. I loved the plain exterior of this church!

We walked for a ways along the narrow streets of the town until it started getting pretty steep. This is a main road that cars kept driving down!

This little town must have 20 churches!

There were little spots off the road with viewpoints. This is looking towards the west. A little hazy, but we have seen multiple fires burning among the vineyards and farms, so that makes sense.

Later that night at the hotel we saw another epic sunset!

It just kept getting better and better! What a gorgeous place!

Coming up, our final day of the wine tour, with a winery and a Michelin Star restaurant in Chianti.