Petersontravels

We took a boat from Salo to the peninsula of Sirmione, about 50 minutes away.  This is a very historic part of Lake Garda, and had a lot of tourists.  I had never even heard of this place previously.  Here is the group on the boat getting ready to depart.

Underway.  Great view of Salo in the background.

Better view of the Peterson’s….and the Hanson’s!

Closeup moment.  That “Favorite Tool” t-shirt is about ready for retirement.  I think I’ve worn it in at least five countries so far.

Sirmione is a peninsula that juts out into Lake Garda.  This is the beautiful Castle of Sirmione, which started construction in 1259.  You walk across the drawbridge to get into the actual town of Sirmione.

Here is a beautiful beach on the other side of the castle, our guide said it was called Priest’s Beach since it was adjacent to the church.  I’m not seeing David Hasselhoff as a Priest….no matter how hard I try!  I understand the German’s would love his sermons if he was!

If only we could get our crappy Bougainvillea to grow like this one!  Holy crap is that awesome!

This is the end of the peninsula, looking north.  What a view!

We then went into the area of Sirmione with the Roman Ruins, that date back to 100 BC.

I can just imagine how amazing this Roman Villa was for the participants at the time.  The incredible location on Lake Garda had to be very rewarding for those maurading murderers from the south!

This is the site of a Roman Bathhouse.  The arched areas are where they would creat fires to heat the water from below.  You have to envision the floor of the bath was just above the arched areas.

I have to throw Kim in here and there to add beauty and ambiance!

These structures were to support the upper portico, which no longer exists unfortunately.

This view is exactly what the Roman’s would be looking at as they ate their grapes and tallied their daily kills of innocent people.

This was our restaurant of the day.  The scallops were AMAZING!!!  Everything else was good, but damn, Gordon Ramsey would be proud!  I can hear him now, “Those scallops were cooked perfectly”.  If they had fucked it up, all bets are off!

This is a must visit if you are visiting Sirmione.  All of the food was excellent!

Here are Chris and T double fisting it!  Thank goodness there is a photo to explain what I just wrote!

I took this photo because I wanted to be sure I knew this wine was EXCEPTIONAL!  If you see this, buy it.  You will not be sorry!

Here we are getting off the boat in Salo.  More fun awaits tonight!

Tonights wine featured Fattori, who make several wines.

My absolute favorite was a white wine called Trebianno, with a rolling R. If Tinto Wines in Virginia gets this in stock I will be buying cases!  Wow!

Here are the ladies of Fattori.  Thanks for bringing us such excellent wines!

The harvest moon made an appearance tonight.

As did Aditi, one of the lovely guests on this wine tour!

Tomorrow we are on Lake Garda again, heading to another winery.  Life is truly rough.  I don’t know how we handle retirement, to be quite honest.  Sigh.

 

We departed from Milan on our six day Northern Italy wine tour with Tinto Travels, run by Peter and Nina Brinkman.  We got connected with Peter and Nina when we stayed in their hotel in Evora, Portugal.  When we departed from their hotel I checked the box “Let us know if you are interested in our wine excursions”, or something to that effect.  I marked an “x” in the yes box, and the rest is history.  We were supposed to do this trip last year, but the Wuhan Flu got in the way.  Fortunately we were able to do it this year!

Our first stop was Azienda Agricola Lo Sparviere winery in the Franciacorta region of Italy, known for their sparkling wine.  This sparkling wine has become quite famous, and rivals the French Champagne regions, particularly within Italy.

This winery is owned by the Beretta family…the same family that makes the famous weapons.  I’m liking this sparkling wine more and more!  Great wine holder!

The region has this Morainic soil from glaciers that came out of the local Alps, and make for excellent soil for vineyards.  These soils are depicted by the white rocks below.

This is a Chris Stotka version of wine storage (Chris is a close friend, who likes to hunt, and also happers to be on this wine trip).

After visiting the winery, we had lunch at this truly excellent restaurant in the city of Revanto, Trattoria El Gallo.  The beef carpacio was excellent, but the Chantrelle Pie, made with Chantrelle mushrooms, was out of this world good, and I normally abhor mushrooms!  Sorry, no photos of the food here, just the good company.

Peter Brinkman in deep conversation.  Or he’s thinking, did I leave the stove on?  You’d have to ask him.

The food and wine was flowing freely.  Nobody was going hungry!

This is Elena Ercole, who is associated with the wines we were tasting, explaining the characteristics of the currently poured wine.

Next we retired to the inside of the restaurant for the rest of our meal.

This wine was truly excellent!  I also think this is what we called the Italian kids in 6th grade who were acting like dicks.

Kim really liked this light red wine from the Piemonte region.  We will be visiting this area towards the end of our trip.

Paul Turina is Peter’s import manager for their wine store in Virginia.  If you give him a chance he will talk your ear off….but I thought he had a lot of good shit to say, to be honest.  Thanks Paul!  Keep talking!

I have to say, the pasta dish we had at Trattoria del Gallo, homemade Casoncelli with melted butter and Grana Padano and Sage, is the best pasta dish I’ve had in at least 3 years, possibly longer.  Holy crap is this good!!!  This is worth a drive if you are anywhere near Revanto!

I thought this was the best wine of the day!  Colline Teramane Montepulciano D’Abruzzo Riserva.  Truly excellent!

After lunch we drove to our hotel (Bellerive Hotel) for the next three nights, right on the edge of Lake Garda in the small down of Salo.  Excellent view from our balcony.

That’s Peter and Nina down below, and Chris Stotka on his balcony staring up at me.

Kim and I took a walk along the waterfront and I actually pushed her around on this Merry Go Round ( I was shocked it wasn’t locked in place!)

The sky is just beautiful here, playing off the water.

We walked into the church shown above, where they were just wrapping up service.  I was surprised at the beauty of this small chuch in this small town.

The wine group hanging by the pool.  Surprisingly drinking wine, and assorted cocktails.

One last shot from the balcony.  Can’t wait for tomorrow!