Montalcino & Chianti {Italy, Part 2}

We primarily rented a car (loved our little green panda!) so that we were able to drive through Tuscany. We were able to see some of the most beautiful hills in the Val d'Orcia on the way to Montalcino. This town is known for amazing porchetta and Brunello wine. Oh Brunello wine. We stopped in at the Enoteca in the Fortezza in town and did a tasting outside. We were literally tasting $100 bottles of wine...it was amazing.

Afterwards, we walked around town, stopping for lunch at Taverna del Grappolo Blu. It was a yummy little lunch with the best bruschetta of our trip - delicious! That night, we headed back to Montepulicano for the Bravio delle Botti, which is covered in my last post.

The next morning, we started our northern journey past Siena and on to Chianti. We had a lovely tasting at Dievole and would honestly love to stay here next time. The grounds were so lovely! We bought a few bottles for the road and kept driving north.

We stopped at Enoteca Falorni in Greve in Chianti for some more wine tasting and a light lunch. (We had big plans for dinner.) This place was awesome and had hundreds of wine on tap. You received a card which tallied up your fees. You could get a sip of most anything for less than a euro, but if you wanted more, and of the fancier wines, it could range up to 50/glass! Our tab was much smaller - around 30 Euros for wine and a cheese/meat plate.

Afterwards, we went to our hotel, Relais Fattoria Valle, and hung out by the pool until it was time to get ready for the main event.  This place was pretty awesome, but we just didn't get enough time to enjoy it. We based ourselves in Panzano in Chianti for one reason - L'Officina Della Bistecca!

This meal was basically one huge party. We met people from all over the world (shout out to Dougie and Penelope from London!) that were there to experience the genius that is Dario Cecchini. For 50 Euro/person, we had course upon wonderful course of meat, vegetables and wine. You definitely can't forget the wine! It was truly every meat-eater's dream. As we staggered home at the end of the night, we were extremely glad we had rented close by.

Up next: Not nearly enough time in Florence!

Montepulciano {Italy, Part 1}

Italy has been a trip that has been planned for a very long time. The stars aligned and it was finally time to go back and show Jason one of my very favorite places!

We caught a late flight from Houston to Rome (via Frankfurt) and rented a car for our drive north to Tuscany. I've been wanting to stay at a functioning agriturismo (a farm/winery subsidized by housing guests) since I toured one in my study-abroad days, so we booked 2 nights at one outside of Montepulciano. 

Corte del Cavalierino was wonderful! Though their English was limited, we had no real problems communicating with them. The room was huge and had an amazing view of their winery and Montepulciano. The only bad thing was the mosquitos and no mosquito nets! Holy cow, they were terrible - who knew? But combine this and the no A/C thing - we had the choice of being eaten alive or sweating all night. We chose the sweating.

Anyways, we figured the best way to beat jet lag was to head out at once into town and we wandered around for hours exploring this cute town. Jason also had his first gelato and loved it (he wasn't sure he was going to, crazy boy!).

Once we got back, we opened up a bottle of their winery's stock and took in the view. They also had a pool and hottub, so we sipped a glass under the stars. Not a bad first day in Italy!

We had heard that Montepulciano was holding a festival on our second night. The festival was called Bravio della Botti, which was essentially an uphill race to see who could push a wine barrel up to the main piazza the fastest between the 8 neighborhoods of Montepulciano. 

We claimed our spot along the route (crammed into a doorway) to watch the race. After a speedy passby, we followed the contestants and made our way up to the main piazza to watch the trophy (or banner in this case) ceremony. Of course the winning neighborhood was celebrating the most, but every neighborhood had booth of snacks and wine set up. We grabbed some fried donuts and wine - dinner of champions - and joined in the festivities!

Next up - Montalcino & Chianti