If he’s going to stay?

Breakfast was included in our hotel stay, and was worth whatever they built into our room fee. There was a large variety of breakfast items, but, they also provided a nice selection of croissants.

Today was devoted almost entirely to Tusk-any and its wines. Tuscany is the home of Chianti and we sampled the wines of three different vineyards. By the time QC and I, and 13 of our of our new BFFTDs (best friends for the day) were at the third tasting we were educated on the difference between Chianti and Chianti Classico, Reserve and Super Tuscans.

I photographed the Tuscany countryside from a bus moving at 60kph. Remember, this wasn’t a sightseeing tour and the driver wasn’t stopping. This was a tour to start drinking wine at 10:00am. Our first stop was at San Michele a Torri, in Scandcicci.

Chianti Classico requires a rocky soil with lots of clay while regular Chianti requires a softer sandy/clay soil. The two different soils can be on opposite sides of the same hill.

Our second stop was at Azienda Agricola Casa Emma. Here we sampled four wines (one white) and were served a traditional Tuscan light lunch.

The wines were striking similar to the first tasting, with the same or similar colors, flavors, grapes, growing conditions and names. They were good, but nothing extraordinary.

The tour guide then took us to a small Tuscan village for a rest (and to let the morning wine wear off, I think.) QC and I, and our BFFTDs, wandered through the tiny village of Greve in Chianti for a break to stretch our legs, or in search of coffee, gelato or souvenirs.

Our last stop was at San Casciano in Val di Pesa. Now this is what an Italian Vineyard should look like, although the others made fair impressions. This vineyard was the smallest of the three, making about 80,000 bottles a year. The other two were in the 100’s of thousand range. The wine was typical Chianti which, to me, means it is dry, full bodied, ruby red, fruity and delicious.

You might think our adventure for today was over but au contraire. We were supposed to walk around the enormous building where the tour company dropped us to find a taxi. We walked about a half mile before QC had the brilliant idea to stop at a pharmacy and ask them how to hail a cab. They in fact called one for us which was there within 10 minutes. Bravo aux Italiens!

As we were waiting I saw a beautiful construction sight next to the pharmacy. I took a picture of it and when looked at it I noticed it was all but ruined by the red in the sky. Oh well, when you are on a roll, allowances must be made.

NOW you might think our adventure for the day is over, not so! The taxi dropped us off at our hotel. Right across the piazza there is a pizza restaurant with an empty table which we quickly occupied. Our first slice of pizza in Italy was almost worth the wait. Another glass of wine didn’t hurt.

Not wanting such an excellent adventure to end we went across the piazza there was a cafe which sells some beautiful Italian pastries. Tables were waiting, who are we to refuse. A number of men were smoking hookahs outside so we took a table removed from them. A couple of pastries, hot tea and drinking chocolate later our adventure ended for the day.