As you may or may not know, my father has a great appreciation for wine. Since we have an "in" with a small winery up in Montalcino (you may remember it as the one we took Dan's parents to) we decided to do a road trip to Montalcino, Assisi, Spoleto, Orvieto, and Civita di Bagnoregio. Our first stop is Montalcino!
It's easier to have proof I was on an adventure when someone other than me has a camera.
We had about an hour to kill before our wine event, so we wandered around in the blustery and cold hill-top town of Montalcino first.
Another cute little church.
I wonder how many churches I will have visited by the time we move back to the USA.
I don't even take photos of everyone I go into.
I found this statute in Montalcino. I have no idea what it's on about.
Look how cute the little town is.
Rolling Tuscan countryside. It was beautiful.
The wind was particularly vicious up by the Montalcino castle thingie.
But it was worth the buffeting for this view.
While wandering we thought lunch would be a good idea. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. Every restaurant was packed and we didn't have the time to wait. We finally found a little sandwich shop in which we elbowed our way onto a standing table and scarfed down our food. Wine tasting on an empty stomach may have proven entertaining, but not good for driving to our hotel afterwards.
With our wanderings completed we headed over to Il Palazzone to meet Esther. My mom had been getting ambiance and horses, it was now my dad's turn to get something he wanted. Wine.
The fermentation tanks of Il Palazzone. Dad for scale.
The doors into the storage and tasting room. Il Palazzone produces wonderful Brunello. Our guide?...taste master?...host? let's go with host. Our host, Esther, was wonderful. We talked about Brunello, but she and my dad had some lovely discussions about Rieslings as my dad's wine group is having a Riesling tasting this Fall. Esther is German and had much to discuss about the German wine. After the tasting we crammed my little car's trunk (Citroen C1) full of wine. We had planned to bring Dan's car, a station wagon/sedan hatch back thing because it had more room, but it was in the shop. I may or may not now be holding wine for my dad until we move back to the USA.
Our hotel for the evening was about 20 minutes outside of Montalcino at Castello Brunello in Sant'Angelo in Colle. We had an apartment to ourselves. I thought it was too cold to use the pool, but a little boy also staying at the hotel thought otherwise. I think it must have been heated or he is secretly a polar bear.
The view from my room. I could get used to this.
It was too early to eat dinner, so we went wandering for a bit around town.
Ugh. Sorry. I keep giving you photos of terrible views.
Why does everything have to be so picturesque and green and rolling?
So many quaint farms and rolling hillsides it could make you sick.
This town has a church, two restaurants, and is home to about 160 people. We ended up getting drinks in a tavern/quick-e-mart style place where dad purchased some lemon shortbread cookies.
After our drinks we made our way back to the hotel for a nap.
There's lots of evening naps in Italy, for me anyway.
I think it's because they don't eat dinner until 8pm at the earliest.
What else are you going to do?
Mom wanted a picture of our room from the outside.
Dad is quite pleased with his cookies.
Wandering back to one of the two restaurants we had to go through this old city gate.
I mostly liked the light changes from one side to the other.
Oh look, more glorious vistas.
The sun was starting to set and I was trying to get all the colors,
but I didn't have a tripod, so it's not great.
The sun set and we went to dinner at Trattoria Il Pozzo. We each picked a tasting menu and it was all quite delectable. I had the most delicious asparagus flan. I didn't even know you could have savory flans. I didn't even know you could have flan that wasn't just a vanilla custard thing with some sort of sauce. It may be one of the best things I have eaten in Italy.
Tomorrow we will adventure out to Assisi and stay the night in Spoleto.
This concludes our adventures in Montalcino and for the day.
