Tuscany & Its Wines

Friday we awoke to another gorgeous day in Tuscany but instead of spending the day in the city of Florence we took a bus to the Tuscan countryside to Gaiole in Chianti to take a tour of the Castello di Brolio which is a small castle that in no way compares to the Disney Castle in Germany that we visited last weekend. We then had a mini tour of the wine cellars and the areas in which the wine is produced. We saw where the wine is initially fermented, where the wine is aged in the French new oak barriques, where the wine is placed to age in the bottles (the red wines are aged horizontally so that the cork is always touching the wine to help in the oxidation process), and finally we saw the labeling and packing of the wines (almost completely done by only machines), it was really neat to see the machines at work and the stamping of the labels on the boxes. We then proceeded to our wine tasting where we tasted the Brolio Chianti Classico DOCG, 2007 which was very good and made of about 90% of Tuscany's Sangiovese grape which I have grown to like because of my wine class but during this tasting, I actually preferred the other wine, Casalferro Toscana IGT, 2005 because it only had about 60% of the Sangiovese grape and more Merlot, giving it a drier more tannic taste. I have really grown to love red wine since being here in the Tuscan region. We were all starving by this point and ready to chow down. We were not sure of what to expect because the brochure said "light lunch" but we were pleasantly surprised by the wine, cold cut meat selection, bruschetta, bread, lasagna, and apple dessert. After our delicious lunch, we transferred to Montalcino, another area in Tuscany to visit a medieval fortress where we walked on the terrace above and were able to overlook much of the Tuscan countryside. The views of the Tuscan countryside are very different from the views overlooking the city center, they are beautiful and you can oversee all of the fields and vineyards. Tuscany is a must-see when visiting Italy.

We arrived back in Florence later that evening where we took-away pizza and carried the boxes back to our apartments and again everyone stared at us like we were crazy but yes, we are American, and yes, we like Pizzza, and yes, we like to take away pizza because that's what you do in America. It really is funny how many people stare and you and make comments because you're carrying a pizza box down the street. We then got ready for La Notte Bianca, or White Night in Florence where the shops and museums are open until midnight and there is music in every piazza until 6am and basically people just flood the streets. I am not really sure of the meaning behind it but I can just say that the night had potential to be great but I really just hate crowds sometimes and it irritates me when you can't walk in a straight line down the street, I really think it may have been worse than NYC, I honestly do not know if I could ever go to New York City for their New Year's Eve Party... wayyyyy too many people for my liking. It was a fun night though and the city was very much alive. Our favorite gelato place was even open late and we got gelato at 2:30 AM... it was amazing! :) However, I feel like I am coming down with a cold and could not make myself stay out until 6am although one day, I will wake up really early and be able to see the sun rise in Firenze!