This is a road? Really?

We are getting packed up to leave our current hotel, the Porta Roca, and I thought I'd take a moment to write more.  It has definitely been my favorite stopping point so far.  When it was storming, its been very soothing listening to the ocean outside our window.  Not too many tourists since it is the end of the season here, so its been fairly quiet.  But back to the trip.

I ended with the trip to Multepuliciano.  Driving home that evening was exciting as the GPS was proving to be difficult.  We took country roads all the way home instead of the bigger highway so it wouldn't cost us anything.  At one point it started pouring rain, and the roads were so tiny and windy that I was pretty nervous.  We made it back to the villa just fine and planned for the next day.

Friday, we went up the north wine road through the Chianti region.  This region was gorgeous.  Hills and trees and ancient ruins spotted throughout the valleys and on the hill tops.  Every time we turned there was a new site to be seen and lots of pictures were taken.  We had heard about a place called Badia a Passignano , where there was a famous restaurant and it was the home of one of the oldest wine makers in the world.  The normal road to the small town was closed, and we had to take a detour...it was a dirt path.  To remind you, we are driving a tiny Ford Fiesta.  No four-wheel drive on this thing!  And it kept going and going and going and we saw many other cars give up and turn around, but we kept going.  When we finally got there, the road became paved and it showed us a beautiful medieval abbey, and a quaint little town.  Probably the smallest town we have been in so far.  We had a very expensive lunch at the Osteria di Passignano  and tried some delicious wines (haven't had many this trip that haven't been good) and took off on what we thought was a paved road out of the town.  It wasn't...but it was a shorter trip than the one coming in!

Our next stop was Greve in Chianti, where there is a wine bar that holds hundreds of types of Italian wines and oils for you to try.  You buy a card with a certain amount of money on it, and you can try any of the stations that are set up for you.  It was a lot of fun, however, I ended with a sip of Grappa and that did not sit so well with me.  I was done wine tasting for the day, but we had a few more stops along the way.

We briefly drove through the town of Radda in Chianti, but there didn't seem like much to see and do other than yet another medieval cathedral, so we read our guide book and heard about a nearby town called Volpaia.  Volpaia was a small hilltop town, where the residents are all winemakers.  They have turned the old city into a winery where all the machinery is hidden by the ancient walls.  We unfortunately were too late for the tour, but I'd definitely like to go back and see more of it.  Robert tried some of their wines and I tried their Olio (olive oil) and red wine vinegar.  We are bringing some samples home with us, it was so good!

That was our last stop in the Chianti area, and we decided that since we had such an expensive lunch, we would buy our own food and have it at home.  Since it was our finally evening in Tuscany, I asked Robert to pick me up one of the profiteroles we had had the other night...He did and made me a very happy camper!

Its time to check out of the Porta Roca, so I will continue with our trip out of Tuscany and to the sea at a later time!