Day 11

Another early morning for us. It was very hard to get out of bed this morning, but at least it was nice to have a shower where you could actually stretch out your arms in. We all gathered in the lobby at 6:30, ate breakfast at the hotel buffet and then hopped on the bus. Most of us tried to sleep as we headed back south into Tuscany. I just watched the scenery outside. They say Tuscany is beautiful....that's no exaggeration. Chef said this is the best time of the year to be here, in the summer it gets hot and all the fresh green grass and flowers turn into hills of dry grass. Any pictures I take just can't do it justice. We drove through hills and up mountains, we stopped by a local farmer herding his sheep. Everywhere you turn you saw beautiful old houses sitting on the perfect hills. A "bad view" from your window probably doesn't have an equivalent in Italian because I don't think it could possible exist here. Our destination was a winery where they produce brunello and chianti called Donatella Cinelli Colombini. It is owned by a woman that grew up in a family of wine producers and helped her father with it all of her life. When she inherited it she decided to change a lot of the goals of the company. For one all the wine production is done by women. They have 5 women who create the wine from start to finish because there isn't a lot of agreement that women can handle it here. It is seen as a men's profession. They have men help with the picking of the grapes, but everything else is handled by the women. Donatella has become a spokeswoman for Tuscany wines in general because she organized with vineyards all over a event on the last weekend in May every year for wineries to open their doors to the public for tours and tastings, because a lot of wine makers used to believe that they shouldn't share their secrets or where the produce their wine. They are most famous for their Brunello because it has been recognized by American and European wine reviewers with high marks. We got a tour of their facility and its pretty spectacular, but most interesting was the history our guide gave us about Montalcino, the city where the wine is produced. All throughout history the city was valued by Siena and Florence for its strategic position and their wealth in the tanning trade. There came a point where the two cities went to battle over the city and left the people of Monalcino to decide their loyalties. Not knowing who would be the victor, or whose side to pick, the Montalcino general led his army to the appointed battlefield with deliberate slowness. They would take so much time just getting there that by the time time they arrived the battle would be over and the victor would be decided and they could say they were sorry they couldn't of helped the victor to win because of course they wanted to join them the entire time. Siena won the battle, but they were upset that the Montalcino soldiers hadn't been there to prove their loyalty so they made them bury all the dead, on both sides. To this day if someone wants to insult someone from Montalcino they call them the Italian word for gravediggers or undertakers. The tour included several paintings of some of these scenes from Montalcino history, including a painting of the Montalcino soldiers burying the dead. After the tour we had a tasting of the Brunello right there in the wine cellar. We left shortly after because the owner Donatella, had arranged a special lunch for us at her restaurant. The bus headed up into the moutains, but after 30 minutes we came to a closed road that had a rockslide that was being cleaned up, so we had to turn around and find an alternate route up, which took about 1.5 hours. The restaurant was part of a bed and breakfast on top of a mountain overlooking valleys in either direction. We had passed by another town on an opposite hill that you could clearly see was a wealthy neighborhood. If you have a large house and a pool in Tuscany, you must have some money. The bed and breakfast was pretty large, you could rent a place for 130 euros for the first night and additional 30 euros a night after that. They had a park, tennis courts, and many other amenities. Not a bad place to spend some time at all. The dinner they prepared for us was excellent. We had 6 courses over 2 hours with a tasting of 4 wines throughout the meal. They really take care of their guests here, but we have way too much food. After dinner we walked around the area a bit and a lot of us bought some of the Donatella wine. I bought some Brunello, I am not crazy about it, I am sure I'll save it for a special occasion. Our guide told us that in restaurants they are selling the same bottles for 120 euros each and we bought ours for 25 euros each. We got onto the bus once again and headed to another small Tuscan town, Piensa. The town looked like it was out of a 50's sitcom, not because of the style of houses, but more because of the small town atmosphere. The little shops had an awesome variety of interesting art, tools, and food. We only spent about an hour here, Chef had just stopped to get some cheese from a producer here to use in the restaurant. We all got to watch the sun set over Tuscany as we drove away. We were back in Orvieto about an hour later, which we were all happy to see. It's amazing how comfortable we all became here so quickly. We were all exhausted though, so for most of us it was time to call it a night. I have an 8 am Italian cooking lesson in the morning and I am badly in need of some rest.