Wine Tasting in the Hills of Florence

The plan was to go for a run before our day of wine touring and tasting. We surprised ourselves by waking up in time. Following Giulio outside the entrance to La Limonaia, we were shown a great but challenging running trail through the hills of Bagno a Ripoli. The first part of our route took us down narrow, gravel winding roads. On the way back, the uphill climb took the wind out of me, but the views more than made up for the intense cardio workout. For breakfast, Christina went easy on the spread per our request, so as to not waste as much as we did yesterday. However she did make us scrambled eggs and topped it with fresh Thyme herbs and Italian cherry tomatoes…simple, yet delicious.
By 10:30am, we were in Giulio’s Range Rover on the way to Fattoria Le Sorgenti (a local winery) where we picked up our guide, Cristian. A 32-year old, Siena-born possible “friend of Dorothy”, Cristian explained the history of the winery, as we toured some of the 16 hectares of land where the different grape varietals are grown. The views of the Tuscan countryside were even better than any movie could ever capture. After the four-wheel drive tour of the vineyards, Giulio drove us back to the wine cellar and Christian explained the function of each stainless steel tank and oak barrel. Cristian has worked at Le Sorgenti for the past five years and is a certified sommelier with a degree in Horticulture/Viticulture. Lucky for him, he has been childhood friends with the son of Le Sorgenti’s owners, and now lives in the main villa on the beautiful hillside property. He gave us a tour of the lovely B&B, and then we were shown into the tasting/dining room.
Our tasting included three different wines (one white and two reds). All three glasses were paired with three separate antipasti dishes. The arugula salad topped with cherry tomatoes, red bell peppers, extra virgin olive oil, and a homemade pear jam was the first delectable course. The main entrée was homemade pasta tossed with fresh pesto. The final entrée was the very popular Italian combination of melon and prosciutto (definitely not a favorite of mine or Alex’s). I have learned that even though true Italian cuisine is much more basic than any that you would find in the US, the herb spices and fresh ingredients make it much more flavorful. Of course, the tour ended with a visit to the wine shop, where Alex and I bought bottles of both wine and olive oil. Giulio drove us back to the hotel and we crashed for a couple of hours, partaking in the enviable European siesta tradition.
Unfortunately, the WiFi access recently stopped working at La Limonaia and isn’t supposed to be fixed until after the weekend, hopefully. It’s been challenging not having easy access to either a phone or Internet access, so Alex and I decided to take the bus into Florence again for the evening. We easily found an Internet café and chatted with family and friends. Morris, a no-nonsense former private investigator and current owner of the Internet café, gave Alex a tour of the nearby area while I was blogging. He introduced Alex to the owner of a local, non-touristy restaurant called Neo. Following Morris’s recommendation, we walked over to Neo and enjoyed another amazing meal in Florence. Bruschetta has become our preferred antipasti, followed by some type of Italian salad. Surprisingly enough, that night we tried the arugula salad with fresh porcini mushrooms in place of our usual caprese salad. Finally, we ended with homemade rigatoni pasta topped with a tomato and eggplant marinara sauce. Alex selected a bottle of Rosso di Montepulciano in preparation for our upcoming visit to that medieval village tomorrow.
It’s funny, but I find myself still in a hurry when it comes to eating meals in Europe. It is difficult to change what has become so ingrained in me growing up in the US. If the wait staff doesn’t visit the table often and if the food delivery isn’t quick in the US, it is not uncommon for me to not return to that restaurant (unless the food more than makes up for the terrible service). However, eating meals in Europe is a much different story. Although the servers are as friendly as their American counterparts, they rarely bother their customers during the meal and come to the table only if they are called on or are delivering the food. The food arrives when it arrives, and the restaurants aren’t in a hurry to turnover tables as quickly as possible. It is also not unusual for people to start eating dinner after 9 or 10 at night. Our meals have been two to three hour events, and last night’s dinner was no different. After we finally finished our bottle of wine, our waiter Alberto started pouring us more wine out of the bottle that he and his friends were drinking. Besides them, Alex and I were the only ones left in the restaurant and it was nearing midnight. We hung out for a little while to talk story with them, until Mossimo (the owner) called us a cab for our ride back to La Limonaia. We thought that the last bus had already came and went, but ironically once we pulled out onto the main road, our taxi driver was directly behind the bus that would’ve taken us back home. Oh well, we were too tired and comfortable to get out to try to catch the bus.

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