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Geo: 43.3187, 11.3305
Buonasera all:
It was a rainy day Sunday in Siena, so it was a great day for some indoor spirituality and a winery tour to a quaint hill town south of Siena, Montalcino, almost 2000' above sea level and the home of the most famous and robust product of the Sangiovese grape, Brunello di Montalcino.
The morning was spent at the Santuary of St. Catherine, which was created around her childhood home. She was known for persuading the pope to return to Rome from Avignon, France when she was a young Dominican nun, and after her death went on to become the patron saint of Siena and Europe.
In the afternoon, we took a field trip to two wineries in the Montalcino area south of Siena -- one a small family winery within the old city walls, the other in an agricultural area SE of Montalcino -- to explore Brunello di Montalcino. We toured wine cellars, then sat down to a lively tasting of a flight of red wines at each winery. Oh my! Good thing we had a designated driver, who also happened to be an expert sommelier.
We brought one 'souvenir' home from the tour, a very nice 2007 Vigna Piaggia
Brunello di Montalcino from Abbadia Ardenza Winery. As you'll read further on in this blog entry, we will NOT be bringing that home with us when we return to the States on Wednesday.
Today, Monday April 30, was spent walking the streets and alleys of this intriguing city, revisiting some favorite places, and shopping for a few more souvenirs. We've finally figured out our way around these fortress-like streets! We ended the day at a fabulous, quaint trattoria around the corner from our B&B, Trattoria La Tellina, for the best dinner of this Italian sojourn. And that's saying a LOT, since there seems to be no such thing as bad food in Italy. We've eaten well, and the scales will probably bear that out when we return.
But the meal tonight was to die for -- grilled eggplant, spaghetti alla putanesca, grilled fresh-caught sea bass, mixed greens, dolce of homemade tiramisu and panna cotta, and wine. The wine? Remember that nice little Brunello we brought home yesterday? Well, the trattoria let us bring it and opened it for us, and it was a simply divine dining companion.
Cheers. Slainte. Salute.
Mike and Sharon/
Dad and Mom
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Over Siena rooftops to the Tuscan countryside
ashley bednarek
non-member comment
It sounds like the perfect day and nite to me. Love all the pics Sir Charles ran 55 minutes today so very proud than it was off to work. He greeted me with a happy tail when I returned home. Now we are chillin out watching Mr. and Mrs. Smit
h and eating kettle corn. Thanks for including me in your excursion.