We were able to sleep in a bit today, since our scheduled wine tour at
Castello di Verrazzano in Greve wasn't until 11:00. We didn't have to
drive many miles, but it took awhile due to the narrow, winding roads
in the beautiful countryside. We saw red poppies growing wild on the
side of road and fields of yellow and white blossoms.
Our guide's name was Matteo. He was a young, dark Italian man in his
twenties who greeted us with a "Happy Birthday!" He must have reviewed
his emails and been reminded that we were in the country to celebrate
our 50th birthdays. Even so, we were impressed!
The castle and its surrounding fields of grape vines we're spectacular.
We were shown the process of making Castello di Verrazzano's Chinti.
The oak barrels held up to 6000 bottles of wine. Some had a little
door to clean the barrels about the size of a meat platter. Matteo made
a joke about having oompa loompas climbing in to do the cleaning!
He showed us a room full of dusty, aging bottles and Mary started
singing a country song about "dust on the bottle." Brenda, Donna,and
Beth weren't red neck enough to know what song she was singing about...
There was a 1962 bottle of wine, so we made sure to remind Matteo of
how that was a very good year since we were all born.
Kristin and Phillip, a couple from L.A., sat at our table during the
lunch. We were served a variety of meats, cheese, and wines to include
Chianti and a Super Tuscan. We bought a bottle of wine to drink later
in the week, and Matteo presented each of us with a jar of the castle's
special honey in honor of our birthdays.
We continued driving south to the city of Siena. Before the Black
Death in 1348, Siena rivaled in power with Florence, Venice, and Paris.
The bubonic plague stifled the city, so now it remains quite medieval.
Most of the buildings are the reddish "sienna" color.
On our hike to the center of town, we stopped at Fount Branda; we did
this, of course, for Brenda's sake. (plus, none of us minded sitting
to catch our breath...) We stopped into the Church of San Domenico, a
huge brick church with a lot of bizarre surprises inside. The relics
of this church included St. Catherine's thumb, the chain she often
whipped herself with, and her mummified head over the altar. Hmm. It
makes us glad we didn't have any saints in our home town churches!
Il Campo, the town's main square, is probably it's most familiar site.
Horse races are held there twice a year and nearly everyone in town
shows up to watch. The rest of the year, people use the plaza like
it's a park or beach. They lounge, bike, and picnic on it. We saw the
famous city hall tower and watched children chase pigeons while eating
dinner near the square.
The Duomo was one of our favorites on our trip. The outside facade was
pink, green, and white marble with statues on the roof. The inside
pillars were dark and light striped. We especially loved the statues
by Bernini, Michelangelo, and Dontelli as well as the Duomo Library
with its ancient books. This cathedral was decked to the max. The
inlaid marble floors themselves (to include large scenes of Bible
stories) took 200 years to complete.
We returned to our hotel exhausted. Our time in Tuscany is winding
down, and we're hating to think about it.
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