Florence: Art.

Yup, Florence, lot's of art. OOoooops, sorry David.

Vagliaglia Grape Festival

Sunday was the last and most important day of Vagliaglia's Grape Festival, so we drove over despite gathering clouds. The road to Vagliaglia from Castellina is a windy gravel road mostly through forests, but only 6 km. We got there around 3pm and it turned out that was just when the wine tasting was getting started. We bought a glass for 10 euros (you got 5 euros back when you returned the glass and its little bag for carrying it around in). They had probably 30 wines you could taste grouped into Chianti Classicos, Chianti Riservas, and non-Chiantis. At least 3 brands were made in Vagliaglia. Vagliaglia is small, smaller than Denton, but charming. It is of course built on a hill and all the buildings are stone. There are a few more modern apartment buildings on the outskirts of town. It may be that the only paved road that leads to Vagliaglia is the one going to Sienna.

Back to wine tasting - there were 2 sommeliers who could tell you about the wines, Italian only spoken. We would sample a few then wander off around town, return for another couple samples. Very few people were tasting when we got there. There were other booths around town selling food and 2 with games. I stopped at the sweets booth twice, the first time for a piece of apple cake and the second time for a crostata (sort of a soft jam tart) and plastic cup of vin santo, like sweet sherry.

There was a painting and photography contest. The photos were pretty good, the paintings pretty mediocre. A couple people had also put up displays of historic bric a brac and vintage clothes in their living rooms or terraces.

There was supposed to be a parade at 5pm and crowds gathered along the route, but it didn't get going until 5:30 by which time it had started to rain. I have never seen such a chaotic parade! It was a short route with a loop at the end where we were standing and no one seemed to know which way they were supposed to go around the loop and everyone ended up quickly jumping off floats at the end trying not to get wet as the rain intensified. This was followed by a demonstration of local dances. They held the dance despite the rain, and the kids seemed to get more and more into it the harder it rained! They got a lot of applause for their endurance. Several older young men played the "clowns", dressed in country garb and cheered the dancers on while swilling Chianti from a big jug.

We thought about staying on for the food tasting which was supposed to begin at 7pm, but it would be getting dark and we weren't sure about the condition of the road home in the rain. We left following signs for Radda because we thought that would be a paved road, but it turned out to be an even longer, narrower, steeper gravel road winding down into the valley. We did finally make it to Radda with daylight to spare! We are looking forward to exploring these roads further on a dry day.

Life in Castellina

We've enjoyed our stay in Castellina and thought you might enjoy a few more details about the town. The center is about 4 blocks long and 2 blocks wide with 2 blocks pedestrian only. At the north end of town is an Etruscan burial site (see photo with Jake) which we learned at the Archeological Museum in the center of town, is a rather important site. It is at the top of a hill and has 4 entrances oriented to the points of the compass. The museum has artifacts taken from the site, although the site had been pretty well plundered in the last few thousand years. The museum has laminated sheets in English that describe the artifacts exhibited in each of 4 rooms in the museum.. The museum is in one of the older buildings downtown, the Castle of Castellina, and you can climb up the tower (photo) for a nice view over the countryside.

There is a small post office where everyone seems to know everyone else, a grocery store that meets all basic needs, one pharmacy, two small groceries with fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses and cured meats, one butcher, a church, several boutiques, a bike store for biking clothes anyway, a couple art galleries and gift shops, at least 4 wine stores, 2 newspaper stands, 2 bar/coffee shops and at least 4 restaurants. Also the Hotel Scuarchilupi which manages our apartment. We visit the hotel to use the internet and have general guest privileges there. It seems to be a very nice hotel. The front desk staff are helpful and knowledgeable and the public rooms are lovely. There always seem to be a lot of tourists in town and sometimes a tour bus drops people off for a couple hours.

Our apartment “complex”, 2 apartments in the stone farmhouse and one larger one in a separate stone building, is also very pleasant. There is a pool area with lounge chairs, but it has been too chilly to swim. Each apartment has a terrace with chairs and table and a grill. The farmer/caretaker lives in the other half of the building with his family. The walls are so thick you seldom hear anything from other parts of the building. The apartment has nice touches like handmade metal railings, the refrigerator disguised as a cupboard and windows with screens (a rarity in Europe!). The kitchen is adequate and the bathroom's only flaw is a tiny shower with water temperatures that vary from scalding to chilly within minutes. It's a good idea to be the first in line to shower!

You can walk around the fields on the hillsides and so far no one seems to object to us walking through their vineyard. It's hard to tell where one stops and another begins and nearly all the farmhouses in our area are agriturismo ventures anyway. It is hunting season and there is the occasional sound of gunfire, but the lady in the tourism office said not to worry (hmmm...).

Saturday morning is market day and there were stalls featuring fruits and vegetables, fish, cheeses and a roast pig, and kitchen goods, and clothes. We bought some roast pig. It is basically an entire pig that has been boned, rolled back together and roasted whole. The cut thin slices off and will make a sandwich for you or package it up for take away. One guy bought a sandwich, requested a glass of wine and ate his standing. Another man ordered 2 kg of pork and also got a small bag of something salted, have no idea whether it was some other pig part or what.

Sienna

On Thursday we drove south to Sienna. It takes about as long to drive there as it does to find a place to park, but we finally found a spot around the outside of the soccer stadium not far from the walls of the historic center. In charge of sightseeing activities, I opted for a tour of the Duomo first (after Jake's suggestion of stopping for a piece of Torta di Nonno at the first Pasticerria we came across – excellent rich torte filled with chocolate and topped with chopped hazlenuts!). The outside of the cathedral is one of the most elaborate I've ever seen with multicolored marble, animal sculptures and fancy flourishes of all types (see photo). Inside is just as impressive. I suggest renting the audiotour for a good explanation of the features of the church. Sections of the marble floor are only unveiled during the months of August and September, and they were well worth seeing. They were the most elaborate marble art works I've ever seen (see the She-Wolf of Sienna suckling the children of Romulus and Remus). The pillars lining the nave are striped black and white, the official colors of Sienna (see photo). Jake was reminded of a certain type of striped kachina from the southwest. One alcove contains the Pitti library with frescoes and a ceiling that look like they were freshly painted. The detail and vibrancy of the colors were astonishing (see photo).

From there we walked down to Il Campo, the central piazza that is divided into nine pie-shaped sections for the original 9 neighborhoods. The buildings surrounding the plaza seemed austere compared to many other towns, but the sheer size and number of people around made it seem lively. We meandered the streets near the piazza until we were hungry enough for lunch, and by chance picked a slow food restaurant called Hosteria il Carroccio a block off Il Campo on Casato di Sotto I think. It was a small place that packs the tables into a colorfully painted room decorated with photographs of children and events in Sienna. I ordered mushroom soup with chick peas and Jake got the lamb stew with “windy beans”. Both were excellent. My soup had at least 2 kinds of mushrooms and you could taste each of them distinctively. It was a rich soup, but not overly mushroomy. Jake's stew was very thick with white beans and chunks of lamb. We saw other wonderful looking dishes pass by including bruschetta with kale and tomatoes, bifsteca florentina, and several pasta dishes.

My next sightseeing goal was the botanic garden behind the Accademia di Fisiocrifici (no idea what it means, but it sounds important!). We finally found it and it was a pleasant place to wander through away from the tourists. The garden is built on a steep hillside and ends at the city walls. Paths wander back and forth starting at the top with medicinal, cooking and other useful plants arranged by family. The second tier has an area with tropical plants next to a greenhouse and a section of native Tuscan plants. I figured out the names of a few things that I've seen on walks and I'll add the names to the Nature Notes blog entry. Further downhill are fruit trees and a vegetable garden (photo) as well as some small pools of native aquatic plants. One pool featured purple loosestrife, yellow- flag iris and narrowleaf cattail – all invasive in the U.S.!

The streets around Sienna are narrow and go in loops because of the hill the city is built on. Only a few cars are allowed within the historic center. The big bi-annual event in Sienna is the Palio, a crazy horse race run around the outside of Il Campo – horses that have lost their riders can still win the race. Each neighborhood sponsors horses and has its own flag. You know you're in a particular neighborhood by the flags hung along the streets and the street lamps (photo). Various symbols include the turtle, the snail, the rhino, the giraffe, and a fish – they must have chosen their symbols before there was a horse race!

There are many shopping opportunities in town with plenty of leather stores, pottery stores, paper stores, and food stores. We browsed a lot but only bought some chocolate cantucchi cookies (biscotti in the US). Oh, and a gelato for Jake before going home! Good thing he had one since it took us another half hour to figure out how to get out of town.

Tuscan Towns and More Food

From our apartment on the hillside below Castellina we look out to the west over vineyards, olive groves and wooded hillsides. Turns out Castellina is something of a crossroads making it easy to take a new route every day. Our first full day here was a Sunday and the larger grocery (the Coop, every town seems to have one) was closed, but we had done some shopping on our way down from Florence and the little shop in town was open supplying us with homemade prosciutto and fresh pecorino, a few vegetables, pasta, large cracker-like bread, and olives. Still, we chose our Monday outing by choosing a town that was supposed to have a market on Mondays. We headed east to Radda, another hilltop town maybe slightly larger than Castellina. No market. Oh well, the tourist office supplied us with a map for a nice 2 ½ hour hike through the hills. See the next posting for the nature details to spare those of you not so into nature.

We got back to Radda (see photo) from our hike in time for lunch and chose Al Chiassco dei Pacifici because of its lovely outdoor terrace. Jake tried the local soup, Riboletta, really more of a thick stew of white beans, tomato and many other things. I got fried meatballs with potatoes and salad. It may sound ordinary, but it was really good. I think they must fry everything in olive oil and the salad had an intense, fruity balsamic vinegar and a slightly spicy olive oil dressing. From Radda we drove up to Volpaia, taking a wrong road the first time and ending up way up in the mountains. Volpaia is a hilltop castle that makes wine and olive oil, sort of a company town. Unfortunately there wasn't much there to do aside from take in the views, maybe due to what seemed to be an intensive effort to fix some underground plumbing problem. I had read that they offered cooking classes and made excellent wine and olive oil. But there is a restaurant/bar with a terrace with amazing views and we had an espresso before driving home.

Tuesday's outing was planned yet again to find a market. This time we succeeded by again heading further east to Figline. Jake enjoyed driving the twisting roads, except for when the occasional bus or truck would come zipping around a curve towards us. Taking in the large number of warnings on road signs can be pretty daunting. Sequential sign posts can warn of falling rocks, leaping deer, unstable road edges and the need for snow tires. Figline is a fairly large town near one of the major north-south highways. The center is ringed by a massive stone wall with various towers built into it. You couldn't miss the market this time, but at first all we could find were stalls selling clothes, shoes and household items. Finally down a side street Jake spotted the market stalls with edibles. There was a decent selection of vegetables as well as a lot of stalls selling cooked meats, cheeses, olives, and dried fish. We bought a good-sized trout from a fresh fish vendor and some swiss chard and garlic from the vegetable stalls. Also a melon to have with prosciutto at lunch time. Pan-fried trout and braised swiss chard made for an excellent home-cooked dinner!

We ended the afternoon back in Castellina getting some necessary work done (see photo of Jake's new office!), picking up clean laundry and having a five o'clock gelato in town before walking back to our apartment.

Wednesday we opted for San Gimignano, supposedly the most beautiful town in Tuscany. It is beautiful, but also filled with busloads of tourists. It's large enough though that you could still escape down back streets. Still, it was hard to think of anyone actually living there. The town is ringed by high, thick stone walls and has many tall stone towers within the walls each apparently built by different families. I went through the ancient basilica which has frescoes from the Middle Ages. One side was frescoes from the New Testament and the other side the Old Testament. They seemed to have a thing for camels back then! We also enjoyed walking along the outside of the walls where there were few people and great views over the valleys. The scent of figs perfumed the afternoon air in some sections.

We decided to have a rather nice lunch at a restaurant the Michelin Guide recommended for its local food and creative menus. We had planned to eat at La Cisterna on a recommendation from a friend, but it was closed for lunch for some reason. Ristorante Dorando' didn't have the view of La Cisterna, but it was within an old building on a side street and very peaceful. The waitress brought a chef's offering of a dab of red pepper mousse and some sort of fluffed mild cheese with a roasted cherry tomato. I had a fan of smoked duck with grilled cabbage as a first course and Jake had roast quail with an onion that had been hollowed and roasted with apple. For my main course I had guinea hen stuffed with a mild sausage and served with swiss chard cooked with raisins and pine nuts. Jake had macaroni with a very rich sauce of duck and leeks. Probably because I'd had most of the split of Chianti Classico (Rietine 2005 from Gaiole), I convinced Jake that we should also share an order of the warm chocolate cake with caramelized pears and orange slices with a cup of espresso. Not that he objected!

Nature Notes from Tuscany

Aside from grapes and olives, there are hillsides still covered with forest. On our walk near Radda we walked along a ridge line, then down into the valley below town and along a little stream. The forest changes considerably in different parts of the countryside. Along the ridge line near Radda there were mostly short, gnarled oaks with an understory of Viburnum, juniper, scotch broom, ivy and grasses. I'm not really sure whether the ivy and scotch broom are native to Italy. There's been a lot of Ailanthus along the roads which is definitely an introduction from Asia. Closer to the stream the trees got a little taller and the brush thicker. There is some sort of Rubus with blackberry-like fruits, but they have a more intense flavor than our blackberries. On the drive to Figline there were many multi-trunked chestnut trees, some with plenty of nuts. The forests between Castellina and San Gimignano had more evergreen cypresses and laurels.

I have seen very few birds. The Coop grocery in town has a lot of swallows flying around with nests up under the eaves. I've seen one hawk and a few magpies. Also some house finches and starlings. The only other animal I've seen is a striped lizard or skink that hangs out on our terrace. The same sort of lizard seems pretty common throughout. It seemed to be following ants around and I figured it would eat one, but it appeared to be more interested in the seeds and bits of vegetation the ants were carrying. I never saw it take anything from the ants though.

Finally, there's Neve, the apartment caretaker's dog. He's a tall lean, long-haired white dog whose name means snow. He's usually pretty snowy except when he's been lounging in puddles. He's a friendly dog, but stays on his side of the building.

I saw the caretaker once when we arrived, but I think he's been busy with the grape harvest and olives. The idyllic beauty was somewhat shattered when we saw him out on his tractor spraying something up into the olive trees and along the rows of grapes. So much for nibbling unwashed grapes on our walk into town!

Roomates Wanted - Tuscany

ROOMMATES WANTED – TUSCANY

Roommates wanted to share large(!) apartment in Tuscan farmhouse (photo) in the village of Castellina-in-Chianti. Sleeps six – full kitchen, dining table for eight or ten. Plenty of extra wine glasses available. Views, views, views from patio just outside (photo). Walk to town (uphill!) (photo) through vineyards, olive groves, fig trees. Grapes ready to harvest (photo) (and delicious). Figs ready to pluck and bake with gorgonzola. Nearby town has everything a chef needs, from 80 Euro bottles of balsamic vinegar to 3 Euro bottles of Chianti. Free to the right roommates – more space than we need. An entire floor will remain unused unless you join us in the next couple of weeks. .

Contact by email to tell us when your plane arrives.