Month: January 2017

It’s Rick here again. We’re back in France for a few days on our way from Tuscany to Barcelona so a good time to publish these comments. We love the wines in France and the availability of good wines at surprisingly low prices is wonderful.  But the wine service in restaurants deserves a special shout out.  It puts service at home to shame.  From the corner cafe to a fine restaurant, the stemware is exemplary–nice thin rims equal to a Riedel stem. I should also mention that every Airbnb has also provided decent wine glasses for our use at home.

In Alsace, wine is served in the typical little Alsatian glasses…maybe not our favorite, but appropriate for the region.

An ice bucket is always presented with plenty of water in it, as well as ice, to chill the wine, unlike at home when we routinely have to dump our water glasses into the bucket to actually get it to cool down the wine.

And the wine lists – cartes du vins – are quite reasonably priced–most wines under 25€!  Tony Forman would be wise to note that not one sommelier has tried to taste our wine before we were offered a taste!!

One other noticeable difference – and not an altogether unwelcome one – is that, once the wine is served – except in really upscale restaurants – it is usually left on the table for you to pour for yourself…with no need to feel apologetic about it.

Drinking wines from every region has been one of the joys of this adventure.

We’re entering our final week in Tuscany and it’s warming up.  We spent three days in Chianti and Florence (sleeping in another Airbnb south of Florence…more on this trip in a minute). I must say we were happy to return to our nest above the bar in Trequanda.  I think they even missed us!  We’ve become regulars for Aperitivo at the bar and Rick has accomplished one of his goals for this trip.  We can now walk in and ask for ‘the usual’ and they know what we want!
        

There are a few other ‘regulars’ with whom we often share a table and conversation.  These include Gianna, who teaches in the village and is working on her English and with whom I am now Facebook friends,

And our 80-year-old neighbor, Sergio, whose wife invited us for dinner.  He is a former diplomat and general assigned to NATO who tells us that his memory isn’t so good anymore, but who has some fascinating stories.  He usually comes into the bar with his little dog, Rosa.
       
Sergio, Vittoria and Alessandra, their daughter are wonderful hosts.  We shared two meals together and the conversation never lagged. They have a home in Paris and we plan to see them again in mid-February when we’ll be back in our favorite city for a few days.

We have also become regulars at THE restaurant in town.  Il Conte Matto is run by Davide and his mother and sister. They welcome us whenever we arrive and David always has a new local wine to recommend.  It also gives me a break from cooking dinner at home (which I really enjoy, but it is nice to have a night off once in a while…)
      

One other curiosity worth mentioning is the public Water Dispensary.  Our host told us that the tap water here is not very good (“it won’t kill you, but it’s best not to drink it…”).  To provide for the needs of the town, there is a little wooden structure in the parking lot below the town where, for a nickel(!), you can get a liter of fresh water, either ‘naturale’ or ‘frizzante.’  The water is great, and a lot cheaper than buying bottled water.  And I love having fizzy water in the fridge (I miss my SodaStream…).
       

With the help of  John Fusciello, a wine salesman friend in Baltimore, Rick was able to make appointments at two wineries in Chianti.  We first visited Selvole, where Guido Busetto, the owner, gave us a wonderful tour while filling us in on the history of the region and its wines.
    
This is a modest property that produces a wonderful Chianti Classico and several other varietal specific wines, including Cabernet Franc. We tasted and chatted with Guido after touring his cellars and, when we left, he gave us the opened bottle of Chianti Classico Riserva and a bottle of Cabernet Franc, which we had mentioned was one of our favorite grapes.  He refused to let us purchase these.  Such generosity of time and product!
   

Our second stop was Fontodi, a much larger operation.  They produce twice as many bottles as Selvole and everything here is quite streamlined.  Silvano Marcucci spent a couple hours with us, explaining how they make their wines and showing us an experiment they have begun – aging wine in terra-cotta amphorae…just like the ancient Romans did.
          
We tasted their Chianti Classico and their Super Tuscan called Flaccianello (which is 100% sangiovese). Both were spectacular! We also tried a Sauvignon Blanc, unusual for this region and very good, and a Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir), which was not exactly Burgundian, but very pleasant once the tannins softened.
   

We spent the following day exploring Florence.  This city where the Renaissance began is filled with beautiful architecture, world-class art & sculpture and lots of tourists (even in January). We parked outside of town near a tram stop and took the tram to the train stations.  Then we strolled through the San Lorenzo (leather) market where Rick bought a belt and I bought a really pretty pair of gloves. They’ll go well with my red boots…

We saw the iconic Duomo with its white, green and pink marble facade, and the Palazzo Vecchio, with a peek inside the beautiful courtyard.
    
         
We then observed the Orsanmichele Church and walked through the Uffizi Courtyard to the Ponte Vecchio.  This strip of gold merchants glitters for the tourists but you wonder how much real business they do! Beyond the fancy windows, the structures are a bit shabby.  One interesting feature – new to us – was the Vasari Corridor that spans the bridge one story up. It was constructed to give the Medicis a way to escape across the river to the Pitti Palace in times of threat.  It recently housed some of the best 17th and 18th century art but.sadly, it is closed indefinitely because of structural problems.
       
Finally,we perused the Mercato Centrale (Central Market).  The first level houses merchants selling all sorts of produce and meats.  But the upper level is an Eataly, one of several in Europe and three in the US (New York, Chicago and Boston).  It’s a combination of restaurants and food stalls with every kind of Italian food ( and wine, of course) that you could want.  A great place for a meal and for people watching…
       

On our third day, before heading back to Trequanda, we stopped by the new (2012) Antinori facility.  It is huge! and quite a striking architectural piece, but lacks the old world charm of the previous facility that the Wine and Food Society visited in 2001.  We opted not to pay for a tour but did walk around the reception area that was filled with odd shaped places to sit, and the museum that is ‘all Antinori, from time immemorial!’  Even Italy has corporate wine makers…
      

From there, we drove to Isole e Olena, a family run winery that Rick had visited with the Wine & Food Society in 2001.  Marta de Marchi spent hours with us, showing us the expansion of the cellars that was underway on Rick’s last visit and evidencing her passion for the wines that they produce.
       
She & her husband Paolo, who was in San Francisco during our visit, took this property over from his father in 1978 and have made many improvements since then, but they still maintain some of the old ways, such as drying the grapes for Vin Santo on reed mats.

She shared several of their wonderful wines with us, including the Vin Santo (current release is the 2005!), which I think is the best sweet white desert I’ve ever tasted!  Needless to say, we came  home with a bottle of that and a few other souvenirs.  I think we’ll have enough wine for at least the next week! And Rick made friends with the winery dog…

We ventured into Umbria to visit two more hill towns, Civita di Bagnoregio and Orvieto.  Each is perched on top of a high hill formed by ‘tufo,’ a light colored volcanic rock that erodes as centuries pass, and that lends itself to amazing caves and tunnels.  Civita can only be reached by walking close to half a mile downhill from Bagnoregio and then across a long footbridge and back uphill. Whew! Surprisingly, the town was alive and restaurants were open to accommodate several hundred tourists the day we were there. The area around the hilltop looks kind of like the moon…
        
We reached Orvieto by parking at the train station and taking a funicular up to the edge of town and then a shuttle bus to the ‘centro storico.’ The facade of the duomo (cathedral) here is almost as spectacular as the duomo in Florence.  It seems that there was much competition over the decades to see which city could have the tallest tower, the biggest cathedral, etc. We had lunch in a small trattoria run by an enthusiastic chef owner who was very excited to know that we had found him in our travel book.
        

Tomorrow we head out of Italy through France and into Spain…destination Barcelona!

 

We’re continuing to explore this extraordinary part of Italy.  From our base in Trequanda, we make frequent day trips to the surrounding towns and villages. Here is a sampling…

On one very cold but sunny day, we set out to follow the ‘Heart of Tuscany Drive‘ using Rick Steves’ directions.  It was pretty easy to follow (Rick drove and I read the directions and looked for the sometimes obscure signs). Warning…some of the distances in the guide are not exact. It took us in a loop from Montepulciano to Pienza through some smaller towns and the stunning countryside of the Val d’Orcia.
The landscape of Tuscany is like no other place on earth.  The best descriptor I can muster is that everything looks ‘soft’…like God has draped a blanket over the hillsides that roll and undulate as they change hues.

Much of this area is not filled with grapevines, but is used to grow cereal crops. So, in winter, it isn’t as green as it will be in Spring and Summer.  But it’s gorgeous nonetheless.
While the grapevines are bare at this time of year, the primary trees in Tuscany are not.  Three types of tree (all evergreen) predominate…the classic straight and tall Cyprus that you see in every picture of this area, the Pines that remind me of a balloon on top of a tall straight trunk and, of course, the Olive trees.
       

As we approached Montepulciano, we again followed Rick Steves’ advice and parked in P#1 near the TI and walked uphill to the town. There were lots of places open – even in winter – which we’ve discovered is a sign that a town is not just for tourists.  We explored two underground wine cellars, ending each with a tasting of both the Rosso and Vino Nobile of Monepulciano.
     

As we headed uphill, we followed the guide through a narrow alley and up a few treacherous stairs to the workshop of Cesare Mazzetti, a master coppersmith who is carrying on three generations of craftsmanship.  He welcomed us in, even though he was about to lock up as we approached.  He made a souvenir copper medallion that included our initials, the date of our marriage, the initials of each of our children and, of course, his personal seal.
        
We then went back down to the street to his shop where his wife (his ‘minister of finanace’) helped us with a couple of purchases, including a custom designed wine chiller.

We engaged a friend of our Airbnb host who lives in a nearby town to arrange a couple of visits to Montalcino wine estates. We spent most of a day touring and tasting. First, at Palazzo, Elia Loia, who runs this estate with her brother, oriented us to Brunello and explained why it is so special.  After tour her winery and the public rooms in process, we tasted through her portfolio (we had a driver…) and were quite impressed. We especially loved her Brunello Riserva 2010 (a great vintage!), and brought a few bottles home with us.
       
Next we went to Cordella where Aldo, the proprietor, continued our Brunello education and then provided us with a lovely buffet of bruschetta to accompany the wines form his portfolio.

(Note the glass vessel in the bung hole of the barrel. It is called a ‘colmatore’ and serves as a way to top off the barrels AND to see at a glance if they are full…)

Later in the week we visited the town of Montalcino and had a great comparative tasting of 4 Brunellos at the Enoteca Fortezza.  We  had them ship a case back to our wine storage facility in Baltimore…first wine we’ve purchased for cellaring in quite some time!

Something we never knew about Tuscany was that, in addition to being beautiful and providing superb conditions for producing great wine, it is a geologically active area renowned for its geothermal productivity and has been know since ancient times for its hot springs.  We visited Bagno Vignoni where the town square is actually a large hot (125°!) pool…no bathing there, though there is a spa inside the nearby hotel.
       
The springs bubble up into this pool and then flow over the cliff where they create dramatic hot waterfalls and limestone formations.  It felt good to put my hand in this flowing water on a really cold day, except when I took it out and had a wet hand in the wind!
   

We took a short, cold walk through Pienza.  The town was pretty buttoned up but the sun was out and we got some great views from the town walls.
         

Another short, but memorable visit was to a Benedictine Abbey – Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore – near Ascanio. It was a long walk downhill through woods and we wondered what we were going to find at the end. The Abbey is a huge complex, a working monastery where we saw monks in their flowing white robes.  They welcomed us in but provided no guidance save a few small signs so we just wandered through and peeked in every unlocked door.
     
The Abbey is know for its beautiful inlaid choir stalls.  Unfortunately, the church was quite dark.  When I put a euro in a machine, some small spotlights turned on briefly so that we could get some appreciation of the fine woodwork.

We tasted a wonderful olive oil at the local Trequanda restaurant, Il Conte Matto.  When we learned that this oil is made by the brother-in-law of the restaurant owner (good old Italian nepotism…), we asked about arranging a visit.  His farm-Aia Vecchia di Montalceto – is an agritourismo in the season, but now the olive oil is just aging in the tanks waiting for the locals (or tourists like us) to come and gather it.  Ilmari showed us the process even though it’s long past harvest. Then he filled several bottles for us and labeled them right there.
        

Volterra is Rick Steves favorite town in Tuscany.  We found a tour guide, Annie Adair, an American who has lived here for 18 years who provided a  great walking tour with enormous amount of history and lore.  I was so mesmerized by her stories that I really forgot to take many pictures.  This is a town that is less dependent on tourists, so town felt alive even in January.  Here are the old Etruscan gate and a plaque that honors the villagers who blocked this gate from the Germans at the end of WWII so that the village would be saved.
         

Then we drove to San Gimignano.  this town is much more touristy, and when tourists are gone, the town is dead.  It is charming, but Volterra feels more like a real town.

We are heading to Chianti and Florence tomorrow.  Stay tuned…

 

We’ve landed in Tuscany, in the small village of Trequanda (population 600).  I found this place on Airbnb and it seems like a perfect spot from which to explore some of the bigger towns and the wine region. The village seems quite prosperous and contains one of almost everything (butcher, baker, hairdresser, tourist information, pharmacy, gas station, news agent, mini mart, post office, bank, upscale restaurant, pizzeria), plus three churches and THE bar – above which is our apartment!
        
The bar is really the heart of the community, except on Sundays when it’s the church!  People come here in the morning for coffee and it seems to stay busy throughout the day.  Then around 5:30, they set out a modest spread of snacks and people come in for ‘aperitivo.’ We’ve taken to this custom with ease and are trying each bartender’s version of the Negroni. We see many of the same faces each evening and, though we really can’t communicate with them much beyond ‘buona sera’ and ‘grazie,’ we get a lot of smiles.
We are the first Airbnb guests to stay in this apartment.  It was recently renovated by Ludovic, our host, whose grandparents lived here until a few years ago.  (The wifi password is ‘nonnatina’ – Grandma Tina…) He has thought of everything and the place is quite comfortable.

We did have one glitch when, on the 4th night, we discovered that there was no water!  We texted Ludovic, who sent a friend of his father over the following morning and things were rectified pretty quickly.
I’m sad to report that it isn’t much warmer here than it was in Colmar!! But I won’t complain.  I know that a lot of you reading  this are in much colder places dealing with mountains of snow.

This has turned out to be an excellent place from which to take day trips to the hill towns in Tuscany with more familiar names. As we have seen, when we visit these places, they are much more difficult (or impossible) to navigate in a car than Trequanda, where we park 50m from our door.  Staying in Cortona or Siena or Assisi would probably require us to park in a lot on the outskirts of town and schlep our suitcases up stone streets to wherever we were sleeping.  It’s much better to drive there for the day and return to our comfortable little village.

Cortona. We started by driving up above the town to Basilica Santa Margherita. She isn’t the city’s patron saint, but she’s the favorite of the residents, so her church is considered even more important than the cathedral.  Unfortunately, the church is closed on Mondays, so we only got to see the outside. I remember walking up here on a trip in 1996…it’s still a long hike, even by car!

Automobile traffic within the city is very restricted so we parked outside the walls and walked through the town following a map we picked up at the TI on the Piazza Signorelli.  The Via Nazionale is essentially the only level road in the town (Many of the others are stairs or just very steep.)
        
We enjoyed great views from Piazza Garibaldi, and were able to climb the altar in the San Francesco church to get a good look at the reliquary that holds a piece of the cross of Christ.
    

Assisi. This picturesque hill town is most famous as the home of St. Francis (of Assisi…).

We visited the Papal Basilica of St. Francis using the Rick Steves’ audio tour on my phone and Rick’s iPad.  It was a wonderfully detailed way to visit and appreciate all that we were seeing in both the lower and upper basilicas
       
and the tomb of St Francis below the main altar.

The frescoes that cover the walls represent all the schools of Italian painting from the 14th to the 17th century.
We followed this with a walk through the town, which is built into the hillside (as you can see from the picture above). Rick had figured out that if we parked at the lower end of town (near the Basilica) and then took a bus or taxi to the upper end, we could walk downhill and end up at our car.  That taxi ride was some of the best money we have spent so far!
It was a really cold and windy day, and we were both pretty frozen by the time we reached Piazza del Comune (about halfway down), so we stopped to eat and warm up.  We happened on La Bottega dei Sapori, which does mostly a take-out business.  However, they have a couple of small tables inside among the racks of wine, and Fabrizio and his son prepared a great plate of meats and cheeses for us which we happily washed down with a half bottle of Assisi Rosso.
         

Siena:  Our visit started off rather badly when we followed the GPS directions and turned left through a Porta into the city.  We soon ended up in a restricted driving area and had a hard time finding our way out, turning this way and that on tiny little streets and down dead ends (one of which ended in a 300-foot escalator!!). Rick finally identified a local who appeared to be driving out of the city. We followed him and, Voila!  We then found a parking lot and got on that 300-foot escalator to reenter the city.  We followed Rick Steves’ walking tour and saw the highlights beginning with Il Campo, a large square in the center of the city.
        
Twice each summer, Siena hosts the Palio horse races on this square, where 10 of the city’s 17 neighborhoods (Contrada) each sponsor a horse and square off in this hotly contested race.  Pictures and videos that we saw indicate that this is a wild time in Siena…Il Campo is like the infield at Pimlico during the Preakness, and the area around it is ringed with bleachers (I guess the cafes are closed), and people in the surrounding buildings sell the perches in their windows for a premium!
A real highlight of Siena was the cathedral.  It is constructed of alternating layers of black & white marble (inside and out) that give it an unusual striped appearance…maybe this was the original inspiration for MacKenzie Childs (Ha!).
     
The interior has marble floor panels depicting biblical scenes, and the busts of 172 popes look down from above, keeping an eye on the tourists.  The cathedral library houses some brilliant, and never restored, frescoes along with a series of illuminated music scores that you can get right up close to.
       
Our final stop in Siena was the Fortezza (fort) where we had been told we would find an exhibition of Tuscan wine.  Climbing down to the underground cellar we did, indeed, find many wines from all over Italy…sitting on numbered, lighted shelves.
       
But there was neither a person nor a brochure that could provide us with any information about what was there. The bartender in the restaurant on the ground floor offered to give us a taste of a few wines but even she knew little about what she had to offer.  Oh well…

We have much more touring to do in Tuscany, but this is enough for this post.  Stay tuned…

We left Colmar in frigid temps (-2°C). Roadside views of snow and white frosted trees stayed with us for 2 hours. It was as if the palatte of colors included only white. (Pictures taken later in Les Echarmeaux, high in the French Alps because stopping on the roadside for pictures didn’t seem like a good idea…).

As we got further into Beaujolais – our first stop – the trees were still white but the fields were green and lovely. The mountainous drive was winding through Burgundy into Beaujolais but afforded some great views.

For 2 nights, we stayed at an old stone farm house about 5km from Chauffailles.  Hosts, Roland & Elaine, live in the other half of this ancient stone house. Our part is the original house and theirs was once the barn, which they have transformed into a sleek modern interior while maintaining the outside (with the addition of some critical infrastructure and a few large windows).

It is still very cold here. Roland had set a fire for us before we arrived so the place was cozy and warm.  In the morning, before we were even awake, he started the fire again so the downstairs was warm when we got up!

We only had one day to explore the Beaujolais countryside – Régnié, Fleury, Morgon. Many places are closed this time of year…even the Tourist Information office in Beaujeu won’t reopen until March 1!  The bulk of the wine in this region is Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages, the simple ‘vin ordinaire’ that is widely available in the US. But the best wines from the region are the cru Beaujolais that include Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, Fleury and seven others. We happily lucked into an open winery – Domaine Dominique Piron – where the oenologist, Jean, was happy to let us taste anything in his catalogue.  We tried the lighter Fleury and Brouilly, but we had our socks knocked off by the Moulin-a-Vent and his Morgon Coté du Py! They rivaled many of our favorite Burgundies in complexity and flavor, at half the price.

It snowed overnight and our drive out of the mountains was pretty dicey.  After about 2 km of slip-sliding on a snow-covered mountain road, we returned to ask Hélène if there was an alternate route.  She said there was not, but offered to lead us down to the first village.  The roads were still dicey, but having her in front of us made us feel so much better! As we drove on to Nice, the temps continued to rise and, by the time we arrived, it was a whopping 54°F!  It didn’t stay that warm during our day and a half there, but it was certainly an improvement…and the sun shone both days.
Our apartment in Nice was very well-located, a block from the Mediterranean and an easy walk to the center of the city.  We stashed our car and used our feet to explore. Of course, we strolled the Promenade des Anglais along the beach.
     
It’s easy to see the attraction of this place…it’s a bit reminiscent of South Beach (Miami) with old beautiful buildings sandwiched between modern (and mostly uninspired) hotels and apartment buildings. Add the sunshine and beautiful blue sea…what’s not to like?
         
Nice holds a big market – beautiful and inexpensive flowers, produce, meats, fish – every day. This is held on the Cours Saleya, a broad and long plaza in Vieux Nice (old town) that is bordered by shops and sidewalk cafes. the market takes up the middle in the morning and, once the vendors go home and the city cleaners come through, the cafes expand to occupy the space under the awnings for the rest of the day.  We had a wonderful late lunch of Bouillabaisse in one of these cafes…perfect to have fish this close to the sea.


A visit to the Museé National Marc Chagall was high on our list.  This lovely space holds the largest collection of Chagall works – paintings, sculpture, mosaic, stained glass – in the world. The audio guide gave us a new appreciation for how the Old Testament inspired these vibrant colorful works.
                 

We’re off to Tuscany!  This is our first trip outside of France since September.  More from there…