Florence Files: Taste of Tuscany!

There hasn't been anything very exciting happening here the past few days.. I came down with strep throat- not fun! So I haven't done much, but I am all better now! And it is perfect timing because today(Saturday the 24th) my friends Danielle, Nicole and I went on a day trip to Tuscany! We went with a travel group called bus2apls and they planned the whole thing for us, which was nice because we really didn't know that much about what to do there, so this was perfect! We got on the bus this morning at 8:00am and traveled to Montalcino which is where the winery, Altesino, is. We were taken on a tour through their wine cellar and where they make the wine, store it, and where they package and label it. All very interesting to see and learn about! After the tour, we tasted 3 wines and were allowed to walk around their HUGE property and take pictures.

After that, we got back on the bus and left for a winery just outside of Siena called Tenuta Torciano. It was beautiful there as well. I believe they said that the winery has been in their family for 7 generations! We were there for lunch and a wine tasting/lesson on how to taste the wine. Who knew that there is a proper way to pick up your glass, hold your glass, swirl, smell and taste it? I did not know! We were told that you have to pick up the glass with your non dominant hand and then place it in your dominant hand with 3 fingers under the base and your thumb and pointer finger hold on the top.. then if you want to place it back down, you have to place it in your other hand and set it down.. And that is how we had to do it the entire lunch! For lunch, we had an appetizer of the best salami, cheese, and bread w/ oil.. Then we were given a house vegetable soup, and for the main course we had lasagna.. SO GOOD! It was, I think, a 3 cheese and sausage lasagna with truffle oil on top, it was delicious! We also tried their home made balsamic which was great and with all of that-about 9 kinds of wine.. 1 white, 1 desert and the rest were reds. My favorites were the Baldassarre, and a Brunello Di Montalcino. As we were tasting these wines, the food was brought to us and the owner was telling us things like "take a bite of the salami and cheese with a sip of this wine" and then the bread and cheese with the other and it was just so much fun and so delicious!

After our lunch, we made our way to San Gimignano which is a walled medieval town on top of a hill. The view from this spot was really breathtaking, it was like there was a screen with a painting on it.. it just did not seem real or that I was really there seeing it. The land and hills went on and on and on, I can not even begin to describe to you how beautiful and breathtaking it was. I guess it is just something that you have to see for yourself to understand! Along with a beautiful view, the best gelato in the world is located there. And it really was amazing! Now, that place is the best gelato I've ever had! To bad it is over an hour and a half away or I would be there all the time! I guess I'll just have to settle for some place here in Florence and not the one in Tuscany:)