Montalcino...

May 9, 2012

Today the kids are going to Jason’s friend’s, Christopher’s house after school.  Janie, Christopher’s mum, is picking them up after school.  That means that David and I have a much longer day, so we decided to drive to Montalcino.

This time of year is just gorgeous in Umbria and Tuscany, so the drive was spectacular.  I was too busy looking at all of the flowers and forgot to take pictures, but I did manage to snap a few.  This is just as we were leaving Perugia.  The red poppies are everywhere, they are like weeds along the roadside, but just beautiful…

This is Montalcino from a distance… just love coming up upon this…

When we arrived we walked around town and later ended up at the Fortezza, a 14^th century fort built under the rule of Sienna.

We decided to do a little wine tasting as Montalcino is famous for its Brunello.  We tasted five different wines at Enoteca La Fortezza di Montalcino.  

Our waiter, Thomas, was fantastic.  He explained the five wines and their differences and similarities and spent quite some time with us telling us all about the region.  He brought us two different types of cheeses as well.  What a great guy J

Funny thing is we found that the cheese really changed our experience with the wine, so we stopped eating the cheese and focused on the wine.  We enjoyed sitting at table 13, David's lucky number.

We sat outside and the weather was perfect.  We had a nice table in the corner where we had a view of the entire place.

After the tasting, we had plenty of time to wander around the town and look at all of the views.  Just love walking through the town and turning a corner and a different fragrance permeates the air as we stroll past something new in bloom.  It was like walking through a fragrance wonderland…

I have to say that we were feeling a bit guilty leaving the kids for the day, but it was really nice to have this time together.  Then it was time to hit the road and we both felt the need for a little energy, so we had to go and get some Mars bars and Coke for me, Pepsi for him…

The drive home was just as lovely…

A spectacular day thanks to our friends Janie and Tom for taking the kids for the afternoon!

~Mary