Montepulciano in the snow
It was a beautiful ride to Carol's house, which is in the mountains above Lake Trasimeno, just south of Castiglion Fiorentino. We arrived at Carol's house which was blanketed in snow. After unloading the car and hauling my now very heavy luggage in, I wandered around and took a few pics of her garden in the snow. People are very concerned about privacy in Italy, so out of respect I'm not posting anything to reveal the location of her home.
We had a wonderful lunch at Carol & John's house. We noticed that the sky was clearing and that there were blue patches. Carol suggested that we try to run over to Montepulciano for the afternoon, and I quickly took her up on this wonderful offer!
View of the lake from up on the mountain
When we got over to Montepulciano, it was very cold and foggy. Below is a picture I stole off of the web showing what the town looks like. The church we visited previously just outside of town, Chiesa di San Bagio (which I painted and wrote a poem about), is on the right-hand side, bottom. We parked at the right-hand side, top of town and wandered downhill to the main piazza and saw the curch. We continued strolling through this quaint town and saw another beautiful church. Carol pointed out some lovely painted ceilings inside some public office buildings. We went inside of a nice little shop which was also the opening to an Eutruscan tomb system. In the wall of the shop you could see an ancient well, complete with deep gouges on the side where people through the ages hoisted up loads of water attached to ropes. Although gated off, you could see into the different rooms and down flights of ancient stairs leading into the catacombs. We got a little holdiay shopping in and continued on.
Montepulciano
Being fellow winelovers, Carol had the intellegent foresight to take me to the town wine cellar. The Montepulciano Nobile is my favorite wine in Italy (that I've tried so far - of course that's always open to change!). The ancient winery is located under the town in a network of caves. The first barrel room has oak barrels which are 10-12 feet tall! Carol explained some of the winemaking process to me while we were there.
Big barrels of wine!
The light fixtures were amazing!
The scent in the caves was magnificent. I never thought wine and damp, musty cave would blend to create a pleasurable olfactory experience!
We just had to recover from our excursion and warm up in a little cafe. We had wonderful pastries and coffee while enjoying the snowy view. It began to get much colder and snow again, so we decided to head back to the house and the woodstove.
We had a wonderful lunch at Carol & John's house. We noticed that the sky was clearing and that there were blue patches. Carol suggested that we try to run over to Montepulciano for the afternoon, and I quickly took her up on this wonderful offer!
View of the lake from up on the mountain
When we got over to Montepulciano, it was very cold and foggy. Below is a picture I stole off of the web showing what the town looks like. The church we visited previously just outside of town, Chiesa di San Bagio (which I painted and wrote a poem about), is on the right-hand side, bottom. We parked at the right-hand side, top of town and wandered downhill to the main piazza and saw the curch. We continued strolling through this quaint town and saw another beautiful church. Carol pointed out some lovely painted ceilings inside some public office buildings. We went inside of a nice little shop which was also the opening to an Eutruscan tomb system. In the wall of the shop you could see an ancient well, complete with deep gouges on the side where people through the ages hoisted up loads of water attached to ropes. Although gated off, you could see into the different rooms and down flights of ancient stairs leading into the catacombs. We got a little holdiay shopping in and continued on.
Montepulciano
Being fellow winelovers, Carol had the intellegent foresight to take me to the town wine cellar. The Montepulciano Nobile is my favorite wine in Italy (that I've tried so far - of course that's always open to change!). The ancient winery is located under the town in a network of caves. The first barrel room has oak barrels which are 10-12 feet tall! Carol explained some of the winemaking process to me while we were there.
Big barrels of wine!
The light fixtures were amazing!
The scent in the caves was magnificent. I never thought wine and damp, musty cave would blend to create a pleasurable olfactory experience!
We just had to recover from our excursion and warm up in a little cafe. We had wonderful pastries and coffee while enjoying the snowy view. It began to get much colder and snow again, so we decided to head back to the house and the woodstove.
posted by Kim True | 6:41 PM
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