stitch.rip.repeat.

Monday, October 27, 2008

The road to Montalcino

Mont-al-CHI-no

A Little medieval hill town just 20 minutes (only 7 miles, but the curviest darn roads you've ever seen!) from our farmhouse. Famous for its wine, the Brunello, which grows everywhere below the city walls, Montalcino is a tiny but pristine hamlet.

I guess this is just small town Italy--much different from small town Missouri.

I suspect on a clear day you could really get an amazing shot of the valley.

This day was on and off rainy, but not so much that it impeded my shopping in the flea market. I'm still regretting the wooden bead necklace I didn't buy. It has been 8 years since I last went to Italy. Back then I had no money, no big city shopping experiece, and certainly no where near the level of internet availability we have now.

I kept seeing trinkets and treasures I would normally have snatched up, but I kept thinking: I could probably get this on the internet. How strange. And sort of sad. I was also looking for a reason not to buy things since we carried our luggage on. And we had to budget for Tiramisu AND gelato everyday.

This is a wine shop--enoteca--in an old fort at the cornerstone of the city. We tasted 4 Brunelli before settling on glasses for ourselves. Nothing like a heady red wine at 11am. I love Italy. That said, neither Jason nor I are sophisticato enough to really appreciate a $30 glass of wine. This stuff was delicious, and definitely a mandatory part of the experience, but honestly, most of the time we had the house wine with dinner. Which was still a LOT better than cheap wine here in the states. I would love to go back on an educational wine trip.

We drove another 10 minutes to the Abbey at Sant Antimo, which is fully functioning as a farm, vinyard and monkery, uh, I mean monastery.

The Abbey was founded around 780AD and the church was first built in 1200 or so. Take that, Colonial Williamsburg!

Mmmm farmy goodness.