Day 5 - Sierra and Travis' Tuscan wine adventure

9,791 steps, 4.3 miles, 25 floors in the rain

We wake up to the first rain we've seen all week, and unpack some things we want to get rid of in order to lighten our bags a bit. We go buy a box and mail 8 kg of stuff back home. What a relief to free up some space! We then find some food and wait for the bus to the train station, where we'll head to Montepulciano for a few hours. 

Tempted to buy a case and ship home for €100...but just bought one. :)

There was an 8am train (way too early) and a 12:15pm, but unfortunately we just missed the 12:15...shortening our wine country time by an hour. But being good proactive types, we used the time to look at all possible train itineraries for the last 5 train journeys we will make in Italy. Things look pretty good the next few days (plan is Rome tomorrow for 36 hours, then 36 hours in Amalfi, then an overnight stop in Venice with about a half day to get a taste of the city, then a fun journey to Slovenia with a couple of cool stops on the way). 

We depart for Montepulciano at 1:25 pm. The train station is 6 miles from the town, so we hope to be able to catch a cab! In Montepulciano there appear to be three wineries (all within a mile or so) and there is a cool town from what I hear.  We're taking a risk by not knowing exactly how to get there or if they are all open, but we thought a little adventure might be fun. It was €28 round trip total for both of us, whereas it was €180 per person to join a group wine tour...so yeah we'll do our own thing haha. 

We get to the stazione and there are no cabs. We try to figure out how to call a cab from a pay phone, but it didn't workout...so we go to the nearest coffee shop and Sierra asks the man at the counter to call for us. The cabbie drove pretty aggressively but was a nice Italian man with flowing golden locks and fancy sunglasses. He was quiet but nice and gave us a map to he town. He didn't know where the wineries were but took us to the main square. 

 The old duomo with the unfinished facade. Apparently this was common: They ran out of money or for some other reason we're unable to put the marble facade in place. Looks cool to me. 

We went inside and it was beautiful and Classic by American standards, but kind of your run-of-the-mill Catholic Church by Italian standards. I threw the church a couple of Euros and we lit some votive candles and then went on our way. 

The view of Tuscany was quite impressive, and the train ride was along a rolling horizon dotted with big houses and hilltop villages. 

It was cold and rainy (but if it's going to be cold and rainy I'm glad it was here instead of Florence and Cinque Terra), and I was trying to find the 3 wineries that appeared on yelp. We followed a sign into a "cantina," and found this old building with a happy, round-faced old man named Adamo, who is pouring wine tastings. I asked "parli inglese?" (Do you speak English?) ...to which he replied "solo Toscana!" Haha. Apparently he's a loyal Tuscan :).  We tried 3 wines and he made us try the Quattro ani a second time. He told us the 2009 was the best and there were 30 bottles left, so we bought one for only €23 ($25), which seemed like a bargain compared to Napa or the Willamette valley. 

We soon learned from Adamo that he is a big celebrity in "Americano" because he met Rick Steeves and was on "TV, radio, PBS!"  Here's the page out of Rick's book:

We learn that this Cantina we happened upon is kind of a big deal. 

So I read the article and find out we're in the castle of the royal family, and the other person who works there is descended from a family who has lived here since the 11th century.  We learn how to say "the best," "fiancee" and a few other useful terms, then Sierra says a sweet arrivaderci to Adamo so we can go check out the place. 

Sierra and Adamo, shortly after he gives her a big kiss on the cheek and says "Oooohhh Bellisssimma!"

We walk through this cool old palace and take a bunch of photos--here are a couple:

Contucci Cantina barrels

We head outside and continue walking through the narrow, rain-soaked brick roads looking for Fattoria Della Talosa (we see signs but no cantina), and end up stopping into a little room called Gattavechi. We walk into the empty shop and slowly a woman makes her way out and behind the counter (keep in mind that very few in this town speak English so we have to learn 3-4 words and some key hand motions to explain that we want to taste the wine).  She begins to pour the Vino Nobile, made from the local grape of Montepulciano.  An American (or maybe Canadian) came in and blasted out "Where is a place to buy coffee?" ...now at this point, Sierra and I had been in Tuscany long enough to think it highly unusual for a person to just state a sentence in English and expect any kind of comprehension. Also kee in mind that Sierra and I speak like 10 words of Italiano.  But we know key words like "caffe," "dové" (where is) and "cappuccino"...and we know how to point. So we somehow form an international diplomatic bridge and help the Italian lady show the Americans where to go for coffee. We try two more wines, each was outstanding and each one is better than the rest. I see that the third was a 2007 reserva and saw it on the shelf for €30.  Not bad for such a fantastic wine, but then we see that the other two we liked were €8 and €13. Done. I mention the prices because we started to realize that while Italy isn't cheap--good wine is cheap. You can buy a good bottle at dinner for like $10, which would probably be $50-100 in the states.  So drinking wine saves money obviously. 

Underground at Fattoria Della Talosa

We find Talosa and are directed downstairs by the words "prego (and a hand gesture to enter) ...my winery is your winery." We look around and take the above pics, then make our way upstairs and are greeted again by the guy at the desk. He speaks great English and walks us through the regulations on wine in Tuscany--including why growth is restricted and which regions grow which grapes, why they are blended to a minimum %, and how vino Nobile cannot be grown legally outside of Montepulciano. He had a few opinions about the "laissez-faire" wine making in Chile and Argentina. Really nice young guy who moved from Sicily for a job and hopes to open his own wine shop or winery someday. We bought a third bottle and then figured we should get food. 

Not much seemed to be open near the piazza, which is typically where the action is. We had a cappuccino and a pastry and started walking to the bus station to try to save a few bucks getting back to the train station.  Low-and-behold, we walk down the hill about 100 yards to find tons of shops, restaurants and wine bars. Oh well! We had a great day so no need for regrets, but if we come back to Montepulciano in winter we'll know there is more excitement to be had. 

Sierra discovers there's much more to the old town of Montepulciano as we trek to the bus station 

We get to the bus station at 6pm and find that the next bus is at 7. The station is full of Italian teenage boys, store employees and two policemen having a drink. We find a bartender who speaks English, and ask him to call a cab. Our same driver shows up in 5 min and takes us to the train. 

When we get to Siena we hit up a place called Guidoriccio that has great reviews online, but is very close by. It's about 40 degrees and windy and rainy so we aren't eager to be outside long. The waiter/owner is incredibly nice and happy, and gives us his recommendations. He won't recommend a wine until we tell him what food we want. We order a big feast of cheeses, a pumpkin quiche, some grilled steak and Pici--the Siena pasta specialty that we hadn't tried. They even brought us a free appetizer in case we weren't eating enough, and then he recommended an organic chianti for us...for about the price of a nice glass back home. 

Guidoriccio's hand-written menus each had a different design.  

The place was underground, all-brick and cozy. A tasty last meal before we leave Tuscany and head to Rome.