Monday, June 24, 2013

Siena - Day 1

Bells are beautiful unless they are blaring through your window every half hour starting at 7am. We can hear the bells all the way from the Duomo on the hill, but the bells from San Domenico are SO LOUD. More unfortunate than the super loud bells was that I was definitely sick with another cold. This time my throat is fine but my nose is constantly running. I just shrugged it off and got excited for a day of sight seeing and wine tasting. We made our way over to the Duomo and got a lovely view of San Domenico and our hotel along the way.
The yellow building to the right of the church is ours! The duomo here is absolutely gorgeous inside and out.
It had all of my favorite things:
1. Cool floors
They covered up a lot of the floors with rugs I assume to prevent wearing them down, but I found this cool skull and cross bones still visible.
I also love simple, but colorful patterns.
2. Beautiful ceilings
And especially in the library!
This little room just glowed!
3. Stain glass (which I didn't get a great picture of)
It also had some sculptures by Michelangelo. He was commissioned to make a sculpture of St. Peter and he put his own face on it! So they didn't ask him to make the other 8.
I decided I want my next pet to be this thing...
I could keep posting pictures for days, but I will cut myself off there. We walked to Il Campo again, but deicided not to climb the bell tower because you have to leave all your belongings unlocked at the bottom, only 15-20 can go up at a time, no one who is scared of small spaces is allowed, etc. So we got lunch instead.
I paired my pizza with the last of the bell pepper I got at the Florence food market.
It was a really cool tie dye yellow green and super fresh. The next thing on our agenda was a chianti and castles tour! Magdalena decided to take a shower. So like I said there isn't a shower there is just a drain in the center of the bathroom and a flexible shower head/ pull around curtain. I was standing in the kitchen nook and all of a sudden I realized my feet were wet. Well the drain in the bath room must not have been working at all because it was flooding into our room! We stopped the shower and I got the woman who worked at the reception desk. She didn't speak any English and didn't understand what I was telling her. I brought her to show her and she grabbed a mob and we cleaned up all the water. However she never said anything out fixing the problem? So we were all like, well I guess I'm not showering till Rome... We regroup and met our tour group. It was us four, a young Australian couple and a charismatic couple from Texas. We all started our quite, but once we opened up it seemed like we were just one big group together. We first went to a small castle called Castigliano.
Magdalena also kindly pointed out that I have had panorama on my phone the whole time! 
What a beautiful country side! The inside of the castle was so small! Arin even found a sign that said the earliest documentation of the castle was 1126, which means it probably existed before then! The first vineyard we went to was Poggio Amorelli.
It was just as lovely as you'd expect and a very charismatic owner explained the process to us. She explained the importance of swirling the wine in the glass and swishing it in your mouth before drinking it. She also gave a generous pour.
The first wine we tired was a white wine from their other vineyard near the sea (lower elevation is better for white wines, but all vineyards are usually on hills with a rocky ground so that water rolls off instead of over watering the plants). The Vermentino IGT Marrmma, poggio barbone was a 2011 and you could even taste that it was more salty because of its proximaty to the sea. Next we tired their olio extra vergine di olvia. It thought it was pretty strong, but I was happy they brought it on more bread because I already ate the cheese, bread and meat on my plate. Then we tried a red wine called Morellino di scansano DOCG - poggio barbone. DOCG means that it is certified from this area. It was a "lighter bodied red that should not be used as a table wine." It ws made with 90% San giovese grapes and 10% marlot grapes. I thought it was nice and sweet. For the main show we tired the Chanti Classico DOCG. For it to be a chianti Classico it must be 100% San giovese grapes from this region and bare the black rooster symbol. She described it as "dry, but smooth." My favorite part came next... Balalmic vinegar!! We tried a 12 year old one, which I thought was yummy and a 20 year old one, which I wanted to marry. She said she saved the best for last which was a RIserva Poggio Amorelli Chianti Classico DOCG made with of course 100% San giovese grapes! I think it was my favorite... But who knows. The view of the vineyard outside was perfect.
Our guide dropped us off in a small town to do a quick walk through and we picked us up at the other side when we realized we lost Magdalena... I had been walking with the Australian couple and Paige and Arin was with the Texas couple so we hadn't noticed Magdalena had gotten distracted by trying on rings. Luckily she was quickly retrieved her and we were off to a beautiful panoramic view. 
Fattoria Lornano was our last vineyard. It had a gorgeous property and villa with rooms for rent and a pool with a view! 
We were able to go down into the cellars.
To give a size comparison this barrel is a renovated 100+ year old one that is still being used (the smaller ones only last about 5 years).
I won't go into as much detail about these wines, which were also great, but we learned about the same typical Chiantis (and my nose was getting progressively more and more stuffed, so my taste was decreasing).
The only one I want to specifically mention is the small bottle on the furthest right. It is a special type of wine that ages in 100% sealed barrels for many years. We tired a 2003 and it is extremely sweet and thick. It was really fun to try something new. Now I'm ready for more wine tours in Charlottesville and Napa! 
We returned to Siena and decided to make dinner. I was feeling extremely under the weather from my SECOND COLD OF THE TRIP! (I swear I don't even get sick twice a year usually!) I just wanted some comfort food... Luckily I was in the land of comfort food aka pasta. 
Peas, pasta and wafer cookies = pure happiness.
And we don't have to pay a cover charge for the best view in the house (maybe the town)!
I was feeling horrible after dinner because my sinuses were so clogged I couldn't blow in or out of my nose. It was a miracle when I found some nasal decongestant (which I thought I was out of) in my backpack. I took that and some ibepeophen and passed out.

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