After struggling to find something to eat for lunch yesterday and enjoying our home aperitivo, we headed on the town to find something to eat for dinner. We ended up at Ristorante La Bricola next door to where we ate dinner the first night. To be honest, we were a bit underwhelmed by the food. Additionally, the bottle of wine we got was border line turned, but we waited too long before we both agreed it wasn’t good.
This morning we woke up and saw that a glimmer of hope that the rain would finally subside. Unfortunately, we were wrong.
Luckily for us, we had a fun day planned of wine tasting and eating Italian food so it didn’t matter what the weather was like. Our first stop was Montemecurio just outside of town. When we pulled up, a scruffy teenager with an eye patch wearing sweat pants answered the door and looked at us very confused. Concerned we had pulled up to somebody’s house and not a winery, we started to slowly backup. In broken English, the teenager told us to wait. After waiting outside the front door for two minutes, Irene came out and welcomed us into the house. While it looked like a house, it was indeed the correct place. The wine operation consists of 3 people. One for the field, one for the winery, and one for the office. Irene was an absolute pleasure to taste with. She was quite gregarious and loved talking with us about skiing. She stressed the importance of a bit of grappa before you hit the slopes. Here we tasted 6 bottles of wine include a white and rose which is very rare in this red dominated region. Everything was delicious and so affordable. We ended up walking away with a half case.
After our first tasting, we headed to our lunch reservation in Monticchiello at Osteria La Porta.
Apparently, most people come to this little hill top village just for this restaraunt. We were not disappointed. Between the bacalla appetizier or the Cacio Pepe Gnocchi, everything was so good. The atmosphere was also quite fun with a young temptress sitting behind us attempting to seduce the young waiter. This included passing notes and lots of giggling. Sara said she could have dressed cuter. The staff was also quite generous here, they even gave us our half liter of wine for free.
After lunch, we headed back to the apartment for a quick rest before our next tasting. Dave fell asleep during this time for a few minutes, because as you know, tasting wine is exhausting. Refreshed and ready to go, we headed up to Gattevechi which is located right in town.
We met Daniela who is the one of three siblings who run the winery. In addition to working in the family business, Daniela used to teach Italian to foreign students at a school in Montepulciano so she was very excited about speaking with Sara and complimented her quite a bit on her Italian. They also spoke about their shared interest in vintage Cinecitta films. Similar to other places in town, they had an extensive cellar that dates back to 300 BC.
After touring their small crypt, we tasted the wines. Again, everything was quite good. Daniella offered to help us ship all of our wine back including the bottles we purchased at other locations.
All in all, we ended up with two cases.
During our tasting, it finally stopped raining and the sun came out. We now sit in our apartment for one last night and are looking at a beautiful sunset. Tonight we are going to cook in.
Tomorrow we head to Assisi.
We looked for restaurants around the winery but couldn’t find anything open close by as it was nearing the end of lunchtime so we came back to Montepulciano. Everything was closed here too but Dave was able to find a sandwich in a bar we split. After resting a while at home we went to another tasting in the cantina directly across the road from where we are staying called De’Ricci. While the the cantinas themselves were really interesting (they start at street level and go all the way down the ancient Estrucan caves deep below the city) the wine was just ok. We had the place all to ourselves and they were running a skeleton crew of just one who poured for us. She was a bit of character and after chatting together for a while she waived our tasting fees.
We got to admire all the towers and medieval alleys pretty much by ourselves. Sara also made this classic Cinecitta tribute short video
Also, one of the big cantinas producing vino Nobile (the local wine) is literally across the street from the front door. We walked around a little and had lunch in at a very nice place called Le Lodge di Vignola. The plan was to eat dinner in but all the grocery stores in town are closed because it’s Sunday afternoon so we will probably have a light dinner out. Tomorrow the plan is to take a drive through the surrounding country and visit a winery in the afternoon.
The Duomo has both a museum and the church. We wandered around the museum and looked at the assorted treasures of the church then explored the Duomo itself which is massive and very beautiful inside. The entry fee also includes an elevator ride up to the roof so we walked around the roof and checked out the view too. It’s interesting because we’ve both been in office and apartment buildings taller than the Duomo but for some reason being up on the roof with all the spires and scaffolding gives a sense of vertigo.
This morning we said goodbye to Jeff and Karen who were on their way to Rome, where by the way, the airports were closed this morning due to a freak snow storm that is blanketing Southern Italy! We heard it took them quite a while to make it to the Eternal City. We helped Nate and Christine to the airport as they had graciously agreed to take all of our ski stuff back to California for us. After saying goodbye to them we went back into Milano and picked up our new rental car.
Even after lunch the hotel doors were still closed so Dave waited with the bags while Sara went to get an Italian SIM card. Finally we were able to get ahold of the hotel owner to come and let us in because a very nice lady from the building offered Dave to call him directly. Once settled we set out to explore the historic center of Genova which reminds us of Porto, Portugual, the old quarter of Barcelona and a little bit of Venice and Naples. It’s really beautiful with pink and yellow palazzos squeezed in tight around tiny piazzas and also a little gritty which makes it interesting. Everyone we’ve met here was at first a little standoffish but then once engaged, very lovely and extremely welcoming.
