A Trip to Montepulciano!

Today started off with a drive to Montepulciano! Lovely city, VERY hilly, actually one of those stair-master sort of towns. It really caters to tourists in search of the best Brunello wine and someplace nice to eat. For those of you that read Twilight, New Moon was filmed there in May and there is some Hollywood buzz around town, T-shirts and posters but that's about it.

Speaking of Hollywood, Michele and I were shopping in this really nice linen shop and who walks in? Hilary Swank and her boyfriend! She didn't look anything like you would think as her hair was pretty blond and she is not all that tall. I recognized her voice as she was looking for something for her mom.

As we moved through town, we took a ton of photos of this charming hill town. If you want to experience wine, good food and an authentic hill town, go to Montepulciano and stay a few days, three at most, then move on. It is really lovely and every twist and turn presents a new surprise.

We walked back down the stair-master hill to our car (thankfully, still there in one piece!), and drove out to Montalcino, we were off to find a winery owned by Fererc Mate (pronounced ma-tay), an author that Michele is familiar with as his books include The Hills of Tuscany and A Vineyard in Tuscany. He and his wife Candace welcome visitors by appointment only and our appointment was for 4 pm.

Thank goodness we left in enough time to drive from Montepulciano for Montalcino! Our Hertz NeverLost system got us ForeverLost and the woman's voice on the guidance system decided to take a vacation and so we were on our own! In fact, the darn thing kept pointing us in the ForeverWrong direction. I thought Michele was going to chuck the damn thing out the window at one point! After two phone calls and multiple wrong turns on to 4-wheel drive goat-roads, we finally found the Mate Vineyard and Candace welcomed us inside the wine cellar.

There she told us of her and husband's adventure of finding this land for sale 20 years ago and how they have grown grapes for Brunello, San Genovese and other wines. They had no idea the work or the science or the politics involved in growing grapes. Thanks to nearby wine growers that soon became good neighbors; they learned how to select the right soil for the right grape. And although you may harvest one year, some wines, like a Brunello which make this region famous, take five years to ferment before becoming an actual bottle of wine. Mate wine cannot be purchased in stores as they only produce 25,000 bottles a year--relatively small volume for a wine producer. Candace let us sample three reds and I fell in love with the Brunello--a bottle is coming home with me!

Our day came to an end via winding hilltown roads leading us back to Barberino. Last night, old fashion Italian live music was playing in the square by our flat in conjunction with a church outdoor dinner--like a spaghetti feed. The music was just pitiful, sort of like a Freshman high school band playing a song together for the first time, but still a lot of fun as the players tried so hard to keep everything together.

Tomorrow we are off to Cinque Terre via car and train. Although we anticipate another long day, it will surely be one that we will not forget.

Ciao for now!