IN THE HEART OF TUSCANY

Today we leave Firenze for a two days trip where wine is in the focus of our action! To be more precise: we are heading south to the area of Chianti Classico. As our navigation system is not willing to charge anymore we are travelling from now onwards the “traditional way” with maps and the “try and error” game.

After we left the big city, the landscape turns exactly in that what we expect, what most probably all people expect from Tuscany: soft hills, cypress-trees, wine and olive plantations, green is dominating. We escape all highways and try to find our way in small streets where the real life is.

Our first stop today - beside many short ones for several foto-shootings - is the lovely Greve in Chianti. Basically it was a mistake going there because Guenther tried to find Gropina and not Greve but this small town with his triangle shaped place with all his arcades is more than worth this stop (Gropina and the search for the holy Lucas will come next week). 

Cheece production in Greve

Hungry GUE

Small shops around with everywhere typical foodstuff of this region! The best place to shop for our first picnic: some wine, tomatoes (the best in the world), bread, spicy salami and some fruits and water. In the main shop we can find almost everything and it is difficult for us NOT to buy some cheese or a whole ham which are hanging around everywhere in that shop.

Later we have our picnic - somewhere in the middle of nowhere, on top of one hill there is a small bench with a view. Perfect for us. What a great lunch we had!

Seda preparing a wonderful lunch picnic

The next two nights we spend in San Gimignano. We reach this town where the clock stopped in the 15th century in the later afternoon. We park the car outside the city-walls and enter the main gate to reach a complete different world. A world without cars, a world of homogeneous buildings and places where everything fits together. It looks like we would imagine the middle ages. The main difference to that time: busses full with tourists are spreading around and trying to find peace there. Only in the evening it is getting better! Our hotel is directly located at the main place, Piazza della Cisterna and the imagination works. 

San Gimignano from far ...

Beside the atmosphere itself the main attraction of this city is the fact that around 15 towers (built by several families in the middle ages showing the wealth of the families) are dominating the scenery. At that time it is said that the town had around 70 towers but most of them didn’t survive. The main tower we climbed up and we had a breathtaking view from the top! What a feast for the eyes!!

We completed that romantic afternoon with a dinner in the restaurant Bel Soggiorno where we had again wine and regional oriented dishes - that time it was more a feast for the body.