Monday, May 23, 2011

Let It Be Known: These Pictures Do No Justice

As the title alludes, the following pictures do nothing to capture the sheer beauty and magnificence of the Chianti winery region. Rolling hills laced with grapevines and dotted with olive trees...I am quite certain I have never seen a place so completely serene. And thus, I apologize that we cannot rightfully show you the beauty we saw today. But, what a day it was. It started off with an hour bus ride through the region to Greve in Chianti, a small Tuscan hillside town. We hiked to the top of a mountain. In 85degree weather, this was, uh, an unwelcome feat. But it was worth it...

Deciding that this was an appropriate place for our picnic lunch, we ate in the shade and basically gushed over the scenery. Somebody got a little tired after our salami and cheese...

After lunch, it was off to explore the little town. Filled with artists from the area, china, fruit stations and the butchers. Good grief, who knew a town of 13,000 needed at least three butchers! However, one such place has been in operation since 1724. I should say they have a handle on cutting meat. Now, I know those of you who have been to Spain will know what I am talking about, but the whole town, practically, was covered with those ham legs. Just hanging everywhere. Jon actually had some later and reported it was tasty, but the scent is...overpowering, if you ask me. And not in a good way.

And now for the Grand Finale of our day. In attempt to describe our experience with the vineyard, I will do in sections. So after making our reservations to visit the vineyard, we asked at the tourist desk how to get there. And the girl says, "Take this bus to this stop, and the you will have to get off and walk up the driveway to the vineyard. It's about a kilometer from the bus to the vineyard." Oh, okay, we think. No. Not okay. Well over a kilometer of hiking straight up a mountain. I LIKE to believe I am in decent shape. Har har, Dad, I know I haven't been running that much, but that was one heck of a climb. Sweaty sweaty. And, obviously, just like all places it seems in Chianti, so worth it.

3 comments:

  1. Hello, Amanda that was a very good blog entry with excellent pictures! You do a very good re-cap of your activities. The wine region you toured looks stunning. I only wish I had been there to jog up that mountain with you (or at least to eat the salami and cheese with Jonathon). Speaking of eating have Jonathon throw one of those overpowering smelling ham legs in his back pack for me. Keep up the good work on the updates and enjoy yourselves. Dave

    ReplyDelete
  2. Europe has a way of putting a whole new perspective on the word 'old' and on beautiful too. Thanks for sharing. PS I want to see the outside of the hostel. Love you bunches, MOM

    ReplyDelete
  3. LOl!!! We are still laughing about our "Shocking" encounter with the fence.. lol

    ReplyDelete