Wanting to continue our studies of Tuscan culture, we booked a tour of the Montalcino district, which included three wineries. We’ll cover the town of Montalcino and each winery in a separate post.
There were eight of us in the van, four Californians and two New Yorkers, one a native of India and the other of Pakistan. It was a very convivial group.
The first stop was in Montalcino, a rather typical Tuscan hill town. It has an important place in the history of Siena: when the bad guys (i.e. the guys from Florence) conquered Siena in 1555, the good guys (I.e., the leading families of Siena) escaped to Montalcino, about 60 miles away, where they holed up in the fortress.
They held out for several years, but Montalcino was finally captured by Florence in about 1559. As a gesture of Siena’s gratitude, a delegation from Montalcino marches at the head of the Palio festivities each year.
Although your devoted bloggers have seen a lot of hill towns, mostly on foot, we found Montalcino to be very pretty, with outstanding views.
After walking around the town
we boarded our van and headed to our first winery of the day. We were ready to get to work!
ITALY, GERMANY, AND MORE! 