Backroads, Day 5

Last full day of the trip!

Lovely breakfast:

Huge bell peppers at a produce stand in Radda:

Fabrizio hosted us in his shop this morning for a balsamic vinegar tasting - one on cheese and one very special (and expensive) variety on gelato with strawberries. 

Nancy borrowed John's hat, so then she matched her boyfriend Michael. So cute!

Tuscan hills (and Tuscan sun beating down on us!):

Someone's garden with a "vin box":

We hiked up to this church (Pieve Santa Maria Novella)...

...where a beautiful picnic awaited us! Juliette and Giulia spent the morning going to markets and delis and preparing this fantastic meal:

Then we hiked on to Volpaia:

Most towns and some spots on trails had a brass tap with cold drinking water available to the public. At this one, several of us held our heads under the faucet for a bit of refreshment. 

Backroads, Day 4, Part 2

Wednesday evening, a wine expert named Fabrizio came to the hotel to give us a wine tasting. He spoke excellent English and we learned quite a bit in the hour that he spoke. 

These are the wines we tried - a Chianti Classico, a Super Tuscan, and a Brunello. I think he said #1&3 are 100% Sangiovese grapes. 

Chianti Classico - very see through - a good, light wine to drink with dinner in the summer:

The Super Tuscan - a little more full-bodied, smelled lovely to me (I'm not enough of an oenophile to describe the nose properly, but I liked it and could see myself drinking this regularly) - this one was a Cabernet Franc:

Brunello- slightly brown color on the edge - seems like a great wine for a cooler evening:

Then we had dinner at the hotel restaurant:

Choice of desserts - tiramisu, coffee gelato, lemon sorbet served in a frozen lemon:

Backroads, Day 4, Part 1

Wednesday morning was mostly spent traveling from Liguria to Toscana. I slept on the bus and missed most of the scenery, but I did get one interesting shot  of big blocks of marble. 

Then we did a short hike to a small trattoria for lunch. It was amazingly hot. It's been in the upper 90s all week, but today seemed even hotter. I was wilting (and drenched in sweat, just like every other day this week - we have done laundry in the shower several times because our clothes are too gross to put back in the suitcase). I now have a more intimate understanding of the phrase "under the Tuscan sun".

Lunch spot:

The delicious gluten free antipasti plate they prepared especially for me:

The heat on top of the fact that I only slept about two hours the previous night (due to dehydration) made us opt to take the afternoon easy. We had the van drive us to Greve, where we spent a couple of hours eating gelato and window shopping before getting a taxi to the hotel in the late afternoon. 

Greve:

This hotel where we spent the last two nights of the trip was absolutely beautiful. Our room is large and heavily air conditioned, and the grounds and view are spectacular. 

Villa le Barone:

There is a pool (getting lots of use by all members of our group) and a "fitness path" with 12 different stations of equipment and recommended exercises. 

Fitness with a view: