After exploring Cinque Terre, we hopped back in our super sweet Panda, and drove down the coast line of western Italy. Seriously, if you’ve been to the California central coast – just imagine it on steroids. Like the water is actually blue, the cliffs are just as beautiful, and the houses are brightly colored. Oh, and there’s castles in the mix. I was busy driving (6’4” people have a hard time driving stick in a tiny little Panda) and chatting with my hubby and just making memories. But, here are a few pictures along the way.
Oh, and one of the stops was the leaning tower of Pisa. You know, just a normal old pit-stop on a drive from one town to the next.
Once we hit Pisa, we headed inland, driving through the hills of Tuscany. Again, taking the back roads we happened upon a sign: “Wine Tasting Here.” Yes. We did stop.
We ended up getting there just as they were starting a tasting with some local couples, so we got the tour, the wine tasting, and our own private translator. This vineyard, Pietro Beconcini, has been owned by the same family since the turfs. They had a vine there called “iXe” basically wine X. They said they named it this because they did not know what it was at first. It is the Tempiano grape from Spain that was somehow planted on their soil when a road connecting ancient Rome with Spain brought travelers (who brought grape seeds) that settled near their land. This grape was no longer a Tempiano grape, however, because their soil, filled with fossils, had changed the grape, producing a whole new wine: iXe. And it was delicious: my favorite from the trip. Besides, it has to be the best if it was drunk in this picturesque Toscana scenery.
As we were leaving they took us down into the celler to pick up the wines we wanted to get, and they had this sweet picture all set up: (just for me I was sure of it)
The Italian owner exclaimed, “incredible” After a good laugh at me wanting to take pictures of simple old work machines, Garett thought it would be great to use his newly learned Italian way of exclaming about the ammount of pictures I was taking the rest of the trip. *smile*
