April 10: a better day in Florence

The next morning was much more rewarding. During our bus ride I’d remembered driving by the Basilica di Santa Croce and suggested we walk down there. Again, we traversed the area surrounding the Duomo and dropped down to the Palazzo Vecchio on the Piazza della Signoria. In my plan, that had just been a route that would lead us by some other “stuff” on the way to the Basilica di Santa Croce, but it was pretty much the find of the day in my book. 

There is an amazing sculpture gallery there, and I've got some of the stuff below:

Perseus slays Medusa

Hercules and the Centaur

Rape of the Sabine Women (I think)

In the afternoon/evening, we took a tour of the Chianti region, which lies in the Florence and Sienna regions and was a point of contention between the two city states.  We toured a wonderful vineyard, Castello il Palagio. 

The site was originally a Chianti castle built in the 1200s. In the 1800s (I think), it was converted into a vintnery. It turns out that the dungeon was the perfect temperature for storing wine casks as they age.  And that cellar is quite impressive, particularly the largest wine barrels. 

In the picture below, the "72" refers to the number of hundreds of liters that the barrel held (it has been retired, after about 20 years of service). The smaller barrels that we typically see last 3-4 years.

After the tour came the wine tasting:  a Chianti Classico and two Chianti Classico Reserves (2004 and 2007).  If you buy a Chianti, look for the "classico" label.  They have very strict requirements, including that at least 80% of the grapes used are Sangiovese, and 100% are grown in the Chianti region.  All Classico wines are aged in barrels for 9+ months.  All Reserve are aged over 2 years in the barrel, and at least another year in the bottle.  They are quite a bit smoother, as well as more expensive... although the prices are really quite good... certainly, less than a comparable Virginia wine.

The "tasting" was really a bunch of bottles with assorted cheeses, bruschetta with extra virgin olive oil, goat cheese with sweet hot pepper jelly, various salamis, breads, and crackers -- all produced on premises.

We officially finished with Vin Santo (literally, "holy wine") and biscotti.  Vin Santo is a sweet digestif dessert wine.  Vin Santo is made from grapes that are left to dessicate, concentrating the sugars and sweetness.  My memory is that at this vineyard, the grapes are left to dry from harvest until about March -- they are basically raisins -- before fermentation.  The result is a very strong dessert wine that is incredible with biscotti.

That was the official end.  We also had the opportunity to try their grappa.  For the uninitiated, grappa is produced by distilling the leftover skin, stems, pulp and seeds of the grapes.  It is 40%+ alcohol.  Imagine a fine Scotch... except not fine.  You have grappa.  Sorry, my opinion.

Anyway, by the time we left, everyone was in fine spirits indeed.  Our next stop was Greve, a medieval Chianti town whose favorite son is Giovanni da Verrazanno.  We had a number of Long Islanders in our group.  They were thrilled.

We toured another medieval city whose name escapes me, but it is where we had an authentic Tuscan dinner at La Toppa.  We began with more wine and some good Tuscan bread and extra virgin olive oil, followed by primi piatti pastas and secundi piatti of pork and yummy Italian sausages, finishing with tiramisu.  Then back to Hotel Stefani.

A couple of comments about our guide, a very slight young woman.  She was very efficient, and would have made a great preschool teacher or crossing guard, both skills needed to guide American tourists, even in the absence of grappa.  She also had a couple of really great lines.

On the drive to Castillo il Pallagio, she was explaining to us the Italian concept of wine and its role in life.  It went something like this (abridged):

"In Italy, we do not use wine to... eh?.... get drunk.   If you want to get drunk, you use ... mmm... beer or tequila or something else.  Or you drink French wine, eh?  But never Italian."

"Wine should only be drunk sitting down at a table, with family, over food, with time to talk and enjoy.  You can drink beer or other alchohol on the street -- there are no laws -- but not wine, eh?  And never alone.  Only people with problems drink wine alone.  Or tourists.  Or tourists with problems."


I need to say something about our bus driver, Massimo.  He was a large man with a Fu Manchu mustache and small goatee.  And his phone ringtone was "Sweet Home Alabama."  I liked him immediately.

He was also the most amazing driver ever.  As we were pulling into Florence, we came to a turn where two cars were parked illegally, one at the left point of the turn, and the other in the tail right of it.  Italian roads are not big.  Our bus was.  Very.  Massimo executed a turn -- very slowly -- in which the front of  the bus cleared the front and rear cars by not more than 2 inches.  I am not kidding.  We were all watching.  As he cleared the corner, the entire bus erupted in applause.  He stopped, put his head down on the steering wheel, and went "WHEW!"