Double Digits?

Today we woke up at 6am to make the bus down to Florence for a wine tasting around Tuscany. We were exhausted, but I have to admit that going was a great choice. We were on a bus with about 30 others, most of whom turned out to be annoyingly high-pitched high school girls, but luckily after the first vineyard, where we started drinking at approximately 10:30am, we weren't too concerned about them.

It was a little chilly and the first two vineyards we visited were nice but nothing to write online about. We stopped for lunch in Piensa, which I suppose is virtually the only town within reasonable driving distance from every vineyard in Tuscany, because the few tiny streets were absolutely packed with tourists trying to find restaurants with empty tables. There were seven of us from the Villa on the wine tour and we had hoped to eat together, but in the end we had to split up in order to eat. MR, PK and I snagged a small table outside under an umbrella, where we had a choice of bread with ham, bread with salami, bread with cheese, or bread with salami and cheese. PK asked, "Do the sandwiches have mayonaise?"

In a tense moment, the waitress looked at us and repeated, "Mayonaise?"

MR luckily thought to just ask if the sandwiches were served dry, which they were. Unfortunately, we quickly were not. It started raining rather hard and the umbrella was not affording much shelter, but we eventually sucked it up and walked around visiting the stores in Piensa (there are about four of them) until the bus came back to take us to our final vineyard.

The last vineyard was by far the best, and definitely worth the 40 Euros we each dropped for the entire trip. As soon as we entered we were handed glasses of Rosso and fresh bread already covered in the vineyard's own olive oil, which we consumed during a short tour of the building (due to the rain, we stayed inside!). This included not only the fermenting rooms but also a very interesting historical basement of sorts with all kinds of old tools that they used to use for the grapes. Our guide was one of the owners of the vineyard, which is run by him, his brothers, and his father, and he was dressed in all black with sparkles on his shirt! His attitude matched the outfit quite well, we thought. He and the other personalities we met at the vineyard were perhaps the best part of the tour - his father, an old man dressed in a full suit and hat, continually tried to take pictures with the girls, while his mother yelled out, "Mario! Mario!" whenever she caught him.

After the initial tour we were shown into a room where we were given a Brunello, which was quickly followed by small sandwiches not unlike the ones MR, PK and I paid for in Piensa. We were informed that it was tradition during wine tastings for everyone in the room to take a shot of Grappa in the style of a toast, which I can honestly say was the worst thing I drank all day. A plate of some of the best cheese I've ever tasted (which made up for the forced Grappa) came next, to clense our palates for the next Brunello, which was my favorite of all the day's wines. At last, as everyone was deciding which wines they wanted to purchase (after such a show, we couldn't resist!), we were given yet another wine - a small bit of dessert wine that tasted a bit like raisins.

Not surprisingly, we all slept on the bus ride home.

BAG UPDATE: IT'S HERE!!