Goodbye Crowds, Hello Hills Of Tuscany.

  Chianti, Italy
Saturday, September 15, 2007

Firenze From Ponte Alle Grazie

We met our little bicycle party around 9:45am next to Ponte alle Grazie, a bridge just East of Ponte Vecchio (which was next to our hotel). When we arrived there was a group of late-teens, early-twenties college girls all standing around and waiting. Laura asked if they were waiting for the bike tours. They all answered yes. Most of them were from the east coast of the United States, all of them studying abroad for the summer in the South of France near Nice. We started a lovely little conversation with a young gal from Perth, Australia. She talked about how much she loves Australia and how traveling around has made her realize there is no place like home. She also snuck in that Steve Irwin does not personify the typical Australian. I had been making the comment that we would always leave Animal Planet on for Luka when we left for work in Hawaii, and every time we came home Steve Irwin would be there to greet us, with Luka nowhere in sight. She got a bit of a hoot out of that.
Around 10:15am our guides showed up. They counted all the heads, made sure everyone had a reservation and then split us up into two groups. One group would ride in a van with Andy, an avid bicyclist from Edinburgh, Scotland, and the other group would ride with wild Keith, an Irish man to the core from the great city of Dublin. Laura and I had the pleasure of going with Keith. The van filled up fast, leaving us in the passenger seat. We would soon find out it was the best place to be.
Keith and Andy make the tour feel amazing right from the moment they walked up to the meeting spot. These two mates from the United Kingdom are filled with jokes and witty little comments to the same extent that Dr. Phil is filled with advice he learned from Oprah. Which is a lot. They had moved to Florence about seven years ago, leaving the rain and wind and clouds of the UK for the beautiful country and weather of central Italy. As Keith drove the seventeen year old Fiat mini-van through the winding streets of the city and out into the heart of wine-country, he involved the entire van with jokes and stories and extreme sarcasm that sounds greatest when delivered with a pure Irish accent. The van was a manual with the shifter being next to the steering wheel. It was amazing watching Keith barrel through people and cars and mopeds all while shifting like a madman on a little stick next to the dashboard...and all while chatting up a storm. It's like he was born driving a race car and for some reason had been thrown into a mini-van with a group of tourists.

Tuscan Countryside

While he drove he played a large mix of disco and 80's, which was a bit of a strange mix with the scenery. Laura and I were laughing our behinds off as we rolled through wine country with Wham, George Michael and Earth, Wind & Fire blasting all around us. It was amazing.

Vineyard Sign

Before we knew it we were at Castello di Poppiano Guicciardini, an 11th century castle once used as a Florentine fortress and now a vineyard pumping out immaculate wines and olive oil. The place was absolutely breathtaking. We were between Florence and Siena in an area called Chianti Colli Fiorentini (Hills of Florence), which is one of eight regions of the Chianti area.

11th Century Castle In Tuscany

Known as "Castello di Poppiano", the giant estate covers about the equivalent of 270 acres, with 130 acres of vineyards and about 47 acres dedicated to rolling olive groves. Keith gave us the grand tour before we hit the streets on our mountain bikes.

Bottling Room at Castello di Poppiano

We started off in the bottling room. There where empty boxes with the vineyards name plastered on it, just waiting to be filled with luscious bottles of their mouth-watering wines. Laura and I couldn't believe it. We were in a real winery in Tuscany. I'll say it before and I'll say it again: I never thought I would ever get to see this type of stuff. From Watervliet-Middle-Of-Nowhere Michigan to Tuscany. Yes. I am easily impressed. It's just that growing up in such a small town, with nothing really around you (not that that's bad, I loved growing up in my little corner of the United States), this kind of stuff just seemed like some sort of fantasy world. Like it didn't really exist.

A Tank Full Of Wine... or something

But, exist it does... and here we are. After the impressive bottling room we went down into the wine cellar, where huge oak barrels filled with wine were lined up and left to work their magic. This small to medium winery pumps out about 500,000 bottles of wine a year, run and managed by a "Count" and his wife.

Keith Explaining The Vineyard Wine Selection

They put out three reds, five whites and a couple delicious olive oils. We stood and listened to Keith as he explained what we were looking at: some French Oak barrels that housed the "flagship" wine of the vineyard called "Tricorno". A mix of traditional Tuscan Sangiovese (my new favorite wine), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the wine ferments in the barrels for a total of three years, with the workers cleaning and rotating the barrels every six months.

Laura In The Barrel Room

One thing I found extremely interesting was that after the barrels are used to make a batch of the wine (three years... remember?), they ship the barrels off to Ireland and Scotland to be used for whiskey... they don't reuse the barrels for wine. It's always brand new French Oak. Laura and I took some pictures, chatted about how we'd like to move into the cellar and tap a barrel and then moved on with our group.

Justin & Barrels Of Wine

The next place we went to was the area where they create their olive oil. The vineyards flagship olive oil is called Laudemio La Costa, known all around Italy as one of the best of the best.

Olive Trees

Their secret is in the way the olives are crushed and then bottled within twenty-four hours, sealing in an unmatched freshness and delivering a unique taste. Laura and I bought a four-ounce bottle to enjoy once we get settled in San Diego. Funny, I hate olives but I love dipping bread into olive oil. What a friggin' weirdo right???
After a quick wine-tasting of some standard Chianti, a trip up to the attic to view a rare event where they lay all these different grapes out on racks to dry (I can't remember the name of the event but Keith said it was our lucky day for being able to see it so I'll take his word for it), another little adventure to one of the old castle turrets for some photo-ops and then a quick stop by the wine bar for a chance to buy some of the vineyards wines... we finally got our bicycles.

Justin Prepares For Bike Adventure In Tuscany

The bikes were custom made twenty-four speeds by the Italian company Vicini, built specifically for Keith & Andy and their awesome business. We picked out some helmets, introduced ourselves to our bikes and hit then road with our group.

Laura Prepares For Bike Adventure In Tuscany

As we rolled along through the hills of Tuscany, museums were the last thing on our minds. Sure, it's great to get your bit of historic artwork fix, and there's not much of a better place in the world for it than Florence, but this tour was built for people like Laura and I. The only people in sight was that of our fellow tour members, which was so small that you could just block them out and focus on the scenery around you.

Tuscan Countryside

We didn't regret one bit that we were missing out on the three museums I had booked for the day: The Bargello, The Medici Chapels and The Pitti Palace. It didn't matter. We were in the country, in the heart of some of the most beautiful country in Europe. Few cars... even fewer people. It was perfect.

Tuscan Countryside

After some uphill and downhill action and a couple of stops for some panoramic photos we made it to our lunch break at Restorante dei Buongustai. Specializing in traditional Tuscan cuisine, the restaurant was a little gem in the middle of wine world.

Our Group Eating Lunch

We sat at an immensely long table to fit in all the members of our tour, Laura and I sitting on the end near Keith, Andy and Rowan. I don't remember how to spell Rowan's name, but it's pronounced like "rowin' a boat". Rowan being from Scotland, he pronounced it like the word "ruin". Like Andy, he was from Edinburgh, only instead of having moved to Florence like his buddies he was on a quick little three day long holiday, helping out and taking in some sights. Laura and I chatted with the three of them as we ate lunch, learning of their plans to vacation in the states in a few months and of the history of their company, which basically grew out of their back-breaking labor and desire to have a successful business. It made us want to do something similar in San Diego, but of course, we have no idea what we would do or how we would go about doing it. I suppose that's half the fun. Looking into the forest that leads to the treasure, only the forest is dark, winding, merciless and full of peril and danger... but you know eventually it will lead to what you are looking for.

Justin In Tuscany... On A Bicycle

After lunch we got back on our bikes and started the long journey back to the castle/vineyard. I was somewhat intoxicated after having drank a couple of glasses of wine at lunch. I couldn't help myself... I love the stuff. I did discover however, that wine doesn't mix well with riding uphill on a bicycle. The trip was grueling. And that was just to get to the most grueling part of all.

Laura On Tuscany Bike Ride

The whole day, Andy had warned us of a final hill we had to defeat in order to get back to the castle. He gave everyone the option of riding in the van instead of challenging it, and Laura and our new friend from Perth took that offer. They were the smart ones. Besides, we didn't want Laura having our kid several months too early due to some strenuous hill in Italy.

Justin... Minutes Before A Hill Kills Him

That's the last thing we needed. But, like I said, they were the smart ones. Everyone else decided to challenge what I would decide was the most psychotic hill I have ever walked up or biked up. I have floated up more challenging hills, but that was in a past life when I had magical sorcerer powers and could do such things. Andy had told us that even his friends that ride professionally saw the hill as a beast... and a beast it was. For 900 meters the thing twisted and turned, snaking its way up to the top of a massive hill where a little town rested in peace and harmony. I made it about 150 meters, turned a corner and saw everyone else walking their bikes up it and decided that I had no choice, my legs just refused to pedal any longer. Oh, and my heart was thumping so hard it could have made an exit out of my chest at any moment. For about 750 meters I pushed my bike up the hill, my body begging me to stop for a break while my mind pushed on and on like a machine. It was the kind of hill that messed with you mentally as well as physically. It wasn't just straight up. It was a winding, curving hill. You never really knew how much further you had to go. My god did it suck. Near the top and sweating profusely, I jumped on the bike and rode the last 50 meters when I could finally see the café... at least I saved a little bit of face.

Tuscany Through Castle Window

Challenging the hill was not one of the wisest decisions I have ever made, but I'm glad I did it. It gave me a newfound respect for professional cyclists. It's no wonder those guys juice up on steroids. It's the only way they can probably make it up these things during something like the Tour de France, where they go up these types of hills for days. Anyone who can do it without steroids is, in my book anyway, not human and should be considered a robot-person. You have my deepest respect.

Little House In Tuscany

The little town at the top had a nice little café that we enjoyed some cold bottled water and a bathroom break at before journeying another fifteen minutes down the road to the castle. Our bicycle adventure in Tuscany completed, we hopped in the van with Keith and made our way back to Florence, once again blasting disco and dodging people and cars as if we were in a real life video game. On the way back we stopped at Piazza Michaelangelo, which sits above Florence. The piazza allowed us some wonderful views of Florence and some major car dodging (drivers in Florence are lunatics), but unfortunately the air was a bit hazy so the pictures of the city didn't really turn out the way we wanted. Pulling back up to our meeting spot earlier that morning, Laura and I were the last people of the tour to say farewell to our newest friends from the United Kingdom. We exchanged e-mails and information with Keith, Andy & Rowan, and then headed back to our hotel... with an amazing day in our back-pocket.

The Three Mates. Andy, Rowan & Keith

That evening we went over to the internet café for a bit so I could download the stuff I had written to our Travelpod website. The site is amazing but it takes forever to work with and upload stuff. We just don't have enough time. As it is right now, I am about four days behind, finishing this entry at 1:30am on the cruise shop while we are sailing over to Turkey, having just left Mykonos, Greece. Don't worry, that adventure and all the others from the cruise will be posted eventually, but probably not until after we return home. Want to know why? The internet on this ship costs about $50 for two hours. Isn't that a rip-off??? Back to the past and out of the present, after the internet café that evening we made our way back to the hotel just in time to catch our pals Rafael and Virgine chatting away on the roof terrace. Laura and I shared a glass of wine and carried our own conversation before eventually bleeding into theirs. We had a long discussion about aliens, climate-change, American stereotypes, different wines, the power of the brain and dreams. Rafael brought up an interesting thought. We were talking about dreams and he said that he had been reading and studying something where someone once remarked that our dreams that happen when we sleep only last for seconds or minutes in reality (Rapid Eye Movement) but feel like hours while we're sleeping and dreaming. This person had come to the conclusion that after our bodies shut down due to death our brains still have about ten to fifteen minutes of further activity before complete shutdown. We pondered the thought for a bit. Would that implicated death as being nothing but a long dream? If R.E.M in theory only lasted for seconds and our dreams felt like hours...the conversation carried on into the night, before Laura and I finally had to retire, our bodies broken and beaten from the days events. It was one of the best days of our trip so far. Good people, good wine, good conversation... and beautiful scenery. That's what traveling should be all about we've decided.
Tomorrow we pack up and head for Civitavecchia, where we will catch our Royal Caribbean cruise ship, "The Legend of the Seas" on the 17th of September. It's incredible. This cruise is going to be like a vacation from our vacation. We've planned and executed quite the little trip. It's the best thing we have ever done in our lives (besides purchasing Luka from the puppy market). Have I said that already??

Justin & Laura On A Castle Turret