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Week #6: April 9-15
Welcome to Montepulciano. We have been looking forward to coming back here since 2007 when we visited for just an afternoon. I found this great VRBO that has an unbelievable window and since I’m always up for a room with a view, I decided to book it. It’s Tuesday and I’m starting to feel human again though I would not consider myself “healthy”. Everything takes longer… eating, walking, walking up hill (lol), and such. But I am not feeling the nausea at all any more and the stomach cramps are better too. I believe I’m on the mend.
Luckily each day has been better as far as my stomach was concerned so we were able to explore everything here in town. Since I was still recuperating, the first part of the week was pretty slow but since we didn’t have far to go, it was a perfect pace for us. Montepulciano is a hilltop town so the streets are very steep with lots of staircases criss-crossing the roads. We are staying at the very top of the hill, just a quick walk to the Piazza Grande and the Cathedral and Palazzo di Montepulciano. We have walked many of the streets now, enjoying just turning the corner to see where it leads. There are four Porto (gates) in town and we’ve been able to walk to three of the four. We’re going to find that other one this week before we leave. We found the grocery store (we love the Italian Conad brand) and even found a shop for some clothes. We’ve figured out the bus so we don’t have to walk back up the hill every time which is really only annoying when we are laden down with groceries. We’ve been eating breakfast every day in the house and often having lunch out then a light dinner at home. This seems to have help my stomach recover as well.
On Thursday, we tried the pizza at a place right next to the Piazza Grande, called Re Al Quadrato. Lance enjoyed the margarita pizza and decided to try one of the local beers but he wasn’t super impressed with the pale ale. That’s not why we are here anyway, so he didn’t mind too much. The owner of this place is friends with Sting and the restaurant sells his wine called Il Palagio. Lance tried it and liked it very much. The winery is north of here, closer to Chianti and Florence but we might try to see it in person next week. We walked around town after lunch for a while, before heading home for tortellini in brodo for dinner. Our first official wine tasting wasn’t until Friday at the Podere Casanova. We enjoyed all the wines we tasted and talking to Stefano, who really helped us learn more about the wine making process with these important Sangiovese grapes. After the tasting, he recommended we try Cantina Chiacceriera for a lunch and tasting. It was another exceptional vintner and we even tried a sweet dessert wine with biscotti to dip.
Saturday evening, we had a tasting at the De’Ricci Cellars. You do have to make an appointment here but, as you can see from the photos, this place is spectacular. There are three sections of the cellars: the modern cathedral from 1532, the lower cellar from the 1300s, and finally the Estrucan cave. These cellars are used today to age the wines. The story of this family (and their family crest with a hedgehog looking at the sun) is very interesting which is why having the tour really added to the experience. This wine cellar has been in constant use for wine aging for centuries and for the new ownership, naming the brand in honor of the De’Ricci family continues that legacy. After the tour, we were invited to a tasting with some delicious little snacks and Lance and I really enjoyed all the wines we tried and the experience overall.
