Living it up in Tuscany

Week 117

Day 673

Noli, Italy

44.2061° N, 8.4133° E

From Florence we rented a car and headed south to the Italian Country side.

With home base being a gorgeous Villa just outside of Montefollonico over looking Montepulciano, we spent our days taking day trips to the wine regions of Montefalco, Montalcino, and Siena.

Our first trip was to Montefalco.  Along the way we made a pitstop in Assisi to visit the duomo Di San Francesco.  Assisi is a cute little hilltop town full of windy roads and cute cafes.  We could have easily spent an afternoon there, but we had to keep moving on for our wine tasting appointment at Paolo Bea.

My Dad being the wine geek he is was turned onto Paolo Bea at a dinner him and my mom had in Aspen a couple years ago.  Their Pagliaro is one of the best wines he’s ever had.  Tasting didn’t quite live up to the Pagliaro but we still had a great time.  The property is in a gorgeous area and the wine maker is very unique so it was interesting to hear about their handling of the grapes.  We were supposed to have a food pairing with our wine and that turned out to be a fairly lame showing, which added to our disappointment since we hadn’t had lunch.

That being said we thoroughly enjoyed the Pagliaro, and their white wines, especially the Arboreus were very refreshing and tasty.

Hungry and a little disappointed we happened upon Tabarrini on the way home.  That surprise tasting blew our mind as the sommelier was very informative, super friendly and we were greeted with large meat and cheese platters to go with our tasting.





The next day we headed to Montalcino, home of the super Tuscans.

As you enter the town you can’t miss the giant castle at the top of the hill. We had fun climbing the ramparts before heading into town to taste at a couple of the many wine shops known for their Brunello wines.

Our final days in town we spent exploring Siena. We hit Siena at the perfect time of year to catch them setting up for Palio, a huge horse race between the 17 neighborhoods of Siena.

The Italian Countryside was absolutely gorgeous. Our days flew by and before we knew it we were packing up and headed for the coast.

Tom and I would love to come back and spend more time chilling along the cobblestone streets of these beautiful hillside towns.

With so many towns to choose from, where would you spend your time exploring??