We got to Siena after a rough train ride from Florence. (It was only rough because I thought I was dying, but turns out I'm just fine...lol). The train station was a little ways outside of the city center, so the map I drew myself from google looked a little too complicated at that time. We opted for a taxi ride up the hill and got to our B&B, La Coperta Ricamata. It was gated and sort of hidden away, so we hesitantly rang the buzzer. We were welcomed into the beautiful farm house by Luciana, the owner, who said, "Hello, this is my house,"(the bottom floor was her house, the upstairs apartments were the rooms of the B&B.... still caught us off guard). She took down our passport info and showed us to our room. A man also came with us, who we think might be her husband. Luciana didn't speak much more English than, "You like?", so her hubby explained that we had to use 3 different keys to get into the house. It sounded much more complicated than it actually was, but the room was gorgeous- tall ceilings and windows with a nice big bathroom (bidet included). We took a nice little nap so that I could stop feeling like crap and we eventually made our way into the old city center (with the help of a google map printed off by Luciana+hubz).
Siena is a gorgeous town in the heart of Tuscany. The legend says that the town was named after and created because of Senius, son of Remus, escaping the wrath of Romulus in Florence (erm maybe?). He was welcomed to the city by wolves who raised him... and so began the rivalry between Siena and Florence (as Siena was created by Senius). Not sure how accurate I am with the legend and how historically accurate the real legend is, but sounds neat! Both cities actually did fight throughout the Middle Ages... fighting for land, money, and power (you know- standard stuff). Florence usually won, although Siena was stronger for a hundred year span of time somewhere in there. As I said, I'm not too sure about the wolf story, but there are tons of statues of wolves around the city... several of them showing the she-wolf suckling babies.
We first walked through the quaint, ancient looking, crowded streets (still Carnival time.... not as big a deal here as in Venice, but still had some little kids dressed up and confetti everywhere) towards Piazza del Campo. Il Campo is the largest public open space in Siena, popular as a city hang out since it's construction in the 1300's! You actually have to take stairs into the bowl-like structure that slopes downwards towards the beautiful Palazzo Pubblico (the castle with the tower). The middle of the area looks like a seashell the way it fans out and is divided into nine sections. All around the center is the track for the Palio horse race held twice a year since the 14th century. The neighborhoods of Siena compete (well, their chosen jockeys ride bareback on horses) for a silk flag.... flown with pride for the rest of the year until the next Palio. Seems dangerous.... as the course can't be long enough for a race lasting longer than a minute (unless they go around a few times?).
We took some time to marvel at the area, Victor got some gelato and I had some salty nuts (I was still feeling faint... how lame I know), and we had a nice sit on the sloping campo, people watching and taking pictures. After awhile, we made our way towards the Duomo of Siena, which is equally, if not more ornate than the one in Florence... We weren't able to go in because you had to buy tickets for a few euros.... but the outside was pretty spectacular enough.
It started to get a little chilly, so we went back to the campo to have dinner at an open terrace cafe. I had some minestrone soup, while Victor had some delicious looking lasagna. The sky was so clear, and as it got darker, the sky was almost a pure navy blue color.... it was a gorgeous backdrop for a meal, no matter how lame my menu choice was.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to fetch food from the hallway where Luciana said it would be. We had a little basket to fill and bring back to our room. It was so cute.... the sun was shining through our tall windows as we nibbled on pastries (well, I nibbled, Victor ate). I was almost feeling better, but didn't want to push it with our big tour day ahead of us. We were both super excited about our tour.... although I bet Victor was a little more excited ;)
A few minutes to 9am, we went outside to find a minivan parked on the street. Carlotta, our Siena-native guide, got out to shake our hands and welcome us into our transportation station for the day. She is very tall, which sort of surprised me for some reason, but very nice. She was a little quieter than other tour guides I've had.... so I'm not sure if it was the language barrier or if she just wanted us to be able to enjoy talking amongst ourselves.... but we felt a little awkward talking amongst ourselves with her driving us around, as it was just the two of us on the tour, so it was pretty quiet in our van. At first I tried to maintain a conversation, and Victor would chime in with extra questions every once in a while, but that didn't last longer than about an hour. She mainly gave us information when we got out of the van... giving us plenty of time to quietly enjoy the Tuscan countryside on the hilly roads.
Our first stop for the day was a medieval fortress for Siena called Monteriggioni. It is completely enclosed and up on a hill.... perfect for seeing if neighboring rival Florence was on the attack. Carlotta walked us around to show us the view.... we were able to see San Gimignano, a village we'd be touring later in the day, where Florence should be, mountain ranges, which parts were considered Chianti wine regions, which weren't, etc. Other than that though, we didn't do much here. The fortress is now a very small village of about 50 inhabitants (or less), and it being the beginning of March, the tourist town was not real hoppin'. I guess it was also about 9:30am... so a little early for the tourist rush, if there was one? Carlotta said she liked the fortress better this time of year because it isn't so crowded.... it kind of reminded me of Perouges in the way that it was sort of a ghost town in winter, but will be a hot spot in the summer for medieval festivals.
We left the fortress for the town of Greve in Chianti next, obviously part of the Chianti wine region (pronounced keyahntee). This was the type of wine we'd be trying at our wine tasting later in the day. The town of Greve is the birth place of Giovanni Verrazzano, the Italian explorer, famous for discovering the New York Harbor (ie the Verrazzano bridge). In the town square there is a large statue of the man- citizens of the town seem to be very proud of his accomplishment. However, Carlotta informed us that Verrazzano was eaten by cannibals on his third voyage to the Americas by a Carib tribe in the Bahamas. He died at the young age of 43 :( What a way to go....
After that informational tidbit, Carlotta gave us about 30 minutes to explore the little town on our own. There wasn't much but a famous butcher shop (she told us to go in an smell the meat.... Victor was more brave than I), coffee shop, and Chianti Classico gift shop. The Chianti Classico wine symbol is a black rooster. If it doesn't have the black rooster label, it isn't considered real Chianti Classico. There was something else about having a pink label as opposed to an orange label.... but I can't remember. In any event, the gift shop had everything from wine glasses to golf balls with the Chianti rooster. We stepped in the shop after a stop at the coffee place, where I had some freshly squeezed red/orange juice. It was nice to talk freely without our personal tour guide there, but when we came out and started our walk back to meet her, she was still standing in the same spot we left her at the statue. Kind of made us feel bad.... but onward we went, back to the van for the ride to the Verrazzano castle.
We drove up a steep and windy drive to the castle. The grounds were enormous; there were several groves of olive trees, forests, and of course vineyards surrounding the castle house, wine cellar, restaurant, and gardens. We were a little early for our appointment with the castle guide/wine expert, so Carlotta gave us a lot of information about the process of wine making. Let's just say it's very complicated and a million factors influence how a wine tastes, and basically no bottle of wine will taste exactly the same.... or something. Carlotta is taking a course to become a sommelier, so I think she was excited to teach us about what she was learning. Meanwhile, we were overlooking the beautiful vineyards and hilly countryside of Tuscany in the bright sunshine, so we didn't really mind (although it was a little windy).
We eventually made our way up to where we were meeting our guide, Gino. Gino is a very, very passionate wine lover. He also spoke excellent English, with at times an almost George W accent. (We later found out he's married to an American who came to study Italian when he was giving language lessons once upon a time... ooh la la! ) He made a few jokes and talked to Carlotta in Italian for a bit while we awkwardly stood out of the wind in what looked like the accounting office. Soon enough we realized we were waiting for others on our tour; four American college-aged girls came huffing and puffing up the big hill. They had taken the bus from Florence where 2 of the 4 are studying (the other 2 were visiting on spring break)... but didn't realize how much of a hike there was from the bus stop.
After some introductions, we followed Gino to the splendid gated gardens of the castle. There were potted plants and fountains.... green green grass with little purple and white flowers blooming. He had us pick a purple flower and smell it.... he said the wine is produced from the same "momma and papa as this flower...." (sun and earth?) and influences the flavor of the grapes.... etc. etc. It was a fairly theatrical beginning to our tour.... but interesting enough!
After our garden chat about environmental influences on how the wine tastes and a mini lecture on touring with our eyes and not the screens of cameras (it's true... it's easy to do), he walked us through where they hang grapes for a certain type of wine, vino santo...at least I think, a type of sweet wine (the grapes have a longer time to shrivel up and store more concentrated sugar). We then went into the wine cellars where he explained that "there is no wine without food, no food without wine." Food was stored in the cellars back in Verrazzano's time as it is today.... and fresh food compliments wine, as well as the wine complimenting the food.
We spent a little more time outside in the warm sunshine.... Gino said "Let the sun kiss your face, just as the sun kisses the grapes." Yes.... he said things like this lol. He was verryy passionate, as I said. We took a few pictures and were finally ready for the food-wine/wine-food
tasting. Gino explained that for each course, we'd try a different wine, perfectly paired by himself.
We sat at a long table and got to know our tour-mates a little more before the first course arrived- yummy garlic bread, plate of Italian meats, and olive oil. I was able to eat mostly everything I put on my plate, but didn't chance drinking full glasses of wine with everything... so Victor got to taste a little extra wine than the others;) (Hopefully, this wasn't the reason for the second part of this story hehe).
For our second course, the pasta course, we had noodles with a ground beef sauce. It was pretty fantastic even if I couldn't finish it all. For our third course, they brought out beans, a cabbage salad, and a huge plate of meat from the large fire in the kitchen. There were ribs and sausages.... I tried a very juicy rib, but no sausage. Victor tried both and said it was good. For a sort of in-between cheese course, they brought out something similar to parmesean or compté cheese broken up in small chunks and had us chew the cheese while sipping very sweet balsamic vinegar. They were weird instructions, but it was soooo good. A little burst of flavor from the balsamic was amazing with the cheese. And of course there was wine to go with it. For the final course, we tried the sweet, yet strong, vino santo wine with almond biscotti and real Italian café. It was quite the feast.... Gino was getting deep in conversation with the college girls... talking about staying in Italy and the culture shock it can give you after a long period of time.... etc. Victor and I were kind of done listening to him ramble.... not really being able to follow his train of thought- whether due to the wine or the heat of the kitchen, I can't be sure, but I needed air.
We bought a few bottles of wine to save and give away before going to take pictures in the gardens. On our way, we met Carlotta who I asked to come with us to take our picture. (Little did I know what was about to happen!) We got into the gardens and had Carlotta take a few shots with Victor's nice camera.... and as I was turning to leave and ask Carlotta what was next on our tour, Victor lingered in the garden, saying he wanted to soak up the sun a little longer. The next thing I knew, he was down on one knee asking me to marry him! Conveniently enough for us, Carlotta still had the camera and documented our little engagement moment:)
We left the gardens a little too soon.... we could have stayed there all day after what had happened.... but we knew we were still with our personal tour guide who was on a schedule. She took us on a long quiet ride throughout the countryside to our last stop- San Gimignano, the New York City of Tuscany (because of it's many towers).
The medieval city was much more touristy than anything else we had visited for the day, but probably nothing compared to what it is like in the summer peak season. Carlotta explained that the city had so many towers because it used to be a symbol of wealth... the more money you had, the higher the tower you built. The city used to have many more towers, but whenever you went broke, you had to dismantle your tower. The remaining towers were mostly ones used for protection.
Carlotta took us on a little walk through the town, taking us up to a beautiful overlook. Victor and I enjoyed the tour, but we were ready to get back to our B&B for some alone time. It was hard to be excited and lovey-dovey with her right there.... so it was nice to take a few pictures and to finally head home. We paid for the tour and said our goodbyes before taking our 3 keys and getting back to our room. We enjoyed a nice little calzone dinner in the room and made a phone call to my parents. What a wonderful way to end our Tuscan vacation!
Hope you enjoy the pictures and our engagement story! I'm so lucky to have such a special story to share:)
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