Southern Tuscany under the sun....

Matt and I have an "Italy bucket list" and Tuscany is very high on my list!  Two years ago we had planned a cycling, wine drinking, cooking class taking type of trip to Tuscany and Umbria, but the plane tickets were just ridiculously expensive so we went bicycling through California instead (which was a great trip I must say).  It is funny how things turn out, because I was so disappointed at the time and now I can drive to Tuscany for a weekend!   

We have so much more of Tuscany to explore, but last weekend we went to Bagno Vignoni, Montalcino, Abbazia di Sant'Antimo, and San Quirco d'Orca in Southern Tuscany.  We stayed at the Hotel Posta Maracucci and enjoyed a massage, thermal spas, and turkish baths.  It was a gorgeous hotel with very friendly staff.  It was a little pricey, but I would recommend it for a special occasion or a splurge:  http://www.hotelpostamarcucci.it/en/index_en.htm

Bagno Vignoni is an ancient natural thermal spa town and it sits very close to Montalcino where they make Brunello wine (our new favorite wine) and we thought it would be a perfect location to bike from to visit wineries to purchase some wines to bring back to Arona.

We took a million pictures this past weekend so I will try to share as many as we can and let you follow along with our adventure.  So let's start with some pictures of the hotel and surrounding area.  The interesting thing about the spa is the waters are naturally hot, they enter the first hot pool, they don't use chemicals or filters, then the waters flow naturally to a warm pool, then out to a creek:

The ruins in this area are from a ancient mill that was discovered.

Thermal pools at the hotel

We had to wear caps to cover our hair....wow i look like a dork

behind the bridge you can see where the very hot water enters the pool

Matt enjoying his climb around the ruins

The first night we decided to go Italian style for dinner since we were celebrating my birthday well past the actual date (long story, you are welcome Justin for Matt going to your Bachelor party on my birthday :-))!  One of the restaurants in Bango Vignoni had a 6 course, Tuscan Style, chef's choice dinner.  We were brave and took the plunge...when in Rome, right? Well when in Tuscany do like the Tuscans!  The pictures are a little dark, but I didn't want to turn on the flash at this beautiful outdoor restaurant.  

First course was cheese, a vegetable, wrapped in bacon with balsamic and olive oil

enjoying time between courses

2nd course was ricotta and tomatoes

3rd course will never be talked about again.  I have an idea what it was, it was chewy, and no it is not pasta.

4th was Gnocchi!! My new favorite

I can't forget to show the wine.  This was a nice Chianti from the region.

5th was a Tuscan steak with mushrooms cooked fairly rare

6th was a Carrot Torte

I hated the carrot torte obviously

The menu

Well after we rolled ourselves back to the hotel I was very thankful we were going bicycling the next day so we could work off the ridiculous amount of food we consumed! 

We took off on our bicycles on Friday morning and I can honestly say that riding in Tuscany is one of the most beautiful and cardio intensive bike rides I have participated in.  It was a good thing we ate the huge dinner the night before!  Everywhere we looked I felt like I was in a picture frame.... 

 

We were riding a lot of hills and we finally saw the winery, Casanova, and Matt was being silly and waving and yelling at me and I had to get a picture of it, because there were several workers in the field laughing at him.  One minute after this picture was taken Matt tried to ride away, he hit some gravel, and his foot got stuck in his clips so he fell.  He was so mad he kicked his bike and the same workers in the field across from us that laughed and waved.  Matt waved back and laughed. :-)

We learned a little about Brunello wines (this was our first experience) and discovered they are sangiovese grapes, but they are aged in oak for at least 2 years. 

Burnello and Casanova wines

And no we didn't ride our bikes drunk! I don't need any emails about drinking and riding safety.  We each took a little bit and put the bottle in my backpack. 

Here is the part I am going to brag about for a little bit and tell a fun story.  Before we left for Italy, I wanted to bring a cruiser bicycle and my carbon road bicycle.  I searched for a cruiser bike, but they were just too darn heavy then I had a lightbulb moment and decided to turn my old road bicycle into a cruiser.  I replaced handle bars, grips, brakes, a new fancy leather seat (thanks mom and dad), a new leather bag (thanks, Matt) and I have a basket (but that is in the airshipment we will get later).  Now that I am done bragging, the reason I told that story (besides tooting my own horn) was it led to a fun encounter in the town of San Quirico d'Orcia, a very picturesque town (again at the top of a mountain, yes we rode there, and yes we ate a lot! haha).  This group of Italian tourists stopped to ask me about the lights on my wheels (I have very small pink lights attached to the wheels that turn on when I pedal).  Anyhow, with my little Italian and their little English I understood that they were also a group of cyclists from Milan and we told them that I put this bike together (or rather my Matt bragged about me) and they invited us to ride with them sometime so we exchanged emails.  They were so happy to open their phones and show us pictures of their rides and I truly enjoyed this encounter.  It is amazing that you can have such a wonderful conversation when everyone only speaks a little of each others language.  Ok, I am done with the warm, fuzzy commentary....

The second night we decided to go for a less expensive dinner and we decided on a traditional first course of meats and cheeses followed by pizza!

ok, I thought it was funny to catch matt with his mouth full

Hot Salami Pizza

First Course

On Saturday we drove down to Abbazia di Sanit'Antimo, a romanesque church founded in 781.  The exterior is a pale stone with several carved animals.  The inside was breathtaking, but we are not allowed to take pictures.

View from the top of the valley

Then we decided to get touristy (ha, as if we weren't already) and checked out the Banfi winery, one of the most popular wineries in Southern Tuscany.  

Enjoying our tasting with meats and cheeses (are you catching onto a them here in Italy?)

Door to the Banfi Castle

Grounds of Banfi

Matt never learned it isn't nice to point and he needs to grow up.....

Matt still needs to grow up....

Ok, now he has grown up (well, not really :-))

Next stop is the town of Montalcino, a medieval town with a 14th century fortress (Fortezza) where you can sample wines from the region and buy sausage:

Matt is so proud of the truffle sausage he procured at the fortress

Pic of the Fortezza in Montalcino

Time to make fun of ourselves....we decided to test out the wines so we shared a wine tasting and learned about the wines.  We absolutely loved the taste of the wines and decided to buy a bottle!  We asked the employee for a bottle and asked her how much....150 euro!.....then we asked if she had something similar, but a lot less expensive.....no.....ok that was a lot fun anyway!

 

Aww, the last night!  We headed back to Bagno Vignoni for our dinner and we shared a veggie and cheese plate for the first course and the second was a simple pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil (yum!):

Center of Bagno Vignoni (no, you can't swim here anymore)

Matt apparently wants one of these now! (hint....it is a deli meat slicer)

On the drive back to the north, we needed some lunch and lucky us there was an Ikea on the way!  I never knew Ikea had their own beer?! Ok, not Italian, but Swedish meatballs, potatoes, and salmon are still worth a pic:

Wow that was a lot in a weekend, but hope you enjoyed the pics and commentary!  Next weekend may be a Cinque Terra visit....then we have Oktoberfest!!