2nd May 2010

Day 23 – Tuscany


Lazy start to Day 1 of Tuscany Tour but unfortunately the first day of rain – which lasted most of the day. After a visit to breakfast area which was the cellar of the hotel (It had a painting of the sky on the curved ceiling)

We skyped Mum for her birthday. It was good to have a chat.

We loaded up into van with our group of Darren (tour director),Aaron, Phoebe and Bernadette (all from Australia) and headed off to Tuscany for real. On four lane most of the way – but all looks very hilly (speaking as a cyclist!). Unfortunately on way Shona was not well, necessitating two stops at a little village!

However onto our accommodation which is about two km from Trequanda – a hillside village – which we can see from one of our bedroom windows. ( Shona still vomiting so we sent her to bed!)

It is an old winery estate (still in operation) dating back to the 15th Century and for a large chunk of that time has been in one family, They operate now a number of local farms/wineries and appear to be one of the top wineries in the district with where we are staying is called Fattoria del Colle (336 hectares). They make olive oil, wine and truffles. It is an amazing place.

We certainly aren’t going to go hungry – for lunch they brought out a plate that I thought was for everyone to share – no that was just mine!!!! We also got it hinted that they get insulted if you don’t eat things!!!! Certainly full after lunch (Shona was sleeping at this stage!)

We then got a tour of the main ”villa” which was more like a museum with paintings everywhere, painted ceilings and very old stuff everywhere – the place has a very interesting with history dating back to 1500.

We then got shown the cellars and shown everything including given tips on wine tasting etc (pity Shona missed this!) and got to sample two of their better known wines. (Red).

We then got our new (not new) carbon bikes delivered that we get to use over the next few days and got them set up. Hopefully the newness of them will count when we leave tomorrow morning and have to bike the first hill up to the local village which Darren tells us is the steepest climb we will do all week – with 20% gradient – and we will have had about 1 km of practice on our new bikes before tackling it!!!

Anyway back to room Shona has appeared – and dinner (like I need more food) in an hours time. Hopefully it will be warmer and finer tomorrow.

Shona here- (next day) found the internet- feeling better - this is an amazing place.