After leaving Monteriggioni, we decided to head back towards our hotel, but take our time exploring the way. We were right in the middle of the Chianti region, so we stopped at several farmhouse/villas to buy some of the wine.
Darby kind of stuck her head out the window for about 5 seconds, but then she went back to snoozing in the back seat.
Lavender is all over the place in Italy. I've seen several stores that only sell items made with lavender. It smells so wonderful and adds a nice touch of color to the landscape around here.
One farmhouse we stopped at dated back to the 15th century. We sat in the cool, dark wine cellar and tasted and learned all about Chianti wines.
We were starting to wonder why we kept seeing so many black roosters, but learned that all bottles of chianti all have this symbol on them. To be a true chianti, the grapes must be grown in the Chianti region of Tuscany.
One of the farmhouses we stopped by.
As we kept driving, the landscape kept me in awe. It was exactly what I expected Italy to look and feel like when we were preparing to move over here two years ago. Although I love our town, part of me wishes we could live in an old farmhouse around Tuscany and I could pick grapes all afternoon.
The view at the top of one of the hills we drove up.
Family Photo
We made our way back to our agriturismo around sunset and decided to relax and enjoy our evening on the property.
We ate at the restaurant and it was so delicious (so we ate there the next night too). I only got a picture of my starter, but it was all very good. I had panzanella to start (that's what's in the picture), which is a bread salad typical of the region. I had ordered it several times before in Florence, but this was by far my favorite. John Ralph and I both got a pasta for our first course...his was spaghetti carbonara and mine was tagliatelle primavera...both were delicious. We finished it with some grilled meats and John Ralph enjoyed a tiramisu. The great thing about eating at agriturismos is a lot of the food comes right off the farm, or from surrounding farms, and everything is so fresh. I'm starting to think it's the only way to do it!
This day was one of my favorite days in Italy so far, but the rest of the trip was really amazing too. Coming up on day three: the towns of Sarteano and Montepulciano.
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