Chianti, day two

We had an appointment to taste wines at Monteraponi this morning, near Radda,so we headed out early in the rain and the gloom using the GPS to find our way on the winding and hilly roads. We arrived at the agreed upon time, peeked in locked doors, listened for sounds, finally spotted a mason laying a stone floor in a building on the property. I explained that we had an appointment, made weeks ago, and he seemed alarmed for us, dusted himself off and went into action on his telefonino trying to get someone's attention. Finally he got somebody named Roberta on the phone and told us she'd be there in "pochi minuti," but when a woman finally arrived, it was a vineyard worker named Eva, who apologized because she'd never given a tour before. She was called out of the bottling room to help us as Roberta had taken ill. Turned out that Eva, who is Danish, was quite well versed in all the functions of the winery and was quite personable too. I think she went out of her way to make sure we were entertained as we got off to a bad start. We tasted two of the wines--on the lower end of the quality for them--and were mostly unimpressed. Perhaps the higher end products would have been better, but we don't know. We bought one bottle of the vin santo, which was pleasant. 

The property was beautiful--a former medeival borgo transformed into the winery, some rental apartments and the owner's home. It would make a nice base to explore Chianti.

By the time we were through with our tour the sun started peeking out and came out fully when we arrived in Monteriggioni.  This was a bit of nostalgia for us as we rented a house just outside Monteriggioni in 2000. We were there for two weeks with the kids and learned that area very well. At one point we took a turn and I told Joe I thought it was the street where our rental was and just as it was coming out of my mouth--there was our house! It brought back a lot of memories about traveling with the kids in Italy when they were in high school.

So I was compelled to return to Monteriggioni because when we were there last time we tried--twice--to go to the restaurant Il Pozzo, right in the center of town. Both times we were turned away because they were "completa." Well today, as soon as we got into the village, I walked in and made a reservation for an hour later and they accepted it. Yay! The lunch was good, but not stellar, still I feel like I closed a loop that started nearly 15 years ago. The other bit of nostalgia for us is that we returned to the same wine shop where we bought our first bottle of wine in Italy. It was a vintage 1996 Chianti Classico called Poggio alla Croce. Today we told the guy our story and bought another one, vintage 2010. We paid about 4 euros for the first one and 12 euros today.

Our final stop today was in the cute, tiny village of Civitella in Val di Chiana, which is a very big name for a speck of a place. The village is as neat as a pin, has incredible views, even a castle, but it's known for its sad history. Apparently the German troops took over the town during WWII and at one point they massacred many of the villagers. The incident is commemmorated with plaques and sculptures throughout the village.

I was feeling sad after reading some of the memorial plaques, so I treated myself to a "piccola coppa."