Day 12: Poggio Alloro

Carmignano: Our bedroom, complete with mozzie net

Carmignano: The common/dining area

Carmignano: Our balcony

We woke at Isabella's to a great view of the Tuscan countryside and a nice breakfast with our new Belgian friends and neighbours, Kim and Zef.


We decided that we really wanted a day of eating (drinking) in the countryside and set out to the not so gruelling task of finding a winery where we could legitimately spend the next seven hours. After a bit of googling and a bumbling Italian phone call to make a reservation, we set out for the family vineyard Poggio Alloro, in the Chianti region (which must be good right?) outside San Gimignano.


At one point during the drive, we came across what must have been the only traffic light within 50 miles. There was no pedestrian crossing, no intersecting roads, no ascertainable reason for the impediment, yet there it was. And then what made us burst out laughing, there was a windscreen-washing guy there! And it seems like the rulebook is universal - ignore all pleads to NOT wash our window. He starts anyway... Yeesh! You couldn't make this stuff up. We surmised he must have collaborated with some town authority to install the traffic light himself so he could wash windows. Incredible!

Traffic light guy!

After a few detours to take pictures with cows, sample sour grapes, etc, we arrived at a beautiful family run vineyard, where they also made their own cheeses, cold cured meats, olive oil, jams, honey, pasta and bread. There was no menu-- you just got what they had fresh that day.

San Gimignano in the distance

Some grapes we may or may not have sampled!

Yep, definitely should have brought the togs...

After initially being seated at a table that was quickly inundated with a French tour group, we extricated ourselves and found a quiet corner table with views over the hills. We were served a bottle of red, then a bottle of white, baskets of homemade bread, home grown and pressed olive oil, parmesan, fresh pasta with meat sauce, and a platter of cured meats and cheeses with honeys and fig jams. After eating/ drinking/ lazing for about four hours (and decanting our remaining wine into a plastic water bottle for later consumption-- college habits die hard) we headed back to Isabella's.

Matt assures me the finger was posed!

Homemade everything. So delicious.

We made it home for dusk, and watched the sun set while we researched Florence for tomorrow.