The legend of the black cock

On Friday, we grabbed the car back from the carpark across the river in Florence, picked up the bags from hotel and drove out violating a number of ZTL areas. Once we were on the road we wound our way through Chianti hill roads bound for a town called Castellina di Chianti. We got a bit lost as the Castles team navigator was feeling a bit unwell after the windy roads and couldn't look at a map for any amount of time.

It didn't take long to get to a place that offered tastings, as soon as I saw wine barrels and wine tasting in here, I made a turn into the driveway a bit quicker than Heidi's stomach would have liked. When we got inside I asked Heidi if she was up for some wine tastings and she was immediately looking a lot more chirpier. I'm not sure if it was that we had stopped driving or that there was the promise of wines or maybe a combination of the two. Anyway the nice girl there took us through the wines, one white and 2 reds and explained to us what a Chianti Classico was (a blend which must contain 80% sangiovese and whatever other grapes the winemaker has on hand, I think these were 20% merlot). After the wine caining tasting, we got some lunch, I had orrichetti with speck and gorgonzola sauce and Heidi had a salad with some awesome buffalo cheese. Then we purchased the pinot grigio and a bottle of the Chianti Classico to take with us.

Chianti country

Oak barrels with wine tasting signs, QUICK PULLOVER!

When we got to Rada I saw another lot of barrels next to a driveway with "wine tasting" and I quickly made a sharp turn into it. We got to another winery which was owned by an Italian American which had 2 different labels so we got to try about 7 wines there. I asked the lady what the deal was with the black cock (gallo nero) logo at the Chianti wineries as we thought it was some kind of winery chain. She told the legend of gallo nero which was quite a funny story. We purchased some more wines one of which was an interesting blend of white of 60% chardy, 35% sav blanc and 5% gewurztraminer.

We continued onto Siena, bypassing more yummy tastings as I had to spit out the last lot of wines so I could continue driving. (I find spitting wine out completely unnatural and my mouth can't bring itself to do it voluntarily, so I kind of hang my head over the spitoon, open my mouth and it just dribbles out.)

Once in Siena we were immediately failed by Google driving directions as there were road works on apparently the only street which would provide entrance on the side of the city we needed to get into. Hooray for ZTLs! They really made these old cities hard for invading armies to get into, there are paved roads these days and it's hard enough now. Anyway we found a crack in their defenses probably by violating some ZTL laws and made it in.

We walked around the old town which reminded me of Toledo with the red roof tiles and tiny hilly streets. We had dinner at a place recommended by trip advisor which was on a hill we sat outdoors but they had terraced seating with the tables and chairs propped up to match the slope. What will these Italians think of next?

Terraced dining.

The next day after a lazy breakfast in bed thanks to the hotel delivering the breakfast tray to our room we went out and got some produce to have for lunch. We had some leftover tomatoes and basil from Florence so we just needed some more buffalo mozzerella and bread. I also got some weird pressed meat which was like a massive salami made of what I would call proscuittoed bacon. Aw yeah. We got back to the hotel and made up some sammiches to cain in the hotel giardino.

Hotel garden above the 2nd floor roof but below our room of course.

After lunch we needed another degustazione of Italian wines so we headed to the Enocteca Italiana which was a wine tasting place situated in the Fortezza Medicia. Caining wine in some ramparts is almost as good as caining wine by the beach but slightly more of a cultural experience I think.

On the way back home we ran into a pretty big street parade which was basically the area of the winning horse of the Palio di Siena parading around and rubbing all the losing neighborhoods faces in it every day we were there. I think a waiter we had said the parties go for a week or something. Anyway heaps of people were in the parade including a bunch of old dudes smoking cigars and holding prosseco bottles like bosses and the Saints of 2nd place which was I think carrying photos of all the times their neighbourhood came 2nd.

The parade was a miner distraction to the rest of the Siena community.

The 2nd place saints

The winning horse

When we were sick of the parade we walked back into town and had dinner at the same terraced restaurant because it was pretty good the night before. After dinner we walked into the main square, got a plastic glass of spritz and went and sat down in the square because that seemed to be the thing to do.

Siena was awesome and so was the Chianti area, I wish we had more time in the region and think I would definitely come back if we're over this way again especially if there's a horse race on again. I think the Tuscany area has been my favourite part of Italy so far, yeah I said it, even better than Cinque Terra. Next time we will rent a house in Tuscany and damn the maestro.