Italian Holiday, Part 2

 

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After a short drive from Antinori's Tignanello, we arrived at the historic 11th century abbey, Badia a Passignano. The 223 hectare estate surrounding the abbey was purchased by the Antinori family in 1987. The 50 hectares of Sangiovese planted here supply the estate's Chianti Classico Riserva and Marchese Antinori. There are a couple of little tavernas in the hamlet, but the Michelin starred  Osteria di Passignano is well worth the splurge.

Here, we enjoyed a fabulous light lunch with a glass of the ripe and lush 2007 Badia a Passignano Chianti Classico Riserva. The plates we ordered were delicious, beautifully presented and served. The staff and chef are warm and welcoming, the ambience elegant, yet unpretentious, Osteria di Passignano is certainly worthy of it's reputation.
   



We bought a bottle of the Chianti to take home with us from the well stocked Enoteca, where all of Antinori's wines are available to buy and many to taste. Winery tours and cooking classes can be booked ahead of time online. At 3pm on Sundays there is a tour of the abbey, but it is important to note that both the restaurant and wine shop are closed on Sundays.



American cactus transplanted in Tuscany



Back at Spannocchia, we toured the villa and tower with owner Randall. He shared with us the history of Spannocchia and the romantic story of how his wife's grandfather, Delfino Cinelli, met her grandmother aboard an ocean liner in the 1920's. Delfino was returning from representing his family's Florentine hatmaking business in New York, while the young American woman was setting off on a holiday to visit the Continent with her mother. Thus began the Italian American connection that exists today as an essential part of what makes the Spannochia Foundation successful, with roots in both countries.

We were very relaxed at Spannocchia, some nights dining in the villa with the interns, employees and other guests, some nights in our apartment, enjoying local cheese, salumi, produce and of course, a good bottle of Chianti Classico!

We spent a day touring Montepulciano, wandering the streets of the city, exploring the old duomo and town square, tasting wines, enjoying our first meal al fresco in the warm spring sunshine. The very plain exterior of the duomo is deceptive, as the interior holds many treasures and is well worth a look inside! Also fun was the old Contucci winery  just off the square, amazingly, they still make wine there and Adamo Pallecchi makes for a very entertaining host.

One of the highlights of our trip was our visit to Castello di Brolio, Italy's oldest winery and the birthplace of Chianti Classico. We had tasted the delicious 2006 Castello di Brolio, the top scoring Chianti Classico to date, on the last night of the 2012 wine club, a few weeks earlier. I had done a little research into the wine and the history of the winery, so I knew this was somewhere we really needed to visit. We had our visit graciously arranged by the wine agency in Canada, but unlike the Antinori wineries we visited, anyone can book a tour there. I highly recommend planning to do a tour and also enjoy a meal at the winery's restaurant with a bottle of their excellent wine, as we did. The Ricasoli family business is the 4th oldest in the world, second oldest in the wine world. There is so much important history connected to this family, an excellent article by wine journalist, Treve Ring , tells their story with a Canadian twist. In fact, we spoke to a gentleman at the winery who had worked there during the dark days of the Seagram ownership in the 1980's. He took us through the cavernous winery building that was constructed during that time, a warehouse so large it is now also used to bottle and store wines from neighboring wineries. He told us of the fiberglass tanks employed by Seagrams to store the oceans of poor quality wines made then and how since regaining ownership of the winery, Francesco Ricasoli has worked hard to improve the wines and reputation of the winery.

 

We had a wonderful tour guide, Suzanna from Germany, who really made the stories of the castle and family come to life. We toured the old castle tower, which Bettino Ricasoli had spent two years remodeling into a guest house for a visit from the newly crowned Italian king. No expense was spared, from the handcarved furniture to elaborately painted walls, only to have the king arrive, spend the afternoon and leave the same day, never staying in the guest quarters. Bettino was so upset, he closed up the tower and it went unused for decades, until the family decided to turn it into a museum. The decor has remained untouched and is as stunning today as when it was completed over 140 years ago. The ancient armour and weaponry, in addition to the fabulous collection of Bettino's scientific research makes this a fascinating tour.

The visting king drops by for an afternoon visit, never to stay in the guest tower

Suzanna also told us of  more recent World War 2 history. Though the castle was restored after the war,  evidence of artillery fire remains on the walls of the castle, left as a reminder of the of wartime destruction. She also recalled the older gentleman from South Africa who had been on one of her tours a few years ago, telling her that he had been to Brolio before, in 1944, as part of the Allied troops chasing the Germans. 

Due to the efforts of the current generation of this family owned company, Ricasoli is once again synonymous with quality and at the forefront of innovation in Italian wine . This winery is a must-see for anyone travelling to Tuscany, not only for tasting the wines and enjoying the restaurant, but to experience first hand the history of Chianti through a family owned winery spanning 32 generations.

On our last day at Spannocchia, we spent the day exploring Siena, spending a good portion of it in the famous Duomo, a spectacular treasure trove of art and history, not to be missed!



looking up



the ceiling in the library



a scene from the inlaid marble floor, Routa della fortuna (Wheel of Fortune circa 1372)

We said goodbye to Spannocchia and our daughter, Kathleen, who was to spend the next 4 months living the Italian farm life in Tuscany and Sicily, then two weeks on the beach in Portugal and capping it all off with a week in London cheering for the Canadian Rowing team at the Olympics (oh, to be young and carefree...).

Exhausted after a final afternoon of exploring Florence, dinner at the lively L'Osteria di Giovanni was a wonderful way to end our trip. The hospitality was incredible, even though the place was packed and we showed up without a reservation, the gracious staff looked after us, serving us prosecco and snacks while we waited for a table. When they sheepishly offered us a table in the wine cellar to shorten our wait, we happily accepted and followed them down the stairs. Spending a good portion of my former life in the wine cellar at Hastings House, I was very comfortable among the bottles and boxes and interested to see what was housed there. I was surprised to find it a real working cellar, but enjoyed the surroundings with the 3 or 4 other dining parties sitting at the two long tables, with service that was as superb as anywhere we have eaten. The food was unassuming but very enjoyable, typically Florentine and well prepared. I thought of those poor cooks upstairs in the kitchen on such a busy night and our young server, who was so pleasant, running up and down those stairs with undoubtably another section upstairs and was happy to have already decided to retire from my own restaurant career! Been there, done that! We enjoyed a bottle of the Guado al Tasso Il Bruciato, with it's soft tannins, pairing perfectly with the chicken dish we both ordered, a fitting way to wrap up our Italian holiday.