Blog, Italy (2017), Travel

Anna in Italy: Day 5

May 31, 2017 Anna

Today was wine tour day! We went to three wineries in the Chianti region, and sampled a total of thirteen wines throughout the day.

Our first stop was at Castello di Radda, a fairly new winery that has been operating since 2009. We toured their facilities, and then tried five of their wines.

Our next stop was for lunch in Volpaia, a city that was built in the 10th century along the Florence and Sienna border. We didn’t tour any wineries there, but we did get to try one wine made in the city.

Our third stop was in Castello di Brolio, the second oldest winery in the world and the place where Chianti wine was invented. We had a tour of the grounds and learned the history of the castle before moving on to the wine tasting. They had three wines to sample, all either Chianti or Supertuscans.

Our final stop was Cantalici. This winery was converted from a 6th century kiln, and uses organic wine making techniques. We had a tour of the grounds before trying four of the wines and some of their olive oil.

Here are some pictures from throughout the day:

Approaching the Castello di Radda winery

Barrels in the basement of Castello di Rada

We had our lunch at La Bottega Ristorante Di Carla Barucci

Outside Castello di Brolio

The castle’s private church

The oldest tree on the castle grounds. It was hollowed out by a grenade in World War 2

The view from the castle walls

The Cantilici brewing tanks

This building used to be a kiln, and is now the winery

Blog, Italy (2017), Travel

Anna in Italy: Day 4

May 30, 2017 Anna

Today we drove into Arezzo, the capital city of the Arezzo province in Tuscany. This town was built in the mountains by the Etruscan civilization around the 6th century BCE. It was conquered by the Romans around 311 BCE, and became a home for retired Roman soldiers.

Our first stop was at the Arezzo Archaeological Museum, which was built directly into the ruins of the old Roman amphitheater. This museum contained artifacts found in the area dating back to the Roman times, including the tools used to mass-produce the iconic clay vases.

After the museum we toured the Basilica of San Francesco, a church that began construction around 1290 CE. This church is best known for housing frescoes depicting the Legend of the True Cross. The basement of this church contained an exhibition hall, currently showing stereoscopic pictures from the late 1800s.

Here are my pictures from throughout the day:

The grounds of the ancient Roman amphitheater

Pottery found during the archeological dig

A typical roman bedroom

A mural of Neptune

Various figurines

Vittorio Fossombroni, an Italian statesman from Arezzo

The Basilica of San Francesco

A chapel in the Basilica of San Francesco

Inside the Basilica of San Francesco

Stereoscopic photos from the 1890s

Blog, Italy (2017), Travel

Anna in Italy: Days 2 and 3

May 29, 2017 Anna

Most places are closed in Italy on Sundays, so yesterday was mostly a rest day. We took some time to explore our resort, find the nearest train station, and wander around the closest town.

Today we took a guided tour to Cortona and Assisi. Cortona is towards the top of a mountain, and was where the movie Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed. We used some of our time there to admire the view. By the time we went through a small museum and some shops our time was up and we had to get on the bus to move on.

Assisi is best known as the birthplace as both Saint Francis and Saint Claire. We had lunch shortly after arriving, and then had the chance to tour their basilicas. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in either basilica. On our way out of town we saw the basilica of Saint Mary, a church built around a much smaller church that Saint Francis had reconstructed.

Here are some pictures from the last few days:

An old mill in Loro Ciuffenna

Loro Ciuffenna

The road back to our resort

The view from Cortona

The walls of Cortona

The Cortona Cathedral

The Basilica of Saint Claire

The Basilica of Saint Frances

The Basilica of Saint Mary

Assisi from afar

Blog, Italy (2017), Travel

Anna in Italy: Day 1

May 28, 2017 Anna

I arrived in Italy mid-afternoon on May 26th with my parents, but we were too tired to do much besides walk around a bit and find pizza. Yesterday was our first full day in the country, and we took a Segway tour of Florence to give us a chance to see as much of the city as possible in a short amount of time. Here are some photos from throughout day: