Twenty Four Days By Land and Sea - Greve in Chianti with Rosanna and Giancarlo for a Birthday Surprise

May 18th - my sweetie girl's birthday - time for another surprise...

After getting our car reloaded, we headed out of Oriveto for Greve in Chianti, about three or so hours away.  We were driving in Tuscany on one of those flawless spring days that make you glad to be alive.  Red poppies littered field after field along the way.  The sun was shining, the grain in the fields knee high and light green; contrasting with the darker green of Italian cypress on many of the hills along the way.  And some of those hills along the way...  Montepulciano, Pienza, Siena and many little towns in between.

Hills between Montepulciano and Pienza

View of the countryside around Pienza

We were on a mission today... Unbeknownst to Valerie, we were meeting our best Italian friends for lunch at Castello di Tornano. Back in 2008, we'd stayed at Castello di Tornano while visiting the 2008 Chiati Classico release festival in Greve in Chianti.  When thinking about places to stay on our three day road trip from Rome to Venice, Castello di Tornano was at the top of our list since we'd so enjoyed our last visit.

After a 3 1/2 drive, we rolled into the Castello (castle) just in time to meet Rosanna and Giancarlo who were just then parking and getting ready to unload.  I asked Valerie to get out and find out what these people were doing.  When she saw it was Rosanna, she knew I'd managed to surprise her again...  Rosanna and Giancarlo had driven almost 5 hours from Cesinali to join us for Val's birthday celebration.  Mike and Liz were in on the secret so throughly enjoyed the hopping around and squealing that went on while Valerie and Rosanna hugged and kissed hello.
Castello di Tornano

As with all proper re-acquaintances with Italian friends, we sat down for lunch together to catch up.  Our host, Victor, served us Castello di Tornano label red wine (vino rosso di Castello in this instance) and started us with traditional Tuscan cheeses and meats, followed later by pasta and dessert.  We ate outside under artistically hung canvas "sails" and delighted in the beautiful spring weather we were enjoying.

When you only see each other in person every two years, there is a lot of catching up to do, but first, our rooms...

When we planned our trip, I asked Mike and Liz if they'd ever stayed in a castle.  Since the answer was "No", we figured we needed to add this to our itinerary.  Honestly, we were not disappointed.  Our rooms were on the 4th story of the castle's tower, side by side, and beautifully decorated.  We had beautiful views from two sides of our room and when we ventured up to the tower's roof top (with sun shades and furniture), we had a 360 degree view of the beautiful Tuscan countryside.

My Lady looking over her dominion from the top of the castle keep

Fit for a Birthday Princess...

View from one of our windows

When your best Italian friends are wine makers and nationally recognized sommeliers, what do you do for an afternoon?  You go out and taste wines of the region you are visiting, in this case, Chianti Classico, and Chianti Classico Riserva -- but first, how about a nice, uphill hike to another nearby castle (Castello di Brolio)Castello di Brolio to warm up (and burn off some of that lunch)?

Warming up for wine tasting with a steep hilltop hike

Wine Tasting at Enoteca del Castello di Brolio

Wine tasting with a Sommelier and a "Woman of Wine" is an awesome experience -- especially since our wine tasting host, Melanie, could perhaps envision her own future leading to becoming a Sommelier too.  We tasted a Rose', three different Chianti Classico's (two of these were Riserva's - 2011 and 2012), and a Merlot.  We found the Chianti's and their Sangiovese grapes to be a bit "young"; still tartly tannic and needing some age to soften.  The girls all liked the Merlot best -- and as Rosanna put it, the Merlot had a more "International" taste.  International in this case referring to the fact that the wine was made to provide immediate appeal to your palate - truly ready to drink rather than ready to be released and put away for 6-15 years.




After our wine tasting, we drove out into the fields where Rosanna provided a beautiful moment captured in pictures...  The wine maker walked out into the field and looked at the grapes, their soil, and sun exposure -- taking a few minutes to commune with the natural surroundings.

Rosanna communing with the grapes

Rosanna and Giancarlo relaxing in Tuscany

On the way back to our castle, we dropped into nearby Giaole in Chianti to make sure we got our picture with our Chianti Chicken.

Now that we were on a roll, might as well keep going so we took Victor up on his offer of taking Aperitif's in our Castle's cellar before dinner.  Next up was our own private table on the Castle's main floor set beside a small sitting room with a beautiful fire to keep us toasty and warm.

Time for appetizers and sparkling wine in the Castle cellar

Dinner was a four course affair -- and very tasty.  We didn't know then, that the dinner was included in our room rate - wow.  So with the help of our friends, US and Italian, we made Valerie's birthday a landmark memory - can't ask for more than that.