Best of Tuscany--Wine and Cheese!

Backstory: The first week of classes, my Organizational Behavior professor told me and the one other student in my class that he was having a field trip for one of his other classes in October and that we were allowed to attend if we wanted to, we just had to pay the 65 euro fee for the trip.  He called it the "Wine Producer" field trip and explained that we would be going to two different wine tastings as well as seeing how cheese is made.  Little did I know that when I signed up for the field trip at the school's office that I was actually going to be going on a trip put on by a tour group called Florence for Fun that my professor is actually a tour leader for! I'm a little glad that he didn't tell me this ahead of time though as I probably wouldn't have been as inclined to go on the trip if I knew it was with a tour group but I'm definitely glad I went! 

The trip started out with a bus ride to Montepulcino, a town that is known for it's wine as well as being the town that the final scenes of the Twilight movie New Moon was shot in.  We visited the piazza where the scenes were shot and learned that apparently they had to build a fountain especially for the movie since the piazza didn't have a fountain, but the book called for one.  Apparently this is a common trend in American movies shot in Italy as they also had to do this in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.  We also visited a coffee shop that had been serving coffee since 1868 and had a wonderful view of the Tuscan countryside! This was before heading to our first wine tasting at the Cantina Crociani.  We tried three different wines there, but I think my favorite would probably have to be the second, my professor called it a "Meditation Wine" which I would definitely have to agree with!

After we left Montepulcino, we headed to a farm where we were served different kinds of Pecorino cheese and got to watch how they make Pecorino and Ricotta cheese.  We were also served the Ricotta cheese fresh after it had been made, it was delicious! 

From there we headed over to Pienza, a town that I had been excited about visiting every since I first tried Pecorino cheese! You see, Pienza was the first town to every produce Pecorino cheese and is still the home of the best Pecorino cheese in Italy.  Pienza was a very small town until it was built up by Pope Pius II because that was where he grew up.  He is responsible for the construction of all of the major buildings in Pienza.  However, when he left Pienza in the 1400's he told them to "Not change anything until I get back," which immediately proceeded his death in 1464, nothing about Pienza has changed from his original plans.  Unfortunately we didn't get to spend too much time there as it was raining and dreary, I did have enough time to get some Pecorino cheese though!

Our next stop was Bagno Vignoni, a spa town near Pienza that housed Pope Pius II's private pool that he had built for whenever he was fancying a swim.  Apparently back then Popes were more like government officials and celebrities than just a religious figurehead.  While here we got to take a look at the thermal springs and wash our hands in them which was so nice cause it was so warm on the cold, dreary day!

Our last stop of the tour was at a winery in Montalcino that is known for having the best wine in 2010, as determined by the French! So you know it must be good if the French were willing to say it was better than a French wine! We had a wonderful tour of the winery by the most wonderful old Italian man, Mario, he was such a ladies man! Everytime we walked anywhere on the tour he would hook the arm of a different girl on the tour, he was so cute.  We also got to see the personal collection of wine at the winery which includes Brunello wines dating back to 1947!! It was incredible.  I was asking my professor how much he thought a wine like that would sell for, and while he said that if someone owned a wine like that they would probably never sell it, that if they did it would be worth thousands of euros.  I bought two bottles while I was at the winery because they gave them to us for a discount and I wanted to bring some back to share with Taran and Maureen, my wonderful wine appreciating cousins! I also had my first taste of Grappa (a very strong version of Italian wine--almost even like vodka) and Vin Santo (a stronger dessert wine).  After this we all headed back to Florence after a very fun and fulfilling day of wine, cheese, and beauty!