Day 29 - Chianti Region, Tuscany

Today we had told Alba, the BnB host, breakfast for 8.30am, we came down to find an arrangement of foods! The was cereal, cold cut meats, a lot of fruit, bread with home made jams, home made cakes & traditional bread Italians have. We finished what we could and the host was amazed we didn’t eat more… I later saw her dog and think it got the rest of the guests breakfasts! Alba is very nice to us and definitely would recommend her BnB.

We went for a drive to Castello di Brolio, The first stones of Brolio Castle date back to the Middle Ages. The castle passed into the hands of the Ricasoli family thanks to an exchange of lands for which records can be found as early as 1141. Through the centuries the castle has suffered attack and destruction in numerous battles, from the Aragonese and Spanish assaults during the fifteenth century, to disputes in the seventeenth century, to the aerial bombings and rounds of artillery during the Second World War.
The castle has been rebuilt and modified several times and today it bears the marks of the different eras: there are the fortified medieval bastions, Romanesque and neo-Gothic additions and unique nineteenth century Tuscan details. Brolio Castle towers over the Ricasoli company lands, the most extensive in the Chianti Classico area, that unfold with a continuous succession of colors and hues over gentle hills, velvety valleys and thick woodlands of oaks and chestnuts.
The 1,200 hectares of property include 240 hectares of vineyards and 26 of olive groves, with entry ticket we got to try a wine each of their own. The castle is still in use by the family today, hence why you cannot go inside. We ended up buying a bottle of white wine to have on one of our cheap dinner nights, pizza and a bottle of wine… looking forward to it already!

We then ventured to Gaiole in Chianti, a small village near our BnB, had a walk around the village and tried to find something easy and different for lunch. We opted to keep going to an area I stumbled upon while googling and this is why I think my talent in construction is wasted!
We drove to Panzano in Chianti, a half hour drive from Gaiole, this is where we found the Cecchini Panini Truck. We both had the Panino Cecchini - basically a beef burger but it was amazing! This food truck sat on a lookout where you could eat and gaze out to the view, oh and did I mention vino was 2euro? No, well I was so happy to find this… Just upset I need to 0.05blood alcohol level like home!! Katie opted for water as they don’t do alot of White wine in this region.
We had a walk around Panzano after lunch.
From Panzano we moved to Greve in Chianti, this is the largest village in Chianti. We ended up moving on when there wasn’t a lot going on. So I got out my google maps and directed us to heaven, I mean Castellina in Chianti.
At Castellina there is a gelato shop where you can watch them make the gelato, I may of shed a tear at not having this job! They are famous for their Pistachio sorbet & Basil & Lime sorbet. Katie got the Basil & Lime, & lemon as her second flavour, I got Mango, Berry, Melon.

We decided to start to head back to our BnB, but we also wanted to do a wine tasting,=.. I wanted to do a tasting close to our BnB and just up the road is Cantalici Winery. Chianti is famous for their Chianti Classico wines, there is very strict rules in making Classico wine to get the Black Rooster label that signifies it’s a Chianti Classico wine. There is also only 7 areas that the grape can come from, all in Chianti of course.
We explained Katie can’t drink red wines & they only had 2 white wines, the lovely lady gave me an extra red to try and we both got a dessert wine to try. We didn’t realise as I was thinking of booking a tasting, but seeing we were staying at a BnB close to the winery we get a tasting for free! So we brought the Rose to pair with another cheap dinner night and a special something to come home with us! We also learnt why we find the bread different here, Back in the day when the country was going through hard times and there was a lot of poverty, people would make bread without salt as they couldn’t afford salt. No when you ask for bread it’s normal t0 get unsalted bread and you have to ask for salted bread. I can say we came away learning a lot about the wines and the area from this tasting!

Before dinner we had a bit of rest at the BnB, we had a truck come to the village and start tooting, I found out this is the local grocer on wheels - photo attached of me being nosy!

Dinner we went to I’ll Bandito, the restaurant a 10minute walk from the BnB we tried to get into last night, we made a booking for 7.30pm just in case! We were sat outside with the view of vine yards and the farm houses, €2.50 house wine for the win tonight!
Katie had the Tuscany sausage and I had the grilled chicken as Tuscany is well know for their anti pasta dishes… definitely lived up to it.

We came back to the BnB to watch some Netflix on the iPad as we have a hefty drive ahead of us tomorrow, we will be breaking it up between a couple of villages i have planned though.Read more