The Verrazzano Winery Tour, Greve

Our first major outing was a winery tour. I had no idea what to expect. We piled into the car at the Hotel Cassafrassi, and off we went. TomTom helped us get there right on time. This is the first view of the winery as we drove in. I was captivated. See the tower in the back next to the cypress trees? I took a close up of it.








As promised, here's the tower.

This is the view from the patio before walking around to the proper entrance to the house (palazzo?) The front walk was flanked by cypress trees and to the left was a beautiful reflecting pool...excuse me, large beautiful reflecting pool. No I do not have a picture. I could not operate my camera with the lens I took, so I didn't get some of the shots I would have liked. Back to the view from the patio...the light grey foliage is on the olive trees, the dark green cylindrical trees are the cypress and who knows what the rest is except breathtaking. And those rock walls.

This is the only picture I took in front of the residence that I like. It's the sculpture in the center of a fountain. This is where Gino explained that the only kind of chianti to buy was the kind with the pink band and the black cock on it. Later driving around Tuscany, we would see large road signs with the cock indicating this region grew official Chianti wine. As opposed to grapes grown elsewhere in Italy and called chianti. Before I went to Italy I wasn't much of a red wine fan. Boy is that different now. But only chianti. With the pink band and the black cock.



These are white grapes on the vine in the drying room. Warm days, cool nights - great grapes and ultimately good vin santo, the dessert wine. I am not a fan.

This was the family we sat with - the young woman on the right in the white top and the young man in the front left are married and live in Atlanta. I was supposed to send them a copy of this picture. Think it's too late?

Ooooh the food. Salami and wild boar salami and prosciutto. Tuscan bread with garlic and olive oil. My personal favorite, the white beans. YUMYUMYUM. The pasta with spices you could sprinkle over the top. And if I'm not mistaken, 4 kinds of chianti, vin santo and still and fizzy water. And oh my I feel stuffed just remembering. Oh my goodness me.

We didn't leave until 3 pm. Then we drove to Volterra. But that's another story.