Saturday morning was tasked with packing for the transfer to Venezia and a few last moments to take it all in.
The grapes of wrath reared it's ugly head leaving Kelly sitting on the edge of the bed and offering no assistance while I packed up six days of clothes and souvenirs.
The following picture is just the wine that we drank at the pool.
What a great view. Hopefully we get to experience it once again.
We had some time before Monika was going to pick us up, so we headed into town real quick and we were pleased to run into the Saturday market. The peppers were bigger than two fists put together.
Christal would receive much grief for the size of the freight cars that she called luggage that she would bring along on this trip, but in all fairness and in true American fashion, we were all stocked to the brim with luggage on this trip.
But first, we are going to make a few stops for more wine tasting!
Much to my surprise, our first stop was a mere 800 meters from the villa. It was technically in town and only about a 2 Iron away from the bus stop that we frequented on the way to Firenze!
Upon arrival, we soon met Elena and Valerio Lapini of Podere Campriano. Elena was our host for the afternoon and she had the cutest Italian accent. She took us through several of the cellars and explained the wine making process to us. One thing to mention is that most of the wineries were "closed" on the Saturdays while we were visiting, so Monika made special arrangements just for us. One of the winemakers happened to be working and he was draining off the bottom of the tanks, much like a water heater. He would hold up a 5 gallon bucket and pull the sediment off the bottom of the tank real quick as the wine was aging. His 5 gallon bucket would fill in about 10 seconds, but he still had the finesse to actually poor us a glass of this very, very, very young wine that was in the vat. No, it didn't take good, it was rather dry and tasteless actually, but it was interesting to taste it at the earliest stages of production.
One interesting tidbit was that the first wine below, which was probably my favorite at this tasting for its uniqueness, was Le Balze. The grapes are actually grown at Fernando's farm in Montefioralle in an abandoned field that had returned to woodland, so the grapes have picked up the flavor from the trees in the area.
It should come as no surprise, but the cured meats and bread soon accompanied the wine and her father Valerio was soon to join the fun.
We took turns running downstairs to the butcher shop, so we didn't lose our spots. A few pictures, a package of the spice mix, and then back to the meal.
When we got out of the van, we were soon greeted by the family cat di Cennatoio. As I went to pet her, Monika quickly said, "Oh, don't pet her unless you want her to follow you the whole time."
I laughed and said that I don't mind.
Our next host was Leandro Alessi of Cennatoio. Once again, the winery was closed, so Leandro just let us roam the property.
This property has things that we didn't think existed like Vinsanto Rosso?
The picture doesn't tell the whole story, but the flowers in the planters were 35 years old!
10,000 Liters? Seriously?
Monika is a true pro in many senses of the word, but the meal alla Dario would soon come in handy due to the spread of at least a dozen wines that Leandro had waiting for us to try including Vinsanto.
And Monika was right, the cat was constantly jumping on the tasting table, but we didn't mind.
The cat eventually got bored with this game and used Davin's hat as a pillow.
We began twisting and climbing and twisting and climbing through the countryside and suddenly we came to an opening in the trees to see... The Fox's Lair... Volpaia. A stunning town that has been frozen in time because one family owns almost all of it. There was practically no one in the town. We had it to ourselves.
The chandelier that held the torches. The post office!
Back in the van and off to Firenze to catch the train to Venezia.
There was a 5:30 PM train that we had thought about catching, but it didn't look like we were going to make it. Monika said, "You will make the train."
We were fine with catching the later train, but the closer that we got to the station, the more realistic that it appeared that we could actually catch it.
Since we were already familiar with this area of Firenze, Monika told me where I needed to go, so she dropped me off (armed with all of the Euro-passes and Euros) on one street while she drove the rest of the group around to the drop-off area of the station with the luggage.
I quickly got in line to get seat reservations and in a short while Davin and Monika caught up with me.
Monika quickly suggested a different line to get the tickets more quickly. Davin stayed in the current line and Monika and I were off.
The station was under construction, so the ticket booth had been moved.............................. across the street.
Keep in mind, I still had some luggage with me. I don't recall how much, but we ran through the train station and across the street to look for the temporary location of the ticket booth. We soon found it and Monika handled the conversation. Monika let me know when she thought that I was set and said that she needed to get back to the rest of the group to get them moving to the right track. A short while later, the girl behind the counter handed me my tickets and simply said, "You have 10 minutes."
Ten minutes to run back TO the train station, THROUGH the train station, FIND the right track, and GET TO THE TRAIN.
It gets a little blurry at this point, but I think that I ran back to where I had left Davin, who was still in the exact same spot in line. I grabbed him and the remaining luggage and ran to the train. I found Kelly at the train and we were good, so I thought.
We didn't have Christal, yet.
Kelly "requested" that I go find Christal and help her with the remaining luggage. Once all of the luggage and people made it on the train, it literally began moving as we were placing the last 75 lb. piece of luggage in the rack.
Much to the amusement of others on the train, I sat down and began wiping the sweat from my face.
Euro Pass Conditions of Use
- Rail passes must be validated prior to boarding the first train or before using a passholder bonus.
The ticket taker made her way through the cars checking tickets and... I couldn't find mine. I looked and looked, but it wasn't where I had left it. It had changed hands several times in the last 15 minutes and I didn't have it.
The ticket taker wandered off and her supervisor would soon return. By this time, I had fortunately found it, but we weren't done, yet. We didn't have time to validate our ticket. I knew that this was required, but there simply wasn't time.
50 Euros per couple later, I ordered another Coke and sent a few text messages to Monika thanking her once again.
The train was a nice, smooth ride, considering that we were clicking along at 300 km/h.
The next stop was the train station in Venice and like the train, the smiles were non-stop.
Let's just say that Venice isn't handicap accessible, so hauling all of the luggage, no matter how short of a distance to the hotel, wasn't going to happen due to all the bridges that we would need to cross.
We were going to travel via water taxi (motoscafi).
We began filling the taxi with our luggage and as I handed the driver my suitcase, I said, "Tutto vino" All Wine.
It wouldn't take long and we would be at the hotel and checking in.
We got our keys and headed up to our rooms via the smallest elevator that I have ever seen. I changed the shirt that I ran a marathon in a few hours earlier and we hit the town with the little bit of daylight that we had left.
The #1 piece of advice for Venice? Stay in town and stay overnight.
Although Venice use to be the trading capital of Europe, the revenue now is from tourism. The workers commute in and out of town everyday because it is simply too expensive to live in Venice and the tourists arrive on cruise ships in mid morning and then head back to sea.
A flood of people hit town around 11 AM and leave by 5 PM.
Hit the famous spots at night or in the morning. During the cruise ships times, just rome around the backstreets. It's an island! Note the pictures below, there are almost no tourists. We just followed every little alley including the tiny one that lead to the water.
This was a long day. It's time for dinner.
We have developed three rules that have worked pretty well for us, so far, on how to chose a place to eat. They are as follows:
1. If we pop our head in the door and hear any English, we move on.
2. If there are plastic chairs at the tables outside the front door, we move on.
3. If the place is empty, we move on.
Our first stop was Fuori Rotta Pizzeria, which was only about 350 meters from our hotel and we found it just by wandering around with the three rules above. We started with muscles and seafood risotto for me, of course. I think Davin had the same thing, but I can't remember if it was a "couple's meal" or not...
Go to 6/19/11
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