Day 80. 13.6.23.

Arezzo to Castellina in Chianti

Today we did something unusual for us, we visited somewhere we’ve been before. There were other villages we could have gone to but this one was a little diamond and so we came back for a wine tasting .

Leaving Arezzo was a little tricky as there seem to be roadworks everywhere. We were very calm amongst fiery Italians, who didn’t care that there was gridlock, they just had to beep their horns in frustration .

Eventually we got onto the toll road. A little while later we saw on the other side the remnants of an accident, traffic seemed to be passing it slowly and then oddly, without a policecar holding back the traffic, it just stopped. The back jam was miles long. Drivers were out of their cars having a ciggy and a chat. We wondered how the impatient drivers we had encountered earlier would have managed that backlog .

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We were climbing into Chianti region, evident by the neverending vineyards and the odd botega dotted among them surrounded by cypress trees. Dark clouds were forming which brought a lovely cool breeze, ahhh, heaven.

There are vineyards offering wine tasting enroute but by the time we spotted them we had already driven past .

This is such a beautiful part of Italy, you don’t need ancient ruins and old towns to enhance what is a special place. Seeing the verdent landscape, the mist sitting over the valleys and the neat rows of vines is enough to make you give a big sigh and a smile.

The road up to Castellina in Chianti was very windy with quite a few hairpin bends, not helped by cyclists (going uphill – lunatics) and huge articulated lorries meeting you on a 90° bend . Gareth handled it all like a trooper and we arrived at the top of the town unscathed.

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The weather in Tuscany is a bit rainy from today and just after we parked up, as promised, it started to rain, heavily. Luckily we hadn’t started down to the town yet! Instead we had lunch and an afternoon siesta.

We woke up when it had stopped raining and made our way to the centre. It’s a small place with only one main road, half pedestrianised with chintzy shops full of Chianti from the local vineyards, olive oil and pasta .

After a walk around the tower and the shops we stopped in a botega to try some of their wine.

The chap serving us was a family member of the vineyard all of the wine was from. He was very knowledgeable and took us through a wine flight – delicious – and also a lovely white wine. Gareth told him that I buy wine based on how pretty the label or bottle is – very true – I do like things that please my eye .

He proceeded to show us the label for their spumanti/fizz and apologised that it wasn’t as exciting as it should be. Bless him .

We did buy some of his wine, it was very nice and he did a good job investing his time in us.

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The wine was quite heavy so we took it back to the van before returning to town for dinner. It had started raining again, so we left Meg in the van.

After choosing the restaurant we ordered cocktails. Gareth had a bloody Mary (it was massive) and I had my new favourite, Limoncello spritz.

For starters Gareth had sage and cheese ravioli, dressed with a pecorino sauce and walnuts, and I had lasagne. For main Gareth had beef pepper stew and I had a meat and potato stew. Needless to say the food was delicious, the meat was cooked to perfection and reluctantly we both left some to take home to Meg, who woofed it down .

It’s still raining, tonight Gareth chose long trousers over shorts for the first time in about 8 weeks!

Last time we were here we left a stool behind so tomorrow we’ll do an extra check to make sure we don’t do it again .

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