I Only Did One Thing Today, But I’m Not Complaining!

I had planned a wine and cheese tour in Chianti today, and it was supposed to take 4 hours! But it took over 6 hours because we were having so much fun and no one was in a hurry to do anything else!

I met two other women, a lovely mother-daughter traveling duo from Pennsylvania, and we caught up with our driver early this morning. Our driver, Anna, is a Tuscan native, probably 70-ish or so, still working on her English and great fun! She took us to a winery where we tasted 3 different Chianti’s and toured the facility. Interesting! In the one photo, I’m standing next to a huge barrel of aging wine. As a joke, I acted like I wanted to try to open a spigot near the bottom. Anna told me you don’t mess around with wine, then laughingly opened the spigot as high as my head. And we all tasted wine straight from the barrel.

Then we went to Maria’s home—a 300-year old farm house in Tuscany, near Montespertoli. We tasted at least 10 different cheeses, and probably about 10 different wines! Really, so much wine! So much cheese!

And then!! The best, most amazing LASAGNA I’ve ever had! Maria didn’t realize in advance that I don’t normally eat meat, and I wasn’t about to have her prepare something special for me. And I’m so glad I didn’t! This lasagna was out of this world! She uses both ragù sauce and bechamel along with the normal pasta and cheese. It was incredible.

And then a lovely 3 layered torte for dessert!!

The other two women fell asleep in the car on the way back to Florence, and Anna and I talked about living the good life—solo! It was great.

Once back to the “big city” I stopped for my first gelato of this trip and came back to the hotel for a nap. It was a fantastic day.