The Pellegrinos do Italy: Sunday 10/4/15 was a full day

Just a quick post which I'll flush out at a later point. (Anything in italics added on Tuesday)

Horrible night's sleep. Maybe the coffee, wine, grappa combo?

Our little efficiency at Cretaiole comes equipped with a small kitchen. Small as in it fits inside a cabinet. Lou was anxious to try out the cute little espresso pot (4 cups) last night so I indulged. Then at about 10pm, our host Luciano came banging on our door. Time for grappa. I noticed he served the men grappa but the women got vinsanto. (Found out the origin of the name today. This labor intensive wine belongs to the land owners and not to the share croppers. As an aside, I'm not sure why I hadn't realized gar share cropping existed and was legal into the 1960s.)

Another aside, Luciano was a share cropper but after it was abolished and there was still a need to have people work the land, the workers were able to buy the land with interest free loans. Right now, Luciano and his family are huge land owners. They own quite a bit of land in this area.

Back to grappa... I had two or three sips of Luigi's. Was glad to stick to my vinsanto into which you dip little cookies like biscotti - but with a different name.

Caffeine, wine, a new place, very little sleep.

Very interesting orientation given by Isabella regarding Cretaiole, Val D'Orcia and Tuscany. We planned out our chosen activities for the week.

Upon arrival, in our apartment, we found a full schedule of activities for our week's stay. Sunday morning was when we met with our host, Isa, to make our selections. Before we did that, she got us oriented to the area. We're not just in Tuscany. We're in Val D'Orcia. She talked about the rivalry between Pienza and San Quirico. She talked about the dream of Tuscany (think Under the Tuscan Sun) versus the reality of hard work and living in an area where nothing much has changed or can change over hundreds of years. We reviewed traffic rules, cell phones, tipping, etc.

Then each activity was described and we were able to sign up. Many are included with our Dolce Vita package. I wouldn't recommended coming without purchasing that. We signed up for every included activity. I also signed up for a hike and we signed up for a walking tour of Pienza and San Quirico, a tour of Siena and a cheese tasting. I didn't sign up for the photo safari on Friday afternoon because we had plans to travel to Florence. Even though we're no longer going to Florence, I like the idea of keeping the day totally open.

First activity was wine tasting.

Trip to Abbey to experience Gregorian chants.

It was recommended that we stop at this abbey either before or after wine tasting. We decided t go beforehand. It was our first exploration in the area and we used Cretaiole's travel bible to get there. We questioned whether we were following the directions properly. We arrived just fine, with time to explore the outside of the abbey before the arrival of the monks. Sitting inside were many spectators like ourselves but a smattering of devoted followers who came for religious reasons. Our service lasted about 20 minutes. We heard from folks who went after the winery that 45 minutes after they started, the monks were going strong.

Tour and tasting at local winery.

As part of our Dolce Vita Package, we got a wine tasting at a small relatively new winery named Nostra Vita. It's the dream of a 65 year old Sicilian man. When his wife retired in 2000, he started his vineyard. He kept his day job (some kind of engineer working in a winery) until his winery was income producing. His is a fascinating story. He's a man of many talents - smart, very artistic - and he's got three very talented artistically daughters as well.

After our tour, we were brought into their kitchen which was used as a tasting room for our purposes. This is a region known for red wine and they only make two kinds of wine - using only Sangiovese grapes. They make Rosso di Montalcino and Brunello. We tasted three wines, one Rosso and two Brunelleschi of different ages. We had cheese, crackers, a raisin cracker and a sort of Italian macaroon to accompany. I didn't love the Brunello and was shocked at how expensive it was. I guess the process for making it commands the high price.