Tuscany. Whoa.

While fall break was a lot of fun, the adventures were far from over. A few weeks after returning from 8 countries in 12 days, I started to concentrate on traveling all around Italy.

First stop? Tuscany for my first real wine tasting. (Well second if you count the one in Capri). This was a school-run trip so I was with most of my friends from school, and we traveled together to an authentic Italian vineyard way up in the mountains of Tuscany. Seriously, I never would have made it to this remote location without the school planning this trip. Also, this particular vineyard was run completely by women. Apparently men have dominated the winemaking industry in the past; women have only recently been gaining the trust and respect of wine connoisseurs, so an all-women vineyard is a significant achievement.

Upon arriving at the Vineyard, I was amazed by it’s absolute beauty. It really is way up in the hills, and you could literally hear a pin drop. Compared to the hustle and bustle of Boston, it was an eerie silence. Check it out:

Once I was done taking in the beauty, the tour began. We were taken around and shown the different aspects of wine making. From the fields where the grapes are grown, to the fermentation canisters, to the storage room where the wine is aged in specific wooden barrels, we saw it all. Of course, the best part of the tour was after the tour; the wine tasting. We tasted a red and a white, (I wish I could remember the names) and were taught how to observe, smell, and taste wine properly. It is really a multi- step process, and I am still a bit skeptical that an individual can have keen enough senses to detect the subtle differences from one wine to another. Nonetheless, the people I met have dedicated their lives to wine making up in the hills of Tuscany, so I guess I will concede that those keen senses do exist.

After the tasting, I was treated to one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten. I still don’t know how the Italians make simple pasta taste so good, but they did it again here. I ate a full four-course meal with salad, carbonara pasta, chicken, wine, and even dessert. Everything was made of fresh ingredients, and handmade and/or cooked on the premises, and every flavor was better than the last. It was a far cry from chain restaurants of the U.S. If that wasn’t enough, the servers went around offering us more helpings of each course as we continued to stuff ourselves silly. When we just couldn’t eat anymore, we were allowed to walk around, and even buy some wine from the giftshop. Overall, it was an incredible trip. I learned how Italians make wine, and I ate an authentic Italian meal. The best part? I did it all in one day.