Rome and the Tuscany Vineyards

Friday was a holiday in Rome to celebrate the day the 3 wise men arrived after Jesus was born, so it is like a second Christmas. There is also a Santa Claus equivalent on this holiday, a witch comes into your house and leaves a stocking full of candy. So pretty much Halloween in a stocking, but I don't know how the witch part doesn't scare the shit out of kids.

Because of the holiday we had the day off from classes, so I went to Rome with my roommates for a day trip. We managed to fit the Colosseum, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain and Pantheon all into one day at the expense of my feet. It was nice to see Rome again, particularly the Trevi Fountain which I think is my favorite thing in Rome. Unfortunately because of the holiday the Sistine Chapel was closed, keeping in its place of the thing in Rome I didn't see. (The last time I was in Rome the Sistine Chapel was closed because they were having conclave to pick the new Pope.) The pizza in Rome is much better than in Florence, so we made sure we got plenty of slices.

Yesterday, I went on a field trip through the school to Pineza (a small town in Tuscany that is known for its great sheep's milk cheeses), Salcheto Vineyard and Winery and Montepulcia (the city of the wine region of Montepulciano). The Salcheto Vineyard and Winery is one of the leaders in a growing trend in Italy to find a more ecologically friendly way to make wine. The lights in the cellar are solar powered and also just directly funnel sunlight. And they have recently redone their cellar to organize it to make the most use of gravity to move grapes and wine. Salcheto mostly grows the Sangiovese grape which is the main grape variety in Tuscany. The Sangiovese grape is used in wines such as Chianti, Vino Noble de Montepulcia and Rosso de Montepulcia. Salcheto makes all three these wines, but they seem to be most known for their Vino Noble de Montepulcia which they make according to DOCG standards (the highest level of standard for wine making in Italy). Some of the qualification for this being it is grown in the region of Montepulcia, they used 100% Sangiovese grapes and it was aged in oak for 2 years. There we tasted their Vino Noble de Montepulcia and Rosso de Montepulcia paired with an amazing pasta lunch. My wine tasting instructor, Mossimo, who I met at my first class on Thursday, was our guide for this field trip. I guess my wine tasting class in college wasn't just an easy A and a great happy hour, because Mossimo told me next class he needs to bring more challenging wines for me.

I'm looking forward to my first full week of classes (I don't know if I have every said that before!)