On a sunny, but hazy day in October, our good friends Ann and Roland invited us on an excursion to several vineyards in the Valpolicella, a lush valley north of Verona. Roland is really into wines, and he was an excellent tour guide. The first stop was at a little cafe a few minutes from their house. We had delicious cappucini and fresh baked brioche (croissants). Although Italy does not have any triple shot, half and half, vanilla low fat lattes, the coffee here is incredible and better than anything that you can get at Starbucks. Even better is the fact that you can get it at a fraction of the price. The redhead and I usually stop at a small coffeeshop on base in the morning and get 2 cappucini and 2 croissants for about 4 euros (less than 6 bucks). It's great!
After a little repast we got on the road and headed west on the Autostrada to the neighboring town of Verona. All of you blog followers will remember Verona as the place were Cyn and I rubbed on Juliet's boob... Anyway, we did not actually go to the city center this time around, but instead sidled around the city to get to the foothills to the north. The first stop was up a narrow and windy road to the Le Ragose Vineyard. It can be kind of a crap shoot when going to vineyards on Saturdays. Sometimes they are open, and sometime they're not, but on this occasion we were lucky enough to have Paolo open up the shop and offer us a few of their vintages. After several tastings, I was feeling pretty good, and we ended up buying a bottle of Amarone "Marta Galli". Amarone is a very particular wine of this region and it can be very expensive because the vineyard will partially dry the grapes before pressing. This gives the wine a very rich and raisin-y flavor... Or so they say. I can't really taste the difference between a lot of these wines... oh well.
After loading the trunk with our acquisitions, we headed down the hill into the town of Negrar and stopped off at a Sociale. Here many small farms and vineyards can co-op the production and sale of their wines. Cynthia and I picked a couple of bottles: a Soave, a typical white of this area, and a Chiaretto, a blush that is the most lovely shade of pink. Unfortunately they did not offer tastings without a reservation. Shucks.
After that we headed back up in the hills to check out a very exclusive vineyard that Roland had read about in some of his wine magazines: Quintarelli Giuseppi. Although they were closed, somehow Roland sweet-talked the old woman that was home to give us a brief tour of their facilities and a quick sampling of their offerings. The wine was very delicious, but also very expensive. Undeterred we picked a bottle of a delicious Bianco Secco (Dry White) that Cynthia really enjoyed. One thing that we need to remember for the next time we go with Ann and Roland on a wine trip is to bring some snacks! All that booze with no crackers or cheese had me feeling pretty darn good, and after we thanked the nice woman and said our goodbyes, we were all in the mood for some lunch. We stopped off at a little restaurant in town called Alla Porchetta (to the Pork!), and had the best roasted pork dish with potatoes and fennel.
During our conversation over lunch, we revealed that we had never been to Lake Garda, Italy's biggest lake, which is just a few minutes west of Verona. Ann and Roland decided that we just had to go; especially since Roland knew of another winery that was close by. The last winery of the day was Zeni Brothers which is just a few minutes from the their favorite lakeside town of Bardolino. I abstained from the samplings at Zeni because I was pretty much wined out at this point. But Zeni did have a very interesting museum about the history of wine-making in this region of Italy. They had all sorts of old tools and machines, some of them dating back hundreds of years.
After Zeni, we headed on down to the lake. Unfortunately the air was very hazy and the views around the lake were not that spectacular. However that didn't stop us from enjoying a cool, refreshing gelato on the boardwalk.
You can't keep me and Cyn down, and we still really enjoyed our great day!
Ciao for now!
M
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2 comments:
Hi Guys,
I finally got the time to read your entire blog from start to finish all I can say is WOW...sensory overload! What a wonderful adventure and you are both such good writers you take us right along with you!
Is everywhere you look beautiful or do you just post the best shots? It's like living in a painting but it sounds like there are some challenging aspects of living there too. It's a good thing you both have the sense of humor to take them in stride!
I'm sure the good far out weighs the bad.
It's the day before election day here...I hope you both voted!
Sorry for the overdue hello. I promise to keep up more diligently in the future.
Much Love from your Minnesota reporter friend Darcy
I want some wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. Wow!! That was incredible...I'm a little tipsy, just from reading it. It's like you guys are in a movie with all of your adventures. Who lives like that??? Sooooo cool!
Keep 'em coming so office drones, like me, can live my Italian fantasy vicariously through you until I can get there.
Love-love,
Natis
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