Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-83aqn-15423dc
Episode 32 (Season 7 Episode 4)
In this series, we are detouring from wine regions in Australia and heading to Italy.
This episode is about our travel experiences in Tuscany.
For all the information discussed on all the episodes go to http://winederlust.com.au/podcast/
This podcast has been produced and hosted by Jeanene Kennedy of Winederlust.
Music is All About It by Jamie Lono, licensed through Music Bed.
Logo artwork is by Odeth Casanova
Winederlust would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land which is discussed in this episode, but also Ngunnawal country where Jeanene lives and makes this podcast.
Feel free to get in touch at hello@winederlust.com.au
Hi wer lusters and in this episode we’re off to Tuscany welcome to the Wi podcast my name is Janine and my real passion is travel and my bucket list is to visit every wine in the world in this series we’re heading off from Australia and heading to Bella Italia I’m speaking to
Wine experts living in Italy and we’ll share my travel tips from visiting wine region so call yourself for let’s go exploring one of the areas that was on Susie’s wish list was a visit to Tuscany I was a bit worried it would be a bit touristy but Tuscany is actually really
Large and so you can escape the tourist areas and in this episode we’re going to share some of the highlights of things that we did and some wineries that we visited so here’s my friend Susie and I talking about Tuscany and in this episode I have my good mate
Susie with me again and we went to Tuscany after Umbria stayed down south near the town of Pienza and made the very controversial choice of not visiting Florence Susie what did you think of Pienza it was absolutely beautiful the quintessential Little Italian Village perched up on a hill it
Was one of those postcard picturesque little Villages that you see it was really really beautiful a nice balance between having things like restaurants cafes and shops but not feeling like you were in a big bustling crowded City so I would definitely recommend pians I loved it yeah because in when we were doing
Our research I didn’t read a lot about it but whenever I did see a little paragraph about it they did talk about how pretty it was and it was one of these pre-planned little towns that some hope hundreds of years ago designed it’s about 2 hours away from Florence so
It’s quite a distance like Tuscany is so much larger than I was expecting it to be once you start looking at you Google Maps and everything there beautiful landscapes all around us where they filmed scenes from The English Patient and also the last scenes of gladiator so
It was really stunning scenery but it did surprise me at first that there was no Vineyards around Pienza what did you think that too I I assume Tuscany that there was going to be Vineyards everywhere it’s it’s quite different to AUST austalia when you visit a wine
Region in Australia you often just see Vineyards after Vineyards Rolling Hills of grapes it was quite different in Italy I was expecting it to be more like Australia but there were stretches of areas that you wouldn’t even know that you were in Wine Country a lot more like
The Tuscany that you see in the movies The Rolling Hills beautiful little Farms Cottages Stone buildings but it was very hard to spot the grapes having said that some great wineries that we visited we were really lucky we we stumbled across a couple of really nice surprises there
Was Castello D balona I think it was which was an absolutely stunning Hotel perched up on the Hills that we were driving past and decided on the whim to just stop in uh they did welcom us which was great it was really nice the way they kind of opened up
Their doors and let us through I think if I had a romantic getaway I would visit there it was um they had that gorgeous pool area and there’s also people we saw in the vineyard outside doing a tasting so you could sit in the vines and have a similia came and do
Tastings we just popped by for a drink it’s nice to get some suggestions of places that you might not know about so if you’re looking for a romantic getaway and you’re into your wine that is one hotel that I would check out we stayed in a ag Turismo which was great in Italy
Farmers can open up their farmhouses for accommodation and they can range from being really rustic to really luxurious and I think that this one was probably like it was nicer than I was expecting it was this huge two-bedroom apartment that we had had a beautiful infinity
Pool we walked in and um Susie do you remember how much wine there was set up in the kitchen that was a nice surprise bottles in bottles of wine with prices on each bottle so you knew EX what you were paying and none of them were really that ridiculously expensive not when you
Compare wine price prices to Australia I thought they were all really reasonable and not only were the prices good the wine itself was beautiful then they included breakfast in the morning and they had some ebikes for hire so we spent one day riding around the countryside and that was really like
That was beautiful like that was a great day and then another day it was a bit drizzly and wet and we found some thermal Springs nearby the um bagy D San filipo we were originally looking at going to saturnia I think it’s pronounced which is on Instagram a lot
And it’s looks gorgeous but this one that we ended up going to was much closer to Pienza and much smaller and it was a wonderful way to spend a drizzly morning I would definitely recommend the thermal springs that was fantastic it is in the middle of nowhere if you didn’t
Know about it it would be difficult I think to find and there are just pools of this beautiful warm water everywhere you look and you could literally sit there for hours on hours just looking out at the trees the setting was really really nice and it wasn’t that crowded you never
Felt like you were on top of people it was a really great find and something that I hadn’t really thought about doing too much but it was great yeah and then there was that little Village that we went to bagno Bon and that had a thermal
Spring right in the middle of the Town Square and that was awesome to see as well and we had lunch there something very unexpected so I really thought that was really cool to visit yes can’t swim in that thermal spring um but it was just very different in in terms of what
You’re expecting to find in the middle of Tuscany there was some really nice restaurants in that area too so if you were planning on going there I would recommend timing it so that you could have lunch there lots and lots of great restaurants to choose from that’s very
True and back to Pienza about talking about restaurants because we had a great meal at the LA bandita restaurant which I’d heard about and an American had opened it up there and there’s accommodation there as well and we popped by recommend making a reservation we didn’t but they were able to fit Us
In for a short meal and and that was a fantastic meal that we had in in town there that was incredible I ate the tiramisu with which was completely different to every other chisu I had in the rest of Italy it was absolutely beautiful the food was next level and we
Also did a cooking class the chef didn’t speak English her daughter did though so her daughter helped out quite a bit but we had a lot of fun doing that and the AGR Turismo we stayed with organized all that for us which was really great it felt very authentic the cooking class I
Imagine that there are some in Italy that you might feel like your distant number being pumped through the next cooking class but this was just the T of us which was nice and it was that authentic ners cooking that I think made it really really worthwhile I felt like
I was in someone’s kitchen learning a traditional pass down through the generations recipe it was really really good very very authentic I really enjoyed that yeah that was a good experience and we also found a cool little wine bar that had graffiti all over and actually encouraged people to
To add their mark on the tables and walls and everything and that was called Bano and they had a very engaging young guy working there and he was lots of fun taking selfies with everybody yeah that was fun we did dedicate one day to doing wine and that’s when we went out to
Monto Chino to try the Brello wine we made a reservation at tanut colorbo and the reason I chose this one was that i’ had a friend um have one of their bottles in Australia and I thought why not visit a place that you’ve actually tried some of the wine and also I’d
Heard that while it’s a family Run Winery that had come down through the generations the current generation are all women that are operating it and I’m always intrigued and loved there’s women wine makers and women wine producers so that sort of put it on my radar I guess
To visit this was probably maybe what 15 20 minutes outside of montal Chino is a bit off the Beaten Track to get to but it looked like a huge castle when we got there and that was the one and only bottle I bought was was from that vigard
I was really impressed with their wine and a really nice tasting plate at the end so that’s a good choice if you can add that on to your wine tasting experience the great thing with Monto Chino though is that there are so many bottle shops that offer tastings in town
And a great opportunity to try lots of different wines so they you could purchase tasty of different wines and there were some really nice views at some of wine stores you could sit on the balcony looking out over the landscape and just enjoy a glass of wine that was
Something I’d also recommend yeah that was uh a surprise I guess because I hadn’t seen that in a lot of the other Italian Villages I really enjoyed the wine stores there it’s quite different from sort of in Sydney or Australia where you can get lucky with a tasting
In store this they actively encouraged you to try all of the different wines and then you could take a bottle home which was good because it gave you an opportunity to taste a lot without needing to get in a car and do a lot of driving so if you are short on time
There’s lots of experiences in town that are really really accessible and don’t cost a lot of money yeah that was I really enjoyed that it was a really great way to try some really good wines if especially if you didn’t have the time or the means to get to um sad
Doors and I think the only thing we’ve left to say about tusy is that after we left Southern tusky we spent four days there I feel like a hardly skinn the surface where you had to drive up going north and we decided to stop in Kean and I’d heard that there was a
Cellor called antinori and I think it’s quite a famous one because it was massive so we did do a detour there just to try a aunti celador and it’s probably the only one you can go to without a reservation as well but they saw scrapes from all over
Italy and they had a Vineyard on the roof but it felt like an airport hanger going in it was absolutely massive wasn’t it Susie I felt like I was walking into a museum yeah very very modern futuristic building set in the middle of nowhere which was odd but it was abs absolutely
Stunning definitely worth a visit so if you’re in Florence or you’re around the the northern part of Tuscany there then it is one well worth visiting to get that sort of more commercial feel and then I would mix it up with some family run wineries I think it’s nice to have
That sort of balance and to see different sides of things not everything’s a slick operation but it is kind of cool to see the occasional slick operation happening yeah a mix was good there’s also a lot to see in Tuscany and it’s quite a big big area so if you are
Thinking of visiting make sure you allow yourself a little bit of time in the destination there are lots of little villages to go and visit and each one can be a day trip you can also spend a day just relaxing reading a book Lying by the pool I would recommend ensuring
That you’ve factored in enough time in your itinerary to really enjoy Tuscany and not rush through it yeah I mean we spent four days and I feel like we could have spent a lot longer because there’s also um the whole Coastline like Tuscany goes all the way to the coast we never
Went to the beach in Tuscany um and that’s where Andrea belli yeah so his family has a winery that’s on the on the coast in Tuscany and I would have loved to have gone there and just allow yourself enough time to be able to stop take photos and enjoy the scenery not
Just having to rush through there is quite a lot to see and it’s a slightly bigger than you think so it is worth even staying for a week if you have the opportunity thanks Susie thank you so much for listening you can subscribe now to get each
Episode as they drop you can also check out this podcast on YouTube and see pictures of the region and the people I’ve spoken to go to wi.com that’s w i n e d e r l u t.c. for everything to discuss today you can also subscribe to my newsletter to
Hear all about my upcoming events and other news till next time happy wine Travels