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9:12 am...on the bus to siena
artists to research( sodoma, bartolo, pisano, martini, the siena school, sorri, vanni, pinturicchio, lorenzetti)
2:04 pm...back on the bus and on our way to castelo dei volpaia (www.volpaia.com) in the country for our olive oil tasting. siena was so beautiful. it is a medievil town with the original city walls and feels a little like a subdued disneyland. its enclosed, has gates, picturesque, and very relaxed. we took a walking tour up and down the steep hills in the city and past the old hospital and duomo. they call the unfinished part of their duomo the Dream becuase when the plague hit it killed like 70 percent of their population and ended construction. we ended in piazza del campo which is their town square but it is shaped like a shell. twice a year they have bare back horse races between the 17 districts of the city and the horse, not the jockey, is considered the winner. we had a nice lunch and some stracciatella (choc. chip) gelato then headed back.
4:30 pm
castello dei volpaia was AMAZING! no postcards are as beautiful as anything in this place. chianti is an amazing region. there are 50 people that live there and they have about 5000 olive trees and produce about 90000 bottles of chianti classico and reservo ever year. i learned that most white wines are made from red grapes...red wine is just fermented with the skins in the tanks. after 2 weeks they transfer the wine to oak barrels from france and let them age for a year or 2 in the barrels. the barrels can only be used for 15 years. the couple who gave us our tours are from norway and just quit their jobs about 6 months ago to move and work at volpaia after vacationing there. i wish i were that bold. we had our oil and vinegar tasting in what used to be a church, it was beautiful. the walls everywhere are covered in roses and geraniiums....beautiful. the geraniums make me think of mom and grandmother joy because they love them so much!!
7:36 pm
Brandon, shawn, and lauren just called on their way to louisiana fro tims birthday! im listening to country music and the cross breeze is coming from jane and anitas room...so nice. all i have to say is that there is nothing better than the tuscan hills. there are two wildflowers that run rampant here, poppies and this yellow bush...like ive never seen before. there are literally whole fields and hillsides covered completely by bright red poppies.
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