This morning Esther & I were greeted by a lovely surprise when we entered the kitchen…breakfast! And not just any breakfast; a beautifully set table with orange juice, coffee, tea, & GIANT coffee mugs, plus cold meats, omlette, fresh crusty bread & jam, cheese, yogurt, & pastries! How delightful! Casa di Antonella, we heart you :D We sat around the homely dining table with 8 or so fellow travelers & chatted about our adventures so far, what was still to come, our recommendations to each other etc. And when we were finished the hostel owner wouldn't even let me wash up my own mug & plate, he insisted on doing it all for us! Spoilt! :)

We spent about an hour or so TRYING to find the Torture Museum…I know right, kinda weird, but it's one of those things that sounded both grotesque & fascinating at the same time! I swear we're not crazy :P Anyway, our Italian was not serving us well & the tourist information centre was closed due to a political strike going on that day (umm…sound familiar?? Haha Is it just my luck or what!?) so we just went from gift shop to gift shop until we found someone whose English was strong enough to work out what the hell we were talking about! So we found the museum, but it was closed, & we resorted to coffee in the sunshine again. I had another nuttino - not as good as the one in Riomaggiore…little light on the Nutella. I like my Nutella :)

Later we managed to get into the museum & we were both really creeped out. After a bunch of noisy school kids left we found ourselves alone & wishing they would come back…Esther refused to go downstairs to the next level without me & I can't blame her. It was interesting, but definitely sickening & rather twisted! We spent about half an hour in there & then decided we needed to get back out into the sunshine & sing some show tunes or something haha :P

We ate lunch back at the hostel before being picked up for our wine tour in the afternoon. Our guide, Paolo (yes, his name was actually Paolo!!) came to pick us and another Australian couple up from Siena. Now these were true "strayans" haha They talked about how crocs will snap you up in a second in the rivers in Darwin & said things like "dead dingo's donger" & "it's good to have two good Aussie sheilas on the bus". Very entertaining…and just a tad embarrassing! :P

Anyway, Paolo drove us out to the Brunello wine region, which is out in the countryside in Tuscany. Think rolling green hills as far as the eye can see. Turns out Under the Tuscan Sun does not oversell this region at all - it is actually every bit as amazing as the movie suggests! (I remember my disappointment a few years back when I visited Orange Country only to find it looked absolutely nothing like it did on the OC…*sigh* really should have known better with that one…). Our first stop was a very modern winery built only 6 years ago, where a lovely young sommelier explained the process of wine making to us & how the percentage of type of oak that make up the barrel the wine is aged in can change the taste of the wine, ageing in the barrel & in the bottle, different types of land producing very different types of grapes & wines etc. She had a very simple way of explaining it all that made it easy to understand, which kept it interesting because it wasn't completely over my head! We then tasted 3 different wines; a modern style of wine specific to this winery, a traditional Brunello wine, & a kind of Tuscany wine, which included Merlot grapes & was matured in an oak barrel. The latter has no restrictions on how it is made so the wine make can use any kinds of grapes & mature it however they like so long as the grapes are grown in the Tuscan region.

After this we went to one of the oldest wineries in the region, for a stark comparison, where we were shown around by the very hospitable 81 year old Mario. He was dressed in a smart tweed suit and a Fedora hat & patted me on the shoulder delightedly every time he refilled my glass during the tasting & I said grazie, presumably in a way that he deemed to be very good for an Australian! We had a really great time at this winery & tasted about 7 different wines, including one from 2003, which was my absolute favourite. They were all reds as that's what this region is best known for, although we did also have a shot of Grappa, which was interesting…haha Certainly warms the belly! We also got to try local olive oils with fresh bread and Pecorino cheese, which is a specialty of the local area.

Finally we paid a visit to the town of Montalcino, which is situated high on a hill in Brunello & overlooks a beautiful wild area of Tuscany, with gorgeous views as the sun began to set. We tasted more Pecorino of all different ages in a local produce store, including Pecorino Ubriaco - drunk Pecorino, which is aged in alcohol & tastes more like booze than cheese to be honest! My favourite was the fresh Pecorino, which is a little softer & milder than the others - it's a very creamy, refreshing cheese :) om nom nom!

We drove home praying for our lives as Paolo whizzed past people on the tiny two lane country roads…Italian driving is just a little bit scary for my liking. They had some of those signs up that show you your speed limit as you go past, where you're supposed to be going at 50…we, and all the other cars ahead of us, we doing at least 80! So much for speed limits… :P Paolo had invited Esther & I earlier in the day to join him at a disco on the seaside in some random town outside Siena, but we politely declined. As per Nigel's instructions I resisted his charms & tried not to look into his eyes for too long haha (Actually he was quite a bit older than us & had a pot belly, so I really don't think Nigel had much to worry about! :P). Instead we had gelato & strolled home at dusk :) Now that is la dolce vita!

PS. Having been having some trouble uploading my own photos on the new updated Off Exploring website so will try returning to the old site for the next few blogs & doing it there…that photo of the colourful buildings that I've used for the last 4 blogs or so is not mine! :P