The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 20 - Montepulciano and Cortona

This was our last day in Tuscany so we rolled out early to see all those sights we have yet to get to. Well, it sounds good, but we have become such slugs that we did not get out of the villa until 1:00. At that point, long trips were out, so we decided to cap it off with a couple of favorites -- Montepulciano and Cortona.

Montepulciano is the biggest and highest of southern Tuscany's hill towns, steeply graded with medieval alleyways, Renaissance palaces and churches everywhere. It has just enough city feel and tourist infrastructure to make it very visitor-friendly. The fields around the town produce the violet-scented, orange-speckled ruby wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

This area has been known since at least the 8th century for its superior wine, and in the 17th century, when Francesco Redi wrote the vino-praising poem, "Bacchus in Tuscany," he described Vino Nobile as "The King of all wines." Vino Nobile is known as Tuscany's number-two red because it's slightly less beefy than Montalcino's Brunello. But for my money, its high quality and more mellow character make it a better all-around wine, good to age and save for special occasions but also to toss back with dinner or on a picnic.

My purchases on this trip consist primarily of three bottles of Vino Nobile Asinone '99 and six bottles of Asinone '00 from Poliziano. This has been the consistently #1 rated Nobile for the past several years. They should age nicely ... but I question how long I can hold out before I start tapping the cellar!

Margene was still raving about our dinner last night, so we opted to go up the hill to Cortona and back to Trattoria La Grotta for our last supper in Tuscany on this trip. She also wanted to attack a few of the shops before we headed west. She manages to get most of her Christmas shopping done this way. Occasionally we still come across a bag of goodies from one trip or another that we had totally forgotten!

It was a warm sunny day and a warm evening as well, so everyone in Cortona was out for the passagiata -- the evening walk. It seems that all the locals come out in the pre-dusk evening, stroll up and down the streets in small groups, chat on the corners and congregate in the piazzas. There is a real sense of community in all this that I don't find in the US. Of course, where would you even congregate in most US towns? The mall? So we enjoy it while we can.

So we enjoy it while we can, for tomorrow we are off to Deiva Marina (on the Mediterranean coast between the Cinque Terre and and Portofino.) It is a 3-hour drive on the autostrada but I am thinking that going over on the back roads sounds more interesting ... if longer. It will be tough to give up this high-speed line. I think there is a wireless network in our hotel in Deiva Marina but after that, Internet access is a crapshoot! At the worst, I will bring everything up to date when we get back at the end of next week.

The Textures of Montepulciano

The Passagiata in Cortona

Dining del Giorno


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