Local agriturismo & lots of wine!

JR: During the second week studying abroad in Italy the whole class visited a local agriturismo and hiked to a nearby castle.  We left Santa Chiara and walked for about 30 minutes to the agriturismo where we toured the owner’s winery/vineyard and had a fun afternoon of wine tasting!  On the walk there along the road I saw many different plants that were worth stopping to admire.  We passed by beautiful rose bushes and then stopped at a maple tree.  The tree had grape vines growing up it that were using the tree as support, and I learned that the new limbs are cut off to feed livestock.  When we finally turned off the main road to enter into the agritursmo the main entrance path was lined with Italian Cypress trees.  From class I learned that this technique is used to direct attention to a focal point.  When we toured the vineyard he showed us different vegetables he was growing including a barrel that was growing potatoes and a barrel that was growing cabbage.  The grapes in the vineyard that are used to make the wine are chardonnay grapes.  When we finally got to taste the different wines I found out I am definitely not a fan of dessert wine!