Pienza and Montepulciano - Blog 2

CM: One of my all time favorite field trips that we have taken so far is our trip to Pienza and Montepulciano.  Both places being in the heart of Tuscany, I was amazed at how beautiful my surroundings were! It seemed like outside the towns there were barely any houses and I loved that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such vast farmland in my life. For miles and miles there were nothing but bright green vineyards and crops.

In Pienza, we walked around an old mansion that belonged to one of the founders of the town I believe. What was so cool about that house wasn’t the inside, however, but the outside. The garden was absolutely beautiful! And the views! So breathtaking. I can’t imagine waking up to that every day and it being normal. I don’t think I would ever get used to it. 

Our next stop, Montepulciano, was even more satisfying. Built on top of a hill, Montepulciano also had an incredible landscape view. But my favorite part about that town was the winery that Dr. Leo took us to. It has been around for hundreds of years, and creeping down into its dark caves (because the winery is underground) felt like I was going back in time. The barrels that the wine was being fermented in were HUGE! Bigger than three of me combined.

After we toured the winery, we had a wine tasting upstairs in a brightly lit room. There were long tables for us to sit at, with plates of bread, different meats, and cheeses to accompany the different wines that we were about to try. The food was so yummy, and it was such a cool experience learning how to properly taste wine. They taught us to swish the wine around in the cup, smell it, and how to sense where each of the flavors of the wine would be most potent in certain places within our mouths. I’m not much of a red wine fan – I like white wine much better – but even so, I loved every minute of the wine tasting. Except for the dessert wine. Woo, that stuff is way too sweet for me!! All in all, I like visiting the wineries because it puts everything that Dr. Leo taught us about wine into perspective.