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Tuscany,
Italy
September, 2007
Part 5: Vineyard, Cinque Terre I  When we
left Pisa, we let the GPS direct us back to the Trattoria Stefani
(where we had our orientation meeting), where we met
Cathy and Ciro and other Untourists for a visit to the Fattoria Sardi
Giustiniani, just north of Lucca. Ciro led the
group of 5 cars and Cathy brought up the rear. It was a
little adventuresome getting through rush hour traffic around Lucca but
we actually got there within a few minutes of 5 PM. The cost
of this event was 30€ each which I thought was worth it - and
I don't even drink wine! We were met by Stefani Giustiniani, the wife of one of the brothers who now manage the property. She is a social worker and her husband is an engineer but, along with his brother and their sons, "in their spare time" they are trying to improve the property that has been in the family since the 19th century, and to build up their reputation as a producer of quality wines. She said that part of the problem they discovered, when they took over on the death of her father in law, is that he was a good, religious man who gave away much property to the church, thus depleting some of the resources required to run a large operation like this.   They
are attempting to make the process more efficient, to expand their
markets and enlarge the reputation of their wines, but they also have
moved into Agriturisimo - hosting tourists in apartments on their
property, much as we are doing at the Tenuta Salviati. We visited the vineyards - at this point some have been harvested and some have not. Here is Katie (left) among the San Giovanni grapes that will be harvested soon. We learned that the rose bushes planted at the ends of the rows (right) are not there just for ornamentation. They serve a purpose similar to the canary in mine shafts - she said the roses are susceptible to the same insects and diseases as the grapes but they show the signs of infection sooner. So they watch the roses for any indications of trouble. The pictures below show (left) Dave getting some pointers on pruning that he hopes to apply to his Minnesota grapes, and (right) some of the apartments available to rent on the property. 
 Below, in the left picture, behind the vineyards you can see some of the buildings that were donated by previous generations - that one is now a seminary. And on the right is a Fiat tractor - something we don't see in "John Deere green" Iowa!    We also had a
quick lesson in what happens after the harvest. Stefani is
showing us some of the new equipment (below left) that is used to
extract the grape juice. In the center are the large vats
where the juice first is stored. Immediately to the right are
the oak casks used for secondary fermentation of the red wine.
White goes into stainless steel casks. She
explained that some places producing lower quality wine don't use real
wooden casks but just throw some oak chips into plastic ones!
Finally to the right below is the end result!
Sebastiano is one of their labels; others are Villa Sardi,
Felice and Quinis. Right now they are only producing
60,000-70,000 bottles which isn't nearly enough but they are focusing
on quality improvement before trying to expand quantity.Besides sampling several of the wines (I believe the Quinis was the favorite among our wine drinkers) they provided Tuscan salads, a deli tray, breads, local olive oil and - my favorites - some wonderful dessert tartes produced by the baker-in-residence, Carla. I don't remember all of them but those I sampled were amaretto, almond, chocolate pear and chocolate ricotta. I chose to ignore the diet for the evening and thoroughly enjoyed them! We came home with local wine, jam and honey.     Since
I hadn't done any wine sampling, I got to drive home. I was
not very enthusiastic about this since I don't like to drive at night
even in the US - but Dave and his GPS make a good team and they
navigated us back safely. Do you remember the picture back in part one where I asked you what wasn't quite right? Here it is again. It was on the way home from this trip that we finally noticed after driving around for a week - the stop signs say "STOP." The intersections where it is painted on the road also say "STOP." In English. Even though all the other road signs are in Italian. That still puzzles me but when I went hunting on the internet after we returned, I learned that is the standard in Europe. I suppose we just never noticed in France since we didn't drive but used the Metro and the train. 
So it was a long day but a fun one. We learned a lot and got
to steep in history as well as absorb some of the Tuscany
culture. But we did decide that Thursday should be a "day
off" so we could gear up for the Cinque Terre trip on Friday.Thursday morning John and I did a quick grocery run to get some flour for pancakes, which he then made and they were very yummy with the honey and jam we had bought the night before. We were all just vegging out most of the day. Here are John and Katie enjoying the back "patio" in the afternoon. I had leftover pizza (from my lunch in Pisa) for lunch and sat by the pool and read for a few hours, where Katie caught me in the picture below.  I did eventually get in and swim four laps, declaring
that was enough exercise! We did laundry and contemplated
packing for tomorrow's trip. Katie was chef for supper tonight - she made garlic, tomato and bean pasta and marvelous rosemary (available fresh from bushes all around the apartments) chicken breasts. Very Tuscan. Early morning wake-up call since we are leaving at 8 AM.  We
never
did come up with a good place to leave the car overnight and take the
train or boat, so we decided to just drive to Riomaggiore and park
there. We let the GPS guide us and it took us through La
Spezia. While we enjoyed the harbor scenery (left), the traffic
was heavy and I understand why Cathy's instructions had us stay on the
autostrada further (to the Brugnato-Borghetto exit) and then come into
Riomaggiore from the north. But this way worked, took about 2
hours and cost 5.20€ in tolls. Riomaggiore has a large parking garage just as you come into town. It isn't cheap (20€ per day) but it is easy and safe. After seeing dozens of cars strung out along the highways on both sides of each town, and watching people trying to actually drive in the towns, we decided we were glad we paid the extra money and didn't have to worry about it.   We walked
down to the marina and were just going to take a few pictures, but
somehow got separated. There is still some dispute about who
actually disappeared so I won't go there. But it did take us
a good hour to get back together, get our trail passes and get going.
Since we planned to stay overnight in Corniglia and break up
the hike, we bought two day passes for 8€ each. The
whole area is now in the "Parco Nazionale Delle Cinque Terre" - that
is, it is a national park. Buying a "Cinque Terre
Carte" actually provides more benefits than just the trail but that is
primarily what we used it for. [In hindsight, if I were doing
it over again, I would have walked less and spent more time seeing more
of some of the towns - e.g. the museums in several towns and the
virtual aquarium in Monterosso. We actually thought that
taking two days would allow us to do some of that but we didn't have as
much free time as we had expected. But I'm getting ahead of
the story!]These first pictures, above, taken looking back at the town from the top of the marina and on the right, of the main street going into Riomaggiore, shows you 1) why we were happy to not be trying to drive in town and 2) the sort of terrain we were living with for the next two days. Think steep. Very steep. Below are John and Dave checking out the produce and then the path we will be taking when we leave town and start our hike along the bluffs.     
  
 Approaching Manarola Hillside farm    We came into
Manarola at a park-like piazza. The picture on the left looks
down from the piazza towards the marina. (Steep, remember?)
We didn't explore Manarola much because we were hungry!
We had lunch at the Marina Piccola Ristorante on the marina
at Via Lo Scalo 16 (closed Tuesdays). We ate outdoors under a
canopy - see the nice mural on the wall in the picture below.
When we got there about noon it was nearly empty but by 1 PM
there was a line. I had crab pasta; John had 2 different
anchovy dishes - and I have to confess that they were good: totally
destroyed my stereotype of anchovies. Katie ate lobster ravioli and
Dave had trofie pasta
with pesto.
They didn't have any beer - I'm not sure if that is "always" or
just that day. (The reason for my uncertainty is that the
waitress took the order but then came back and said they had no beer,
only wine. So I'm not sure if this was unusual, or perhaps people
just seldom ask for beer in Italy!) However, the food was all
very good, we ate
a lot, had good wine, and the total cost was 73 € for the four of
us.  In the picture
below, taken not long after we left Manarola, the restaurant canopy is
the one on the left of the marina area. This was
such a postcard perfect view we took turns having our pictures taken there! Just after that view, there was a
little "rest area" up some steps. It was nicely landscaped
and had lovely flowers. I made Katie and Dave sit on the
bench for a picture!
     
   In both left pictures above, we begin to see Corniglia (pronounced like Cornelia) up on the hill about half way there. This is the only one of the five towns that doesn't have a port so the boats don't go there, but it is reachable by train or by foot. All along the trail there are signs pointing to "beach." I think what it really means is "water," because they are certainly not beaches in the sense that we use the term! Once in a while we'll see somebody who braved the trek down lying out on a rock.  The swinging bridge
added a bit of fun!
This was still not a very strenuous hike.
It took us just over an
hour and we stopped frequently for pictures, so the
park service estimate of an hour and 10 minutes is pretty accurate.
However, it was very hot
(the advice to do the trails early in the morning is sound) and we were
getting tired. By the time we got there about 3 PM, dripping
wet, the notion of climbing 377 steps (actually that's from the railway
station - we went up a flight or two to get from the trail to the
station level) to get up to the town center just
didn't sound appealing. So we wimped out and took the Park
Service shuttle bus. It's a perk that comes free
with the Cinque Terre card and it just happened to be there
loading (mostly train passengers) as we arrived - who can argue with
fate? The bus took
us up the steep hills and left us off in the main city square.
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