Getting Edjamacated!

Day 12 & 13 Siena

While researching what we wanted to do in Italy, we thought going to wineries would be fun.  After all, we are practically professionals at wine tasting in Washington, Oregon and California…the winemakers know us by name at some places.

I mean, how hard could it be?

Well….it seems to be a different kind of process in Italy.  You usually have to make a reservation, the wineries aren’t close together, and they pretty much want serious people who will be buying wine.

We only have carry ons, no wine purchases for us!

Okay, maybe a tour is the right thing. 

Ouch, tours are expensive.  And most of them take all day and only go to 2 wineries.

Cheez!  Our record is 30 wineries in a weekend!  Two sounds a little boring!

But doing a little more research, I found the Tuscan Wine School in Siena!

Cool!

And they have 2 classes…one on Tuscan wines and one on foods from Siena.  We like wine and food!  Sounds right up our alley!  So I signed us up for both.

The first class was the Wine class on Wednesday at 4 PM.  It was a quick drive from Assisi to Siena.  We figured we would park near the Stadium, like we did before.

 

Pigeon Parking

Uh-oh!  Wedneday is Market day in Siena.  The Market is IN the “big” parking lot.  A lot of the locals like to come into town for this Market.

There was no parking in Siena on Wednesday.  We drove around for an hour.  The first spot we found was for motorcycles.  There were other cars parked there, but we didn’t want to take the chance.

The second space we found was for residents only…again not worth the risk!

 

 

Can't park here!

Finally we found a spot, we parked, we thoroughly searched the area to make sure we could park there and then paid for the space.  Since we had a space, we paid for enough hours so we didn’t have to move the car any time soon!

 

We passed the fort about 4 times that day!

 

We took a little bit of our stuff to the hotel and checked in.  We then spent a little time wandering around town.  Siena is a beautiful town that is fun to stroll.

 

Me, strolling

We got to the Tuscan Wine School shop and enjoyed looking around at all the wonderful products they sell.  We were welcomed by Sofia who is from Finland.

 

Not the best picture of Sofia, but all we took!

So the Americans were going to a wine class in Tuscany given by a Finn!

It was fun to watch her count glasses in Finnish.  Yksi, Kaksi, Kolme…

 

It was a great class.  We tasted 5 wines and learned quite a lot about Italian wines in general and Tuscan wines specifically.

 

We also learned that Denise is the class clown.

Whaaaat??????

I know, I was shocked too!

Here was this lovely woman teaching a class, and you could hear the crickets!  So, out comes my silly side and I was forced to lighten the mood!

The next day, we came back at noon for the food class.  We had the same lovely Sofia and tasted a little wine, bread, olive oil, truffles, balsamic vinegar, and then went for a walk to test meats,

 

cookies and pan forte, gelato.

 

 

 

Over all, it was a great way to learn a lot about an area in a little bit of time.  We also enjoyed the company of the other guests.

We had a rather indifferent dinner the first night at a restaurant with great tables and then walked the long distance back to our car.  We were able to move it to the free spots much closer to the hotel.

We parked near this fountain.

As a side note, while talking with one of our class mates, we found a great wine shop.  Its wine cellar is an old Etruscan tomb that the owner found while remodeling his shop. The excellent sommelier who helped us pick out a dozen bottles of Brunello to ship home.  It arrived last week and is now safely in our cellar.  The B.F. says we can start drinking it in 5-7 years.  Maybe we’ll invite you over to join us in a glass!

More Siena, coming up!