Page 64 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

you can taste and buy,
including one in the WINE TASTING GOES
Fortezza (Piazzale Fortezza; HIGH TECH
courtyard free, ramparts
adult/reduced €4/2; h9am- One of Tuscany’s biggest cellars, the Enoteca Falorni
8pm Apr-Oct, 10am-6pm (%055 854 64 04; www.enotecafalorni.it; Piazza delle Cantine
Nov-Mar), the 14th-century 6; h10.30am-7.30pm) in Greve in Chianti stocks more
fortress that dominates than 1000 labels, of which around 100 are available
the town’s skyline. for tasting. It’s a lovely, brick-arched place, but wine
For a historical tasting here is a very modern experience, thanks
insight into the town’s to a sophisticated wine-dispensing system that
winemaking past, head preserves wine in an open bottle for up to three
to the Museo della Co- weeks and allows tasters to serve themselves by the
munità di Montalcino e glass. The way it works is that you buy a prepaid wine
del Brunello (%0577 84 60 card costing from €10 and then use it at the various
21; www.museodelbrunello.it; ‘tasting islands’ dotted around the cellar. Any unused
c/o Fattoria dei Barbi, Località credit is then refunded when you return the card.
Podernovi 170; €5, with wine
tasting €8-10; h3.30-7pm
Tue-Fri, 11am-1pm & 3.30-7pm about 8km, turn onto the SR2.
ITALY 3 TUSCAN WINE TOUR
At San Quirico d’Orcia pick up
Sat & Sun), a small mu- the SP146, a fabulously scenic 8 Montepulciano
seum off the road to the road that weaves along the Val Set atop a narrow ridge
Abbazia di Sant’Antimo. d’Orcia through rolling green of volcanic rock, the
hills, past the pretty town of Renaissance centre of
54 p63 Pienza, to Montepulciano. Allow Montepulciano produces
The Drive » From Montalcino, about an hour. the celebrated red wine
head downhill and then, after Vino Nobile. For a drop,
head up the main street,
called in stages Via di
DETOUR: Gracciano nel Corso,
ABBAZIA DI Via di Voltaia del Corso
SANT’ANTIMO and Via dell’Opio nel
Corso, to the Cantine
Start: 7 Montalcino (p61) Contucci (www.contucci.
The striking Romanesque Abbazia di Sant’Antimo it; Via del Teatro 1; h8.30am-
(www.antimo.it; Castelnuovo dell’Abate; h10am-1pm & 12.30pm & 2.30-6.30pm),
3-6pm) lies in an isolated valley just below the village housed underneath the
of Castelnuovo dell’Abate, 10.5km from Montalcino. palazzo (mansion) of the
According to tradition, Charlemagne founded the same name. A second
original monastery in 781. The exterior, built in pale cellar, the Cantina de’
travertine stone, is simple but for the stone carvings, Ricci (%0578 75 71 66;
which include various fantastical animals. Inside, www.dericci.it; Via Collazzi
study the capitals of the columns lining the nave, 7; wine tasting plus food €15;
especially the one representing Daniel in the lions’ h9.30am-6pm), occupies
den. a grotto-like space un-
Music lovers should plan their visit to coincide with derneath Palazzo Ricci
the daily services, which include Gregorian chants. near Piazza Grande, the
Check the website for times. town’s highest point.
54 p63

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