Having just posted about Pesach during Rosh Hashana, it seems fitting that I now discuss my sins right in time for Yom Kippur.
First thing's first: I have to catch up on Sienna a little bit. Aside
from the seder which was the highlight of my trip, Sienna was amazing
in tons of other ways. Up until Saturday night, all day Friday and
Saturday consisted of eating, drinking, more eating, more drinking, and
then just a little eating and drinking before bed. It was a weekend of
cardinal sins - gluttonous dining, slothful strolling, and lustfully falling for the
green (with envy) countryside - to name a few. Though I'd already been to Florence, I don't think I fully grasped the feel of Tuscany until visiting Sienna. Imagine rolling green hills
stamped by vineyards and small cottages, chateaus and "Starry Night"
cypress trees stretching towards the sky. A broad blue sky extended over luscious
greens splatteed by red and yellow flowers and the occasional
hunched over harvester collecting sun soaked grapes in the fields. And
that was just the bus ride there.
On our first day we arrived at a vineyard that produces Brunello where
we ate lunch looking out onto a view just like the one I described. The
meal itself was three courses of bread and cheese, pasta, meat and
potatoes, and a cakey custardy dessert. The wine was the vineyard's
specialty - deep, dry reds that frankly were a little strong for my
taste, but I suffered through and drank every sip of my two glasses.
After lunch we went on a little tour of the vineyard. Up a small
pathway and past the pool, we looked out onto a sea of lush, rolling
hills. Back down the path and into the cellar we listened to a
description of the process that goes into making these wines. First of
all, the vineyard we were at is outside Sienna and owned by a woman -
something rare in the wine making business. She inherited the vineyard
from her parents and grandparents and reorganized production as she saw
fit. Now, only women work for her, which means women do the hard labor,
the planting and harvesting, the cleaning, the brewing, the celebrating
at the end of the season, the marketing, and the tour of the cellar.
She owns two vineyards about a 45 minute drive away from each other and
with all of the acreage and all of her product she only employs 50
people during peak season. After we learned at the first vineyard, we
drove to the second one for a wine tasting. It was interesting and
sophisticated - which made me feel like a tiny child in an art museum.
I was happy to be there and can appreciate why people love learning the
art of wine making, because it really does seem like an art, but at the
end of the day I just wanted to sit there sipping on delicious wine,
enjoying the company of the people around me and the scenery of the
Italian countryside. Maybe someday I'll go back and appreciate for
myself the process of a tasting and learning experience, but for this
day I was a newly turned 21 year old just excited to be there at all.
I really liked Sienna - it's probably one of the most beautiful places
I've ever been. The people are nice, the surroundings are beautiful,
and the wine is highly coveted (greed?). It was a lazy weekend of fun
with friends, overeating and drinking, and a just enough education - a
slice of Italy I'm glad to have seen.
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