Tuscany: Free ride to happiness
Shortly after San Gimignano I feel like 16. When I sat behind my girlfriend Ingrid on her pink-metallic Honda, skipped the school and drove 12 kilometers, just to drink a cappuccino. Everything is back: the smell of freshly cut grass and acacia blossoms, the wind that blows over hills, leaving brushstrokes on the green. Not far from Castellina Chianti, at kilometer 23.8 of our tour, I fell on a dead straight road piece the "rush of speed". Not for nothing is Vespa wasp. So I turn up and glide past at 75 km / h on the vines of that wine, which once ignited the love of the Germans to Italy: Chianti Classico, which arises only here, in the land of Gallo Nero. The black rooster is a symbol of the Chianti region, which is not only strictly and centimeter-sized - controlled and guaranteed cultivation area! - but also less winding than the rest of the Tuscany tour.
My Vespa is ferrari red and, unlike in Germany, where a scooter at some point was even more embarrassing than an Opel cadet, never went out of fashion in Italy. It belongs to the Italian mythology as well as cappuccino and Carabinieri and Sophia Loren, who is slowly taking off her stockings in front of Marcello Mastroianni. Whether students with antiglobalization dreadlocks, pinstriped business lawyers, pencil skirt secretaries, and stilettos, Vespa travels all over Italy. And in Tuscany, it gives a certain sense of superiority. Especially if you can drive past the car line in front of the parking garage at the entrance to Volterra.
While I admire the Roman amphitheater Vallebona, over which the swallows descend, Volterra captivates me with all the rules of Tuscan art - with tufa arches over gothic windows, with palazzi and lilac bushes growing out of brick walls - I can not wait to return to sit on the Vespa. And to drive, drive, drive. The idea for a Vespa wine tour had an Italian from Piedmont, Roberta Ferrero, and her Belgian husband, Jean Devos. They not only make sure that the Vespas wait for us in front of the hotel, but also that you do not have to bother with bulky maps in search of the beautiful, but little-used road. There is the Vespa Roadbook for this. It describes in detail day trips and where and why you have to turn. Starting from San Gimignano, four different routes have been developed: from the Etruscan tour to the Chianti tour, including recommended wineries and restaurant suggestions.
The pace of the Vespa is leisurely enough to see cypress-covered hills, olive groves, vineyards, poppy fields and fortress walls pass by. And the hills are soft enough to be conquered by the Vespa. In general, the Tuscan hill must be praised here. When God distributed the hills, he chose the most graceful for this region. One likes to think that way when sitting on the Vespa. Meaning about the term "cultural landscape". That the uniqueness of Tuscany lies in their harmony, knowing that nothing was left to chance here. In this soil are the Renaissance, the Medici, the Enlightenment. The question of the nature of beauty. For ideal dimensions and proportions. And lots of fratricidal wars. Siena against Florence, Lucca against Pisa. On the way back to San Gimignano we have to stop our cultural-historical reflections in front of the village, because we do not drive to the center at the Piazzale Martiri Montemaggio, but turn right after the Carabinieri station.
Signor Sergio is waiting for us at the winery Montenidoli, which means "mountain of small nests". It leads us through the winery, past the steel tanks and oak barrels, where white wines such as the Vernaccia di San Gimignano ripen and red wines from the typical Tuscan grapes Sangiovese, Canaiolo and Malvasia. This explains Signor Sergio, not failing to intimate in every clause that his wife Elisabetta grows the wine with which he moved here 40 years ago.
The red soil of the vineyard still sticks to her shoes when Elisabetta Fagiuoli greets us and asks for a wine tasting. Elisabetta is a beautiful old lady with dark hair and black eyes streaked with silvery threads: Elisabetta has everything under control, her Albanian workers, her husband, us. As if hypnotized, we hear her talking about the tears of Bacchus and about the Roman coins that she found under the roots of an olive tree when she recounts the Knights Templar who ruled here, and the sea that once covered these valleys ,
For Elisabetta, the earth is a being with whom she speaks with one another.She introduces her wines as an educator to her pupils: "I make four different Vernaccia, and this one, the Vernaccia Tradizionale DOCG, is the most brutal! And there, the red one, the Garrulo, is a bit talkative, but I like him so much , how he is." Elisabetta Fagiuoli comes from an old northern Italian winemaking family, and it goes without saying that this vineyard uses neither pesticides nor oenologists who design the wine on the computer: "The earth makes the wine," exclaims Elisabetta, "and not the winemaker! " Then she mocks briefly the fashion of heavy red wines: "The wines of Tuscany have become jams!" We sip garrulo and brutal vernaccia and listen to Elisabetta for hours. The next day we drive towards Montespertoli, one of the other Tuscan capitals of wine, to our next stop: Certaldo, sitting on top of a hill and so picturesque Tuscan, that you can hardly bear it. On the roof of the Palazzo Pretorio is a weather vane made of sheet metal, on the walls of which freshly restored frescoes are lit, and the Bocaccio House, where the author of "Decamerone" was born, lived and died, has just been whitewashed. However, in such jewelery villages as Certaldo or the fortified village of Monteriggioni, the Tuscan drive for harmony and grace beats the ropes, and I would like some disarray in this idyll of wine tastings, rural hotels and delicatessens where the liverwurst is sold in designer glasses.
And then we arrive in the village of Castel San Gimignano. We park the Vespas in front of a bar with a faded fly curtain hanging in front of its door. The barman is in a bad mood ("Decide at last, do you want the espresso macchiato or not?"), And on a house wall sticks a poster that promotes a music festival and looks like the 50s never stopped. "Music for all" is under the poster. A rusty sign proclaims that this house is the Casa del Popolo: the house of the people, which was once occupied by the workers. Opposite a woman steps out of the door and hangs up underpants on a drying rack, which stands in the middle of the street. They are women's underpants. Huge ladies underpants.
We get back on our Vespas, overtake a few road bikes and forgive Tuscany everything, including the liver sausages in the designer glass. As long as here such ladies underpants are hung, Tuscany is not lost yet. Music for everyone!
Travel Info Tuscany
Chianti on two wheels. The program described here can be booked at Olimar: from / to San Gimignano, 5 nights / breakfast, 4 days Vespa incl. Insurance, road book with tips on wineries and route suggestions, from 425 Euro per person / double; daily from March to mid-November (www.olimar.com).
Wineries in Tuscany
Winery Montenidoli In the heart of Tuscany, between Florence and Siena. Always call for wine tastings the day before, preferably after 5pm. Elisabetta Fagiuoli also speaks English and French (San Gimignano, Tel. 05 77/94 15 65, www.montenidoli.com).
Winery Castello Sonnino Located in the wine-growing area of Montespertoli and is worth seeing: The wine cellar is located in the castle cellar. Since 1820, the family of Baron Alessandro de Renzis Sonnino wine - Chianti Montespertoli and especially the San Leone from Merlot grapes, Sangiovese and Petit Verdot. Wines, all of which have been awarded an award and highly praised by the gourmet guide "Veronelli". The wine tasting will be conducted by the Baronessa himself with the highest level of expertise and knowledge of English. The huge Mastiff mastiff Rosa belongs to the family (Fattoria Castello Sonnino di Alessandro De Renzis Sonnino, Via Volterrana Nord, 10, Montespertoli, Tel. 05 71/60 91 98, www.castellosonnino.it).
Castello di Nippozzano In the midst of beautiful cypresses and olive trees, at an altitude of 400 meters, stands this former defensive fortress from the year 1000. Today, the red wines of the estate are produced and stored here. ChroniquesDuVasteMonde readers can visit the winery at a special price of 15 euros per person including snacks and wine tasting (closed from May to September on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, on Sundays and Mondays in the remaining months). The offer is valid until September 2007. Wine tasting and visit to the cellar please register at enoteca.nipozzano@frescobaldi.it or phone 00 39/05 58/31 10 50, keyword "ChroniquesDuVasteMonde". Directions on the Internet: www.frescobaldi.it/frescobaldi/en/nipozzano_en.swf
