We spent three nights under the Tuscan sun in Volterra, a hill town about two hours south-west of Florence.
We stayed at Podere Marcampo, a Rick Steves recommended agriturismo, a family-owned bed-and-breakfast kind of thing out in the country on ranch land. This one was a vineyard, and a 10 minute drive down the mountain from Volterra, about half of which was on a dirt road. Wonderful!
The family had a very sucessful large restaurant in a nearby area, and sold it to open this B&B, start a vineyard, and open a smaller restaurant inside the city walls of Volterra, and they have been successful on all three fronts.
They purchased a very large ranch house that had been left vacant and idle for many years, planted merlot grapes, and rebuilt and remodeled the house into a very functional dwelling. They live in about half of the middle, ground level, floor, and opened up six rooms on the middle and upstairs floors for B&B use. The bottom floor is mostly under the dirt except for one side, and the entire basement operates as their wine celler and tasting room. They have a wonderful large pool that guests can use any time, any day. There are many acres of grapes on site, and they purchase additional grapes from the cooler coastal regions to produce three really fine wines!
During our three days in this northern section of Tuscany, we enjoyed our visits to Volterra and a day trip to Sienna, about 90 minutes away. Here are some highlights of those times:
The Duomo in Sienna is incredible.
We admired the awe-inspiring art, and wondered about the competition between different churches to be bigger and better. But then were drawn to the way the story is told and preserved. It’s really no differnent than Washington DC monuments to remember.
The Tuscan Wine School in Sienna taught us about Italian wine in two hours through lecture, slides, and actual tastings. We had fun learning about the differences between GOC and GOCD, Chianti and Chianti Classico, the unique grapes of the northern Tuscan region, and the rivalty between Florence and Sienna.
Tuscany – this area is just beautiful.
It is a mix of Napa, the central valley, the Sierra foot hill wineries (minus any redwood trees) and green crops everywhere you look. The beauty of the Tuscan area impressed us..
Mr.Pizza – during a quick lunch on the way to the Duomo we stopped in a fast food Italian pizza place, and ended up jamming with the owner playing guitar, bass, harmonica and vocals doing a blues progression in E. We got some crowds to stop by and listen! It was just a barrell of fun for Dave and I in Italty.
We enjoyed dinner in Volterra at Del Duca Ristorante, the restaurant owned by our B&B family. Ted had his most favorite meal of the entire trip. Our seats allowed us to see the fire in the ktichen cooking and make eye-contact with the head chef. We loved their wine also. The sauce on Ted’s guinie fowl was unbelievably good!
All in all we loved the agriturismo B&B, it’s owners and during our hot weather we really liked the smimming pool! We highy recommend this place as a base of operations if you want to stay near Volterra!