Day 7 - Wednesday, October 5 - St. Giorgeo Winery, Siena and Florence

 We left our hotel in Orvieto at 9:30 and descended down the stairs to the parking area where we were met by Francesco in our minibus. From there it was about a two hour drive to the St. Giorgeo a Lapi winery not far from Siena.

We were met by Alberto, the youngest member of the family which with his two older brothers and his sisters run the winery. We walked up to the chapel on a small hill. The chapel was originally founded in 1107 but falling into disrepair during the 100 year war in the 13th century. It was restored in the 15th century with a beautiful fresco of St. George slaying the dragon - this was subsequently painted over (!) and a picture hung over it. In the late 1990s, the chapel was restored, exposing the original fresco which is still partially damaged where the frame was.

The winery tours are relatively similar with a description of the different soil types and climates, the types of grapes and how they are grown and harvested, the process to squeeze, ferment, age in stainless steel, concreted and oak casks and then bottled after the minimum required years. All of the growers we met strongly mentioned the effects of climate change and how it was impacting the growing seasons and quality of grapes.

A special treat was getting rose wine directly from the stainless steel fermentation vat which was slightly fizzy. It was rather sweet but quite tasty with 8% alcohol. This is only possible to try a few days into the 7-20 day fermentation period after the grapes were squeezed. We then had a delightful lunch with different dishes sitting outside overlooking the Tuscan countryside, accompanied by tasting different Chianti wines. We bought a bottle of Chianti and a bottle of the dessert wine.

From there we had about a 30 minute drive to Siena. In mythology, Remus and Romulus were royal twins abandoned and suckled by a she-wolf about 700BC. They went on to found Rome and Siena so it is common to see statues of infants being suckled by a she-wolf.

There was a beautiful view of the Duomo in the distance. We were treated by being able to see the distinctive mosaics in the floor of the Duomo which had only recently been exposed to the public. There was of course much spectacular art, including two small statues by Michelangelo which were the first he made. It is hard to imagine how so many huge cathedrals decorated by spectacular art could have been constructed in the 13th and 14th centuries.

From there we went to the Piazza del Campo which is famous for the Palio di Siena horse races which are held twice each summer. 10 horses, each representing a different neighborhood engage in a 90-second whirlwind race around the inside of the piazza. Often the riders are thrown from the horses and the horses finish the the race riderless. The fastest horse wins regardless of the rider.

We then had a 2-hour drive to Florence to the Hotel de LaVille where we have a very pleasant room. We then went out to dinner as a group and had a tasty dinner of wine (of course), pasta, lamb and Teramisu for dessert. It was 11pm by the time we tumbled into bed.


Winery chapel


Tapping fermenting wine

Lunch at winery

Siena Duomo

Mosaic in Duomo

Piazza del Campo

Mythic she-wolf nursing Remus in Siena


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