Cantinas and Assisi

Tuesday, June 5 saw us visiting 3 cantinas with Mark Stafford from Gusto Wine Tours.  Mark lives in Montefalco and conducts wine tours of small, family-owned cantinas for a living.  He picked us up from the parking lot of a movie theatre not far from Villa Aureli.  From there, he picked up another couple from North Carolina, Larry and Mary, who were staying at the Villa Zuccari in Montefalco.  We started at Romanelli, where Anna Rita provided cheese, cold cuts and cookies with the wine and olive oil tastings.  We tried grechetto and sagrantino wines and 4 different types of olive oils here.  It was a great success.  We then moved on to another cantina, Moretti Omero.  More grechetto and sagrantino and olive oil and nibbles.  Another enjoyable visit.  We then headed off to lunch, though I was pretty sure I was not hungry after all the snacks and sips of wines.  But, the food at the agriturismo, Camiano Piccolo was so appealing that I changed my mind pretty quickly.  We started with a black rice salad (yummy!), followed by a pasta with lemon zest (amazing!), grilled pork and a heavenly panna cotta for dessert.  Of course, there was wine served with the food.  We also enjoyed a sparkling red (it was way too dark to be a rose) wine with dessert.

Black rice salad

Pasta with lemon zest

Panna cotta

Barrels at Fongoli

Sampling wines at Fongoli

After the wonderful lunch, it was off to the last cantina - Fongoli.  We sampled more grechetto and sagrantino before heading back to Villa Zuccari and the parking lot.  After all that food and wine, we went back to Villa Aureli where we relaxed for a short time before heading out to the village of Castel del Piano to look for our dinner.  We found it at a neat little restaurant, La Costiera, a short walk from the villa. So, that was Tuesday in a nutshell.

Here's the link to the photos for the wine tour:  https://plus.google.com/photos/116159631913318244232/albums/5791916102662521569?authkey=CPGZroXhyqGrHw

On to Wednesday, June 6.  We went to Assisi today and walked for what seemed like miles.  Assisi is a really well-preserved medieval town and I will post some photos that I took.  We had lunch at La Fortezza before climbing up to the Rocco Maggiore.  That was a lot of work.  We also visited the church of Santa Clara and the tomb of St. Francis in the basilica.  We came home to a great dinner cooked to us by the villa's housekeeper.  We had lamb, a mushroom lasagna, lemon pie and green salad together with a bottle of the villa's red wine.  It was so good......

View from Assisi

Lunch at La Fortezza - pasta, carpacchio and mushrooms.

Rocco Maggiore in Assisi

The basilica with the tomb of St. Francis

Mushroom lasagna

Lemon pie

Okay, it's bed time.  We are off to Venice tomorrow.  We will be there for 2 nights before heading off to Cinque Terra for another 2 nights.  Until next time, good bye!

Link to photos of Assisi:  https://plus.google.com/photos/116159631913318244232/albums/6057617955469502753?authkey=CO2T05Kf5tP3tQE