More importantly, it’s our grandson Alfred’s third
birthday. Happy Birthday!!!
Today we docked early in Livorno on the Ligurian coast of
Italy. Once again we had to get up
pretty early, have a light breakfast and meet on the dock for our tour to Greve
(Gre-ve) in Chianti. The little
town is very close to Florence in the heart of the Chianti district. Today our driver was Sergio and our guide
Francesca and they did a splendid job.
There were only 12 of us in a bus for 60! Anyway, after getting off the autostrada we came to Greve
and had an hour stop. The main
square has a very nice statue of Amerigo Vespucci (does the name sound
familiar?) He was the first to figure out that the land mass on which we exist,
was not Asia but rather a separate continent. Around the square are lots of
shops selling sausages and hams made of wild boar; that’s very big in this
area. There are also lots of
wines, olive oils and cheeses. We
found a wonderful ceramic shop (I’m a sucker for ceramic dishes) so we had to
buy some.
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| Lots of wild boar sausage and prosciutto here |
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| Ceramics shop made in Chianti |
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| Wine, wine and more wine! |
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| An old delivery truck |
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| Fountain in the outside courtyard of the Castello |
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| A view from the top of the Castello hill |
First I have to tell you the story of the motif. Legend has it that in the medieval
times the cities of Florence and Siena were fighting over who should have
dominion over the Chianti region. A duel of sorts was proposed with one knight
representing each city. The knight
was to set forth after a cock crowed and he who had covered the most land when
the two knights met would gain control of that land for his city. Siena
selected a fat white chicken who had been well fed and didn’t get up early to
crow. Florence picked a black
rooster which was starving and crowed early. As a result, Florence managed to win most of the territory. Because of this the symbol of Greve is
a black rooster and the ceramic dishes we bought and are having shipped
represent this. It should be a fun memory.
Following our stop in Greve we went to Castello
VicchioMaggio, a beautiful castle outside Greve, perched on top of a hill, and
with a boutique inn, restaurant and vineyard. We had a lovely lunch of bruschetta, followed by pasta with
wild boar and garbanzos and finally biscotti. Of course there were wines from
the vineyard to pair with the courses.
The views from the Castello which sits atop a hill
overlooking vineyards, olive groves and cypresses was magnificent and looked
like it was from a movie set, but it was the real McCoy.
After lunch we headed back to Livorno, but our driver took
back roads for most of the way so the Tuscan countryside was breathtaking. We got back to the ship with plenty of
time to people watch from our veranda as other passengers came back laden with
treasures from Florence. What a
fun day!
Tomorrow and the next day we have nothing booked so we’ll
just go with the flow. No early
mornings! Hurray!
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