day 2 started our adventures around italy. we stayed in tuscany and went on an incredible wine tour at Avignonesi. it has quickly become one of mine and chris' favourite wines and we heard they put on a great tour and tasting - which they certainly did! the winery was about 40 mins from our place (again, beautiful views from the car on the way there!). the tour was about an hour and so was the tasting. the grounds were absolutely stunning (besides the thorns that attacked christine!) and the cellars were beautiful (they smelled so good!!!). we learned a lot about wine making in italy (they have such specific ways of making wine and it was funny how the guide had to translate everything into english when sometimes it didn't make sense in english - some things are just meant to be italian!) and we got to try 4 wines (all of them VERY excellent). we were in a tasting group with a bunch of corporate types on a bike tour (with a different company) from boston - who were HILARIOUS! we had such a good time chatting and tasting. and, of course, we bought some bottles to sample at home :) really enjoyable afternoon!
post wine - off to Montepulciano!!! it must seem like we visit this town every week but we had to show our visitors our favourite town. PLUS, it was where the italian scenes of new moon were filmed - as if christine was going to miss that! we had a nice tour around town, got some tasty things in our favourite store (cheese, oil and vinegar...all the good stuff!) and had some lunch. i got the "twilight menu" - cheese/ham selection, wine, cheese pizza and espresso. it was called the twilight special, i had to get it! but it was delicious and it was nice to sit in the piazza eating and drinking and hanging out! even though it was really really hot out, it was a nice afternoon :)