Livorno and Tuscany

At the Livorno port of call there are many possible destinations to chose from. I tried to do a map like the other ones, but for some reason Google is not cooperating. We have chosen to take a non-ship tour that drives along the famous Chianti Classico Wine Route. It is about 1 hour and 42 minutes from the port city of Livorno to the city of Greve in Chianti, the center of most of our tour stops. Here is an edited version of the tour company information.

The first stop of our tour is a visit to the castle of Vicchiomaggio for our first wine tasting experience of Chianti Classico.

"A few miles ahead, we will allow ourselves a treat, by visiting the small town of Greve. This is the home of Da Verrazzano, founder of the Hudson Bay, and today's capital of the Chianti region."

Greve In Chianti

We will also stop at Montefioralle, a small village above Greve, which still preserves its medieval architectural flavor.

Montefioralle

As we depart Greve we will encounter the beautiful Vignamaggio estate, which belonged to Mona Lisa's family. This was the setting of the hit movie "Much Ado about Nothing". Today's owner is one of the best Chianti masters. We will have lunch at Vignamaggio Estate.

Castello Vignamaggio, (image from Wikicommons)

We can then tailor the afternoon to your personal tastes: there are more Wineries that will be happy to show you their cellars or we can stop at the Bonollo grappa distillery; if you have had enough Bacchus for one day we can visit the beautiful Abbey of Passignano or somewhere else of your choice.

For more about the Chianti region see http://www.bardotti.com/chianti.htm.

Packing and Organizing

I spent some time this weekend getting out the various outfits I envisioned taking on the trip and trying things on. My sister was here so we had fun. Of course it had been pretty hot here and I said I would only try on these "fall" things if it was cool, and the weather obliged by being foggy yesterday morning. The boots I bought at the Macy's sale are pretty comfortable, but they did make my legs hot by the time we got done.

Also went shopping on Saturday and bought a couple of tops, not sure if I will be taking them or not. I am still stuck on what coat to take, although I am sure it will not ultimately matter -- no matter what we expect from the weather it will probably be the opposite! Cold? Rainy? Hot? Scorching?

So how are you all doing on the packing front? The Roll Call website has a packing page with a couple of suggested websites about packing.

Finally, I have posted a picture of the four of us over on the right. This is a copy of our pic from the party in June.