On a beautiful Saturday morning, I woke up early and walked in the sunshine to the train station to meet my friends and our tour guide to go into the Chianti region of Siena to go horseback riding and wine tasting. Even though it was the perfect day for the trip, we were lucky enough to be the only ones who had signed up that day so we were pleasantly surprised with a private tour. We took a forty-five minute car ride to L’ équipe Agrifoglio, a horse farm located in a small valley in the green rolling hillside of Siena. The five of us were helped onto our horses and followed our excursion leader in single file out onto the dirt paths that wove through the farm land and vinyards. We rode for a little over an hour, plodding along through the countryside and hoping our horses would stop to graze for a second so that they had to canter to catch up with the group, giving us a thrill as we squeezed the horses sides tighter to stay on, the wind whipping in our hair for just a few seconds. Although we asked our guide if we could go faster we were told it was not safe since one of the girls had never ridden before, which was probably the right choice considering what happened later.
When we got back to the farm, our friend who had ridden when she was younger was allowed to take the horse to the ring and go as fast as she liked, and we all ran excitedly through the mud to watch her, accompanied by our tour guide who brought along a bottle of locally harvested Chianti to enjoy the show. Her horse, a racing horse from Germany, was used to going fast and she had to pull the reigns back as hard as she could to keep the horse from darting into a swift gallop. Having no more arm strength left, she let the horse have its way and the quick burst of speed the horse took off when it realized it was in control toppled her over the front of the horses right shoulder. Luckily, she had fallen many times in her years riding and nothing was hurt except for her pride, but we all clenched our plastic wine glasses a little more tightly until the horse was back in the stable.
While we sat and finished the bottle of wine, our tour guide told us about the castle we were going to visit and how it was built as a fortress for when Siena and Florence were in constant competition for control of trade routes in the sixteenth century. Both Siena and Florence built castles close to the trade because all goods had to be taxed on their way into the city. Who controlled more trade routs, could tax more goods, and therefore have more money and be more powerful. After briefing us on the history, we climbed back into the car and headed to the castle where we would be having lunch and doing our wine tasting. Upon first arriving we enjoyed a traditional Tuscan lunch accompanied by a white wine with the appetizer of bruchetta and cured meats and a red wine with the spicy, tomato and spinach pasta. After our lunch we went across the piazza and down into the wine cellar of a tiny wine shop, and were given the history and tastes of five different wines, honey and olive oil by a friendly employee. After trying the assortment of wines we all gave in and bought at least one bottle. I bought the last wine we tasted, a 2007 Chianti, which we were told was an excellent year for Chianti in that region and could be aged for up to ten years and would only get better. It will be my first bottle in my wine collection and I look forward to opening it in ten years and remembering the wonderful day my friends and I spent in Tuscany tasting wine and riding horses through the beautiful Chianti countryside.
For horseback riding tours and other fun day trips in Tuscany visit Fun in Tuscany's website
No comments:
Post a Comment