Sit and Blog or is that Blob in Tuscany

The other day we set out for small town about an hour away from where we are staying in Certlado. We were off to see the barrel rolling competition (read massive wine filled cask), at least the prelims, which we read about in a magazine on Tuscan festivals. That was in Greve-in -Chianti, the book not the the barrels, in a wine tasting cellar. Get yourself a 10, 15, 20, 25€ card and go at it. Only a few whites but about 7 red stations with about 20 bottles per station and one for Grappa. Sample to your hearts' content or until your card runs dry. We got a 10€ card and were refunded 1.20€, getting old, can't handle it or something. Each glass was from 0.60 to 7.00 € depending on the quality of the wine, I stayed around the 0.80 to 1.40 € due to my well trained palate.

Anyways, back to the barrel rolling, wrong town, wrong date. We were at the Watermelon festival instead. What To Do??? What Else but buy WINE, meat, cheese, olives, bread, fruit and have a picnic. As we headed back to our parked chariot we noted a sign, Tombe Eutruscan. What can this be we say in a questioning manner. Let's find out! releasing the horses or maybe it was a burro, up we climbed after a sharp (not slight) right out of the parking lot. We succumbed to a stop at the gates to the Tombe and the fence surrounding it. Look inside one entrance (there are 4) and what do we see? Dark and more dark and the feel of cobwebs which are more at my height than Pavé's. Enough of that, let's eat.

Perched at almost the summit of the Tombe we plunked ourselves down on the deadly dry grass and began our picnic. Once we settled in, the view was astonishing, We overlooked the town (watermelons and all) and the different valleys & hills surrounding the town. It was partially cloudy so the temperature, when we had sun blockage, was only in the mid 30's C (felt a bit chilly actually after the 40+ previously). The view was constantly changing and the shade was non-existent but the vista rolled from the subtle golden reds of the soil & wheat floating in the breeze to the brilliant & vibrant greens of the grapevines and trees. There is really no way to describe or capture the hues or subtleties of nature here. Not even our photos do it justice.

Looking down on the town we note not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse. The main drag is a ghost town, not even Englishmen or mad dogs are out. That's because it is 14:00 hr and everything is shut from 13:00 to 16:00 hr with maybe a few oddballs of shops that stay open later because someone is still inside or open early for the fun of it.

Well out of paper, must stop now, need Wine or is that doughnuts?

NEWSFLASH !!!!!!!

We may be able to post some photos as we are in the Biblioteca and there is a DVD & CD reader. Will be trying this later on

AJ