Today we started bright and early with a scavenger hunt. We were each given a map of Montespertoli and a list of questions/things to find. The purpose of the scavenger hunt was for us to get to know the town and interact with some of the locals.
Next, we sat outside and Caterina taught us about the history of the estate. She told us that everyone thought she was crazy when she suggested educational tourism. When students first started coming, she asked people in the town to be kind, and they weren’t keen. But now they ask, when are the students coming?
Caterina and Elisa gave us a tour of the Castello, where the family have been living since the 19th century, and taught us about Sidney Sonnino, who was an important historical figure. The rooms inside are beautiful, and some of them have frescos that have only recently been uncovered. Some are still to be uncovered. Inside, you can see cracks in the ceilings – a result of bombings during WWII. One of the rooms walls are covered in botanical painting which symbolize the idea of staying open to new things. This was my favourite room.
Caterina showed us the archive where they have official documents from the treaty of Versailles, including a hand drawn map. There are over 200,000 papers and 6000 telegrams in the archives, and some have still not been studied. In the library, we were shown the original conditions of peace from the Treaty of Versailles. Many of the documents were hidden away during the war, and they forgot where lots of them were.
We saw many interesting artifacts during the tour, such as Russian, French and British bullets in a Cartier box – a souvenir of the war.
Next, we had lunch inside the Enoteca. We had bread with oil, cold meats, tomatoes, rice, and anchovies on toast with butter. I gave the anchovies a shot, and they weren’t as bad as I had expected.
After lunch we went to the classroom for a wine lecture with David. He taught us about grape skins and tannin, and we discussed how labeling is much more complex in Europe than in North America. We learnt about different wine classifications in Italy (IGT, DOC, and DOCG – the best Italian wines). He talked about different grapes and wines by region, like the Sangiovese grapes in Tuscany. There are 350 types of regulated wines in the country.
Next, we did an aroma kit. We were given a wheel with different scents, and smelled a bunch of little bottles and tried to guess what they were. I did very well with the white wine aromas, but when it came to the reds I thought they all just smelled like wine barrels. Some of the bottles contained things you should not smell in wine, such as cork taint.
After the lecture, Virginia gave us a tour of the grape dryers and cellars, and then we had a wine tasting in the Enoteca. We tried four different wines, my favourite was the Pichius – a Rosé.
After the classes were all done for the day I went to get groceries and made Bruschetta at Farmhouse with some assistance from Kaitlin. Kyler made us pasta with a tomato, carrot, and celery sauce as a main. For dessert, Nathan and Jackson got us ice cream in little waffle cone bowls.
