This morning we visited with a lovely lady named Marta and she showed us how she makes hand woven cloth things, like table cloths and pillow covers, using looms from ancient times. She is working at reviving the craft by sharing it with youth artisans that are interested and also building a marketable business selling her products. There is so much work to create her products but the results are beautiful and will last many, many years.
We’re now leaving Perugia and on to Tuscany. Our first stop is in the Chianti Hills. I’ll bet you know what that means – yup, wine tasting! We toured the winery owned and operated by the Mazzei family since 1435. We saw the machines that process grapes, and walking through the underground storage of barrels of wines.
After our tour we tasted some of the wines they make, then we were invited to stay for lunch and try some more kinds of wine along with the various dishes they served. Good food, good wine – what a wonderful day.
We then heading toward Florence. It was a long drive so we decided to stop and visit a village called San Gimignano, that dates back to medieval times, and is famous for its arches and towers … and gelato too.
We heard that in medieval times this village was a central place for trade, conflict, and pilgrimages. There were many wealthy families that flourished in the good times and built high towers to show off their success. At one time there were about 72 towers in this small village, but only 14 remain today, most were destroyed in wars or other disasters.
As another eventful day comes to and end we’ve arrived in Florence, or Firenze as the Italians call it.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 