Fattoria di San Donato, San Gimignano

One of my favorite places to be is the countryside, to be surrounded with lush, green vegetation; a place with lots of trees, plants and flowers. After being in the city of Florence for so long, I was glad to have a break from surrounded by all the concrete and stone.

Vineyards of Tuscany, some with the Vernaccia grape, others with the Chianti grape.

For my Food and Culture class, we took a day trip out to San Gimignano in the "heart of Tuscany" with a wine and food pairing class, to a wine farm owned by the San Donato family. We got to take a tour of the facilities and see where the grapes are pressed and made in to wine, and also where they store it.

 This is one of the largest barrels that the San Donato's have, made from Austrian oak, and it holds over 1,000 bottles of wine. The smaller barrels are made from French oak, and they contain about 600 or so bottles of wine.
We also were able to tour the grounds where they rebuilt the old village, and turned some of the buildings into apartments and Bed & Breakfasts. They had a pool, and a small farm with a humongous pig and a few goats, and an amazing view of Tuscany from the hill that they are located on.

Because we were paired with a wine and food pairing class, we got to taste wine and food! We had a white wine that went with the bruschetta (minus the tomatoes to emphasize the flavor of the olive oil),and red wine to go with the assortment of delicious cold cuts placed on the table.

I ended up buying two bottles of the reserve wine--not because I like wine, because I really don't--but so I could give them as Christmas presents. These Italian wines wouldn't have any sales or import tax on them because I was buying them from the source, and they are organic and made without sulfates, so they don't give you a headache the next day if you drink the whole bottle, haha.
I returned to San Gimignano over break, but instead of visiting the countryside, we walked through the small town of San Gimignano and it was just as beautiful. This was probably one of the most peaceful, most beautiful places in Italy that I have seen so far, and I would love to spend an entire day exploring rather than only having a few hours.