Lee's Tuscan Odyssey: 136. Pontassieve and 35th Toscanello d'Oro

In 2001 I came to live in Italy. I had some fun, wrote a journal and this is the blog of my story...

"Tuscany is a state of grace. The countryside is so lovingly designed that the eye sweeps the mountains and valleys without stumbling over a single stone. The lilt of the rolling green hills, the upsurging cypresses, the terraces sculptured by generations that have handled the rocks with skillful tenderness, the fields geometrically juxtaposed as though drawn by a draughtsman for beauty as well as productivity; the battlements of castles on the hills, their tall towers standing grey-blue and golden tan among the forest of trees, the air of such clarity that every sod of earth stands out in such dazzling detail. The fields ripening with barley and oats, beans and beets. The grape-heavy vines espaliered between the horizontal branches of silver-green olive trees, composing orchards of webbed design, rich in intimation of wine, olive oil and lacy-leaf poetry. Tuscany untied the knots in a man's intestines, wiped out the ills of the world. Italy is the garden of Europe, Tuscany is the garden of Italy, Florence is the flower of Tuscany." Irving Stone from my favourite book " The Agony and the Ecstacy" A fictional biography of Michelangelo

At the moment I have a lesson with a group of peole at the jewellers, Zoppini in Ponte a Emma in the south east of Florence. While I'm there I pick up a flyer in a bar for another wine festival in Pontassieve, which is another town to the east of Florence.

Saturday evening I go and check it out. Arriving just in time to sample some of the loca delights... The wines here are from the Chianti Ruffina region further up in the hills. Pontassieve isn't a particularly beautiful town but this evening there is a huge street market and band playing.