We began our adventure at Hotel Brunelleschi, meeting in the lobby and following out luggage out to the bus. Since the hotel is in the pedestrian zone, the bus had to park a few blocks away and the bellhops loaded all the bags into a small motorized cart. After finding the bus (which was not where Franca thought it would be) and getting all the luggage loaded, we settled into our seats and left Firenze (Florence).

In short order we were in the countryside and began to see small villages, castles on the hillside and signs of the Black Rooster (Gallo Nero), the symbol of Chianti. We enjoyed Alessia's (our guide) stories about the battles between Firenze and Siena for this territory in the past and the legend of the Florentine's, who had a black rooster and the Sienese, who had a white rooster. The boundaries were traditionally determined by a footrace, one runner leaving from each city. The Sienese fed their rooster well, thinking that would make him wake early. The Florentines made their rooster go hungry, and they were right - he rose earlier, their runner started sooner and they captured more of the territory. So the legend says!

We arrived at Castello di Gabbiano at about 10 and were treated to a full tour of the winery's production facilities and caves. They are owned by Berringer and do many things in modern ways, and some in old fashioned ways. We learned about the rules for Chianti Classico and Riserva such as the grapes used and proportions of each, and the fact that the wines must be aged in the large casks instead of the smaller barrels (barriques) that we are used to seeing. We also learned about DOC and DOCG and what those tags on the bottles mean. Click to enlarge the image of the winery products.

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