So I've of course heard of Tuscany, but where exactly are we going to be?

We're in The Bullseye!

 We're in The Bullseye!

With just a little over nine months before we leave for Italy, we wanted to give you a better idea of just where Tuscany is, and where we're going to be... So Tuscany is one of Italy's largest, and by most people's opinions, the most beautiful and geographically diverse regions of Italy... They call Tuscany The Crown Jewel of Italy!   It sits in central Italy and it's landscapes consist of incredible coastlines from the famous fishing villages of the Cinque Terre down through to the Maremma... the rugged mountains of the Garfagnana... and the familiar rolling hills of Chianti covered with grape vineyards and olive orchards...

click on the map to enlarge

Tuscany is a really large area of over 9000 square miles... and then, in the center of Tuscany is The Chianti...  And then, in the center of Chianti, is the Chianti Classico region... and finally, if you look in the very center of the Chianti Classico, you'll find the quaint & charming medieval walled hilltop village of Radda-in-Chianti...   This village is the closest town to Castello di Albola, the Wine  & Olive Oil Estate that theVilla sets on... Radda-in-Chianti sits approximately at the big red dot above the "N" in Toscana...  So you get the idea, when we say; the very center of Tuscany!

This area is what many call The Golden Triangle of The Chianti Classico, and our Villa sets right in the very center... It is indeed, The Bullseye!  This is truly the area to be, if you want to really see Tuscany, and not spend your whole week on a bus getting to all the sights!  We've picked this Villa specifically for it's location & it's magical setting on Albola's amazing 2200 acre Wine & Olive Oil Estate, as well as the fact that Radda-in-Chianti is one of the three original Medieval Villages in The League of Chianti...  

click map to enlarge

Here you'll see a very detailed map of what's inside the red dot in the map above...  showing the location of The Castello d'Albola (inside the blue circle)  and the surrounding wine estate... and just below it, you'll see a long "white road" heading northwest from Bugialia... This is the private road (driveway) to our Villa  -   Marangole (inside the red circle)

 So we'll educate you more about Castello di Albola in future posts, but suffice it to say, this is not your typical neighborhood winery... It's a very serious world famous Wine Estate... producing a little over 1.5 million bottles per year and shipping it to over 135 countries around the world! This is just one of about a dozen Wine Estates owned by the Zonin Family, Italy's largest private Wine Family.  Their wines are sold worldwide and you'll find Castello d'Albola's Chianti Classico in your local wine store! 

So guys, this is just the very beginning days of The Blog, and we start out slow with short & easy tidbits of information to start... We don't want you tuning out from the beginning... There will be lots of good & useful info that we'll be passing along... You'll begin to notice, that along with these new posts, there's already more resources in the right side bar...  and we'll just keep adding to it... but again we stress; these posts will rarely be longer than a 3 minute read!  The best way to use this Blog and get the most from it is to just click on the quick link that we send approximately every other day and read along...  Our philosophy is for our guests to be totally prepared and have more info before you depart for Italy than most tourists have when they return! Stick with it...and we guarantee you'll have a better trip!