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a sampling of our typical hot & cold
Tuscan Breakfast Buffett |
Many of you have put in some long days traveling the past couple of days, and some of you are still feeling the effects of jet-lag... and if you're at all like the 100's of past guests we've had, you also celebrated your arrival here on Saturday by staying up late enjoying a few glasses of wine! With all this in mind, we'll stay a little closer to home today and take it easy on you for our first active day on the Tour!
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Radda-in-Chianti is just down the road
from our Villa and is what we like to
call our "home-base village"... this is pretty
much the view you get from the Villa! |
We usually have the coffee and juice bar out for the early risers by around 7:30am... and we'll have breakfast available from 8am - 9am. Our Italian Grand Continental Hot Breakfasts includes Juices, Coffees, Teas, Prosecco, Mimosas, Eggs, Italian Specialty Meats & Cheeses, Yogurts, Granolas, Fresh Berries, Fruits, Melons, Breads, Pastries and a Toasting Station.
After yesterday’s travel, today will be a bit more relaxed… We’ll get in our cars this morning around 9:00 and head down into one of Chianti’s most famous hill towns, Radda-in-Chianti, to discover and explore our “home-base village” We’ll gather in the Piazza in front of The Church of San Niccolo for a short orientation to the village... And then as a group we'll take a short walking Tour around the village to make recommendations and show you where various shops & services are that you might want or need throughout the week here in Tuscany! And then we’ll allow you some free time to roam around the village. You'll be pleasantly surprised - everyone loves Radda-in-Chianti!
Radda is a wonderful village that sets high in The Chianti Hills with expansive views… This is a nice village to shop for leather, art and pottery, and the ladies will love that there’s several shops specializing in beautiful Italian leather purses and shoes! We’ll meet up later back at the Piazza where we started and head off for our next adventure; The Castello di Albola Wine Estate for a private VIP guided wine tasting and exclusive VIP tour of the cellars and grounds of the Estate… And then we'll head into the Courtyard of the Castle for a wonderful Alfresco Luncheon!
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from this picture, you can see part of Radda's top level
defensive walls... there are two more walls below this one... |
This tour and our VIP seated & guided tasting event will be a great “primer” to help you feel more confident with the Tuscan wines throughout your vacation, and it will also give you a much better feel for the vastness of the Zonin Wine Empire. Again, this is the 2200 acre estate that the Villa sits on, so you'll get to meet a few of our friends that work at the winery that you'll probably bump into a few times throughout the week!
After our Tour & Tasting, we'll head out into The Courtyard of The Castle for a fabulous Alfresco Luncheon here at Albola.
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This is the Castle (with the twin peaks) and the
hamlet at the Albola Wine Estate-
The wine production facilities are up the hill
and much of the bottling facilities
are underground |
After today's tour of the Castello di Albola Wine Estate & our Luncheon, we’ll head back to the Villa, and there will be time this afternoon to go swimming, maybe go for a hike, catch a quick nap and freshen up… or stop by “The Wine, Beer & Prosecco Bar” for a little refreshment… The Bar will be open all afternoon and we’ll serve appetizers this afternoon around the pool and Terrace and then we’ll all get together later this evening for another of Chef Angela & Giuseppe’s fabulous Mediterranean Dinners… After dinner this evening we’ll gather out on the Terrace to enjoy some of Tuscany’s famous wines and go over some of the details of tomorrows fun adventure… Most evenings here at The Villa turn into our own little parties... and while we officially say the Bar's open until 10pm, we always try to make sure there's plenty of refreshments left out for those staying up later into the evening, as long as everyone's being safe... But we remind you that we'll be heading out early the next morning! And as always, we'll put out a
"help yourself goodie basket" in the kitchen filled with some fun snacks like cashews, almonds, pistachios, peanuts, chips, cookies, chocolates, etc for anyone that might need a little something to munch on!
a little sampling of just a few of things we'll see & experience in just a couple weeks!
