Cappuccino and a ham and cheese croissant sandwhich to start the day.
I left from Stazione di Milano Centrale
Catching up on some reading.
I arrived in Vinci, home to the famous Leonardo da Vinci and Villa Dianella, around 4pm. Now, I’ve built up this Villa in my head pretty big. It all started about five or six years ago when I Googled myself – don’t act like you’ve never done it before. A few previous work projects that I’ve done came up, my Uncle and cousin popped up, even a unique purple flower indigenous to Australia came up. But among the clutter was a search result that said VillaDianella.it. At first I thought it was a junk site, but when I clicked on it I was taken to a website with beautiful photos of a renovated villa on the Tuscan countryside called Villa Dianella Fuccini. I studied the site in awe. Here was a real Italian villa with my last name attached. Plus, it wasn’t just a villa to visit and explore, but you could actually stay there. Even more than that, the villa made and sold its own wine and olive oil. I felt like I struck gold. I was so excited that I immediately sent it around to the family and saved the link in my Favorite’s Bar.
Over the course of the past 5-6 years since that fateful Google search, I’ve checked the site countless times and even emailed the manager to see how I could coordinate buying some of the wine and olive oil. I’ve seen endless travel shows of famous chefs and hosts visiting Tuscany and sipping wine and doing meals al fresco and every time I’ve thought of how fun it’d be to do that at Villa Dianella someday. Well, that day is today.
Around 4pm I pulled up the tree-lined gravel road to Villa Dianella in the city of Vinci, about 30 minutes outside Florence. After nearly six years of anticipation you can imagine the excitement I had. I couldn’t have picked a more beautiful sunny day to arrive. Now, with such anticipation come great expectations. I’ve only seen pictures and we all know photos often times can be misleading, especially ones that hotels post of their own property. However, in this case the photos didn’t do the villa justice. When you think ‘Tuscan countryside’ everyone immediately thinks of rolling hills of green trees and golden vineyards with beautiful rustic villas spread throughout the hillsides. Well, that’s exactly how it is in real life. My imagination and expectations were instantly surpassed by the spectacular views that welcomed me. It was made even more special because “Dianella” was posted around the grounds, but no matter what name it had, this place is bellissimo!
Benvenuto!
The entry gate to the villa.
The villa's gravel entry driveway.
Villa Dianella
I need to figure out how to take this sign with me.
The manager mentioned via email that they had a wedding scheduled for Sunday afternoon, but they’d leave the key for me so I can get in. There was an envelope with my name on it taped to the front door so I let myself in. I walked upstairs to my room – one of only three guest rooms in the villa – and the room that awaited me was straight out of Home & Garden's Italian Tuscany special edition (I'm assuming there's such an issue). It’s a three room suite – bathroom, living room and bedroom. The bathroom was bigger than any of the hotel rooms that I’ve had so far on this trip. I didn’t want to touch anything because everything was so immaculate and perfect. Only the photos can do it justice.
This beautiful red convertable was at the top of the entry driveway. I thought it was for me since I'm the first-ever Dianella to actually stay at Villa Dianella, but I was told to get out of the driver seat because it was for the newlyweds...my bad.
That's me!
The vintage key to my room.
One of the villa's many rustic rooms.
The bathroom is literally bigger than four of the seven hotel rooms I've stayed in so far.
The living room quarters...
...and the bedroom. They call this suite the Sage room because of the light green color.
My first night I slept for 10 hours, best night sleep I've had all trip.
Picturesque countryside view from my bedroom window.
No matter what window I looked out there were just more and more beautiful vineyards.
The villa is surrounded by grape vineyards as well as olive tree groves.
The villa has vintage decor, furniture, sculptures and other elements around the grounds that add to the charm and feel of the place.
This is one of many of the Dianella vineyards.
It was about 5:30pm so it wasn't too hot and not too cold, making it a perfect time to get out and walk the vineyards.
It is prime harvest season right now so the grapes are big and juicy.
The happy couple. Villa Dianella hosts dozens of weddings each year.
After my stroll around the villa taking in the sites and sounds, I walked 20-minutes into town to grab a quick bite to eat. When I got back to the villa I did another walk around the premises and I caught a strong wiff of fermenting alcohol. I followed my nose and found Villa Dianella's farm and field manager Giuseppe working in the distillery. He, being from the south of Italy where hospitality is king, invited me in to watch as he emptied a few of the large steel vats and prepared the contents for the next step in the fermenting process. I got a "CliffsNotes" wine tasting session with Giuseppe eventhough he didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any Italian...it was like a game of pictionary, the wine tasting edition.
My first gelato while in Italy...delicioso!
By the time I got back to the villa after having dinner in town, the sun was setting over the hills.
Villa Dianella's wine is produced, aged and bottled on the estate.
The vats were being drained and the wine was being transferred to another vat for continued fermentation. I tasted this batch and it was super strong. It still needed to be distilled a few more times before it tasted like proper wine.
Giuseppe at work.
Me at work.
Soaking in the sites of Tuscany at sunset.
It was a beautiful first day at the villa. The views, the room, the people, everything was bellissimo. On Monday I am just hanging at the villa and then in the afternoon three of the other guests and I are taking a cooking class with the villa's chef. I’m looking forward to that as much as I do the soccer matches.
The song I'm sharing today is Train's "Drive By". I'm sharing this for a couple reasons. First and most obvious is the video is set in a wine tasting villa ,which is appropriate since that's where I currently am. Second, the song and video were on at the pizza place that I ate at in town tonight. And finally, because in the video Train's lead singer makes it look so easy to meet the hot wine tour girl, so I'm going to try and do the same while I'm here (I don't even know if there is a wine tour girl yet).
Villa Dianella!
ReplyDeleteDude. That's awesome. You best jack that sign and ship it back...