Addison Anthony: Italy Vacation, Part 5 - Orvieto and Tenuta Casanova

5/13/15

Rome. Check. We loaded into the car bright and early to make our way towards Florence. We planned to make stops in Orvieto and Tenuta Casanova, a vineyard in Tuscany, before reaching our final destination. Orvieto is a walled city on top of a gigantic hill. According to our guide, Popes would flee to Orvieto when Rome came under attack.

Arriving in Orvieto.

The streets of Orvieto are much less crowded than Rome.

We turned a random corner and ran into the Duomo di Orvieto, which is absolutely MASSIVE. The exterior is incredibly intricate and took over 300 years to complete. I'd be pretty pissed if I had to pay taxes to build this thing for 75 years of my life and not even have it 1/4 done by the time I died.

Outside the Duomo di Orvieto.

Dad laid on his belly next to a Japanese tourist in the middle of the street
to get this picture.

Orvieto was a quick trip, but worth it. We grabbed a quick lunch and some gelato and headed on our way to the Tuscan hillside for a wine tasting. Tenuta Casanova, located in the Chianti region of Tuscany, ended up being our destination. We were given a tour of their facilities, which also include olive oil and balsamic production, before sitting down outside to begin our tasting. It turns out that dripping balsamic on top of vanilla ice cream is delicious. After partaking in a good bit of wine, I ended up ordering a couple bottles, as well as some olive oil and two bottles of balsamic (8yr and 30yr). We packed back into the car and finally made our way towards Florence. Upon arrival at our hotel, Hotel Santa Maria Novella, we noticed that there were production crews set up outside our window overlooking the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. Turns out they were in town filming the new Tom Hanks movie based on Dan Brown's Inferno.