Day 13: Trainride to Ancona then an Overnight Ferry to Split

Fields and fields of grapes, sunflowers, kiwifruit, hay and tomatoes pass by me at remarkable speeds. Every now and then I see a building or house providing me evidence of civilized life outside of this giant moving steel bullet. I look around me and I see the faces of people who are each so involved in their own lives, journeys and destinations. A group of about seven young boys in their teens sit a few rows ahead of me smugly drinking hinekin and talking unreasonably loud. They smell of too much cologne. Across me is a woman reading the biggest book that I’ve ever seen. The train is such a great place to observe people. I hear at least four different languages and see people of all shapes and sizes. I try to evesdrop on the two Italian women next to me but stop when I realize that I can only understand every third word. Learning Italian is an interesting and fun experience but some days are harder than others. I can certainly understand the language better than speak it but I still have much work to do before I can consider myself apt at either.

The trip ended with a great success, however I now realize that two weeks is too little time to explore the three wine regions we chose. I do think, however, that I learned a considerate amount about Italian wines and about the way that each taste from each region. Wines from Veneto consist mainly of Valpolicella and Amarone which are both red varieties that are produced by drying half of the grapes and performing a refermentation until a dry wine is made. This results in a high acid, tannic wine which has aromas of cherries and prunes. We also tasted Soave from this region, which is a white wine made from Garganaga which has a fruity profile and a distinct saltiness. Tuscan wines consist of the Supertuscans and Chianti. Unlike the popular belief in California, these wines are of supurb quality. They are big, full bodied wines with strong red fruit characteristics made up of the Sangiovese grape. VinSanto is also produced in this area and is a sweet desert wine. I am not one to usually appreciate sweet wines but I found myself purchasing two bottles of this from Campriano while there. I later had a conversation with one of my colleagues about why it was so enjoyable to us and we came to the conclusion that the complexity of this wine mixed with the high acidity created an agreeable flavor profile. The end of the trip took us to the Piedmont region where we got to taste from the world’s best known Italian wineries such as Pio Cesare, Gaja and Ceretto. This is where we got a taste of Barolo and Barbaresco. These wines are made up of Nebbiolo and Barbera grapes. That produce a powerful yet elegant wine. These can be described as having floral notes with a slightly musty nose and powerful tannins.

So I am now here riding a train to a ferry which I will take overnight to Split. I have a stack of postcards from around Italy that have been written but just not sent off yet. I guess those will have to wait to be mailed out from Croatia. After Croatia I think I want to visit my friends in France and I have plans to go to Germany at the end of the month.