From Vasco to Vineyards

This week, Robby was in Massa, so Elena planned a few outings for the four of us to enjoy. Naturally, it all began at Caterina's. I'm including a few photos of some especially colorful dishes that were a little different from the usual deliciousness. Since there were four of us, we shared a bottle of Vernaccia, which was refreshing on a hot summer evening.

Panzanella salad and asparagus quiche

Savory pancake w/ fresh tomato and pesto

Lemon tortelli

I have to say, our first summer in Massa has been eye-opening. Not only are we living outside the historic center, but also we had no idea how many events take place here throughout the season. Naively, I thought that if I kept track of everything happening, we'd be able to attend most of it. Oh no. I've since realized that's impossible. There are simply too many events, and many of them happen at the same time. We'll just have to pick and choose and go with the flow.

We hadn't even heard about this evening's event until Elena invited us to join her and Robby for the concert. We didn't really know the music, but the location alone made it worth going. The concert was being held near Ira's favorite viewpoint overlooking Massa.

Massa from Ira's favorite viewpoint

Beside the viewpoint are the gates between the city's original medieval walls and the inner walls the Sienese built after conquering Massa Marittima in the 1300s. We often walk past these locked gates, but tonight they were open for the concert. 

According to what I found online, this area is called the intercapedine--the narrow defensive space between the two walls. When the Sienese constructed the inner fortifications, they deliberately left this buffer zone between the original city walls and their own defensive line. 

L'intercapedine

But tonight the gates were open, the motorcycles were lined up, and people were gathering for a summer concert. We couldn't understand why there were so many bikers--Elena had simply invited us to hear some Vasco Rossi music. As it turned out, the concert was part of the 17th Motoincontro. We may not have arrived on motorcyles, but we were welcomed just the same.

Bikers convene!

Summer concert crowd

La Combriccola del Blasco

Vasco Rossi tribute bands

at Cassero Senese

The songs were bringing Elena back to her high school days. He is an iconic star in Italy and is from Modena and a former student of her father's, Dr. Ronzoni. She was enjoying the cover band, but kept saying, you have to listen to the original. So I looked it up. I include it here if you want to hear it also.

Vivere by Vasco Rossi

The final outing was to visit the second winery on Ira's shortlist for the girls' trip in September: Petra. It's an organic coastal Tuscan estate near Suvereto, founded in 1997 by Vittorio and Francesca Moretti. The winery is famous for its striking Mario Botta-designed hillside building and produces acclaimed Bordeaux-style blends and single-varietal wines.

We took the scenic route through the countryside avoiding the main highway. The drive was beautiful until we came across a rather unusual sight, which we later discovered was construction for an earlier Red Bull sporting event that we had missed.  

Eventually the roads narrowed to a single lane before we finally reached the entrance to Petra--a sign that's pretty hard to miss. As you follow the long driveway, the winery slowly reveals itself. The architecture was definitely impressive.

Petra sign

Petra driveway

It was so hot that day that I didn't really appreciate the architecture until I looked back at the photos later. As you drive in, the building's massive circular facade is immediately obvious. But once you park and see it from ground level, the geometry changes completely and the circle almost disappears. It's a clever piece of architectural design. 

The tour started here, at the base of the steps and then we walked into the building from behind the staircase into the wonderfully cool fermentation room.  

The main structure from ground level

Fermenting tanks

Door to the Aging Room

Next we stepped through the double doors into what I'd call the aging room, where rows upon rows of wine-filled barrels quietly mature. I'm sure our guide shared plenty of fascinating information, but between the tour being entirely in Italian, thirty other people in the group, and the acoustics of the room, we eventually gave up trying to catch every word and simply enjoyed taking in the surroundings. So I'll include the photos that caught my eye. Maybe you'll find them interesting too.

Aging Room

Artist Shot

From there we walked through another set of double doors into an impressive event space used for large gatherings. Afterwards, we returned to the aging room and entered a long tunnel leading to a large table at the far end. Originally, the architects envisioned it as an intimate wine-tasting room. Unfortunately, the humidity and dampness made it unsuitable for serving wine. As they say, even the best-laid plans don't always work out. It was still a pretty impressive tunnel though.

Event Space

Tunnel to the "Tasting Room"

And then it was time to leave the "cool" rooms and walk outside to the location of our lunch and wine tasting. Thankfully it wasn't too far a walk, because by now, it was scorching outside. El Niño is not kind. On the way our guide pointed out the church on property, apparently it was there when the Moretti family purchased the estate and they opted to preserve the parish church.

Preserved Parish Church

Lunch was served in a separate building, where we sampled four wines paired with a delicious meal. The food was excellent, but if I'm being honest, the wines didn't quite live up to the price. They were certainly good, but living in Tuscany has changed our perspective. Here, there are so many outstanding wines at far more modest prices that our expectations have quietly crept upward. We left without buying a bottle--not because the wines weren't enjoyable, but because we knew we could find others we liked just as much for considerably less.

Lunch Venue

We walked back into the sweltering heat towards the car but before leaving Ira and Elena wanted to walk up the grand staircase. Robby and I opted out. 

The view from the top

We were all glad we'd gone. The architecture was fascinating, lunch was excellent, and spending the day together made it even better. But by then it was time to head back to Massa... where, at least in our opinion, the wine is just as good and a little easier on the wallet.

Ciao, ciao.