A few weeks ago we had lunch in the town Cori.   While we were driving home we stopped by the cantina of Marco Carpineti and tasted a few of his wines and bought a case of Tufaliccio.  Mr. Carpineti was extremely hospitable and generous, and we enjoyed the visit to the winery.  As I am on a mission to promote all that is good in the region of Lazio outside of Rome,  I am happy to write about wines that we encounter thatgo beyond Cabernet Sauvignon.  I also really want to like these wines but I am afraid, sometimes, they fall short.  The vineyards of Carpinetiare certified organic, which is wonderful because when you drink the wine you are not going to be ingesting pesticides or fertilizers.  The grapes grown are all native Laziale grapes, meaning, they are native to the area. He is not planting grapes for the international market, instead, he is trying to market wines made from grapes of the region.  My type of wine, it seems.  I'll take  a raw, earthy, and volcanic Lazio wine over an industrial California Cab any day of the week!  I wanted so badly to be in love with this wine and for it to be the next big thing coming from Italy, but it fell short.  it is not that it is a bad wine that I never want to drink again, on the contrary, it is wine I would drink almost every day, but I wouldn't walk on fire for.  It is great table wine for people who eat the foods of Lazio. It cost me €12 a bottle, it is a good deal for a decent table wine made with native grapes using organic farming methods.

What is unclear, even after our visit, is what are the exact wine making methods.  I found Mr. Carpineti very friendly and open to questions regarding his wines but not very straight forward with his answers.  For example I asked about use of natural yeast and his answer was,  “Sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t, it just depends.”  Well, this is an important question.  Natural wine making is a dying art, people.  I want to know who is maintaining these traditions so I can support them and drink their wines.  While we were there the enologist came in briefly.   I quite liked him as he was dirty and looked like a farmer.  He was laughing and not trying to seduce us with conversation, in fact, I think he barely said hello.  Mr. Carpineti gaveus great historical information about the grapes used, all native to Lazio.  These grapes include arciprete(W) which is a Cori native, bellone(W) which my dog is named after, malvasia(W), nerobuono(R), cesanese(the laziale star of the moment), and a few others.    When we visited they were completely sold out of all their white wines,so we were unable to taste those.  This was not a problem as I have actually used Carpineti white wines for guided tastings I lead.  Tufaliccio is made of 70% Montepulciano and 30% Sangiovese.  Montepulciano is the most used black grape in the region ofAbruzzo, and cesanese is used in Lazio's first DOCG designated wine, Cesanese del Piglio. 

This wine has a lovely ruby red color that is quite clear without sediment.  It had very lovely tones of blackberries, dark red roses, hints of licorice, and an earthiness that seemed to convey mushrooms or even walnuts.  I found it very herbal, earthy and meaty.  By this I mean it really had an undertone of something animal, like wet dog, but not in an inviting manner.  I find all of Lazio wines are very mineral, and this was no exception.  The earth here is very volcanic.  I also felt like I could smell the sea, it was somewhat saline.    The wine was dry, medium-full bodied, slightly fresh with nice clean tannins.  There was no vanilla or oak, and it maintained its dignity in that respect, it ferments  in stainless steel. It was also not overtly fruity, either.    I wouldn’t say this is a particularly well rounded wine.  I found it lacked freshness and a good back bone, but then again, this is clearly a wine that is ready to drink.   It also had a slight bitterness that I found appealing.  What I liked about this wine is that it is not sterile or perfect.  It has its flaws, but they are upfront.    This is a quality I find is a thread between many of Lazio’s wines.  I think it pairs well with mushrooms dishes, field greens, and even a simple pasta.   

The next time I visit Cori, I will again make a stop at the Marco Carpineti vineyard and buy a few cases of different wine for daily consumption. As they say, if it grows together, it goes together.  I eat as much food as I can from Lazio, and I would like my home drinking to be as much from Lazio as possible. 

Sarah Grunwald is a sommelier certified by the Associazione Italiana Sommelier Roma.  Sarah is also a Presto Tour Guide available for wine consultation and leads Presto's Rome Wine Tour.

Night Owls will get the chance to sleep in and visit their favourite museum by night coming up soon!  Saturday May 15^th will be the 6^th year of The European Night of Museums. 

40 countries throughout Europe will take part this year (not just Italy)!  Some 2,500 Museums ranging from art, history, and sciences, will participate. 

For a listing of Museums in Rome that will be joining the festivities, take a look here: ROME.   You’ll find all the info you need really: museum, address, and the special hours. And here’s a look at FLORENCE (which has quite a bit going on).    Here you’ll see TORINO has quite a bit too. 

According to the Musei in Comune Roma, all of the National Museums in Rome will be  open and free to enter from 8:00 PM until 2:00 AM (last entry at 1:00 AM).

Just as a sidenote, the Vatican Museums & Sistine have started this past year an night entrance special they do on Fridays (until July 9^th), from 7:00 PM until 11:00 PM (last entry at 9:30 PM).  The Vatican has offered special After-Hours entrance for a select few people for quite some time, costing anywhere from a few hundred per person to a few thousand, depending on the access and time slot).  What makes this more recent addition on Friday nights is that the price for admission is the normal price!

Jetlag is no traveler’s friend.  Traveling long distances and crossing lots of time zones can really mess up your body’s internal clock, for adults and children alike.  

Here are some tips to beat jetlag (so it doesn’t beat you)!

 Try to not take any type of medication to sleep.  In the end it will just make your body and brain more groggy and confused.

 It’s also best to avoid things on the plane or the night before that will dehydrate you like alcohol and caffeine.

  For breakfast and lunch try and eat foods with lots of protein, as it will that help keep you awake and alert for adjusting to your new time zone.  At night eat carbs (which i can assure you will not be hard to find in Italy ;) ).  Or also foods with our favourite sleepy-time-inducing amino acid Tryptophan (chicken, turkey, lentils, chocolate, cheese, yogurt, eggs, white rice, etc) 

 The ideal flight would be a red-eye, so you can sleep at a normal time and wake up when you arrive during the morning or early afternoon at your destination.

If you are going to be taking a flight that will be flying during the day light hours and are hoping to get some sleep, it can really help to get an sleeping mask. 

 Fight that urge to nap as soon as you arrive to your hotel/apartment!  It’s better if you go to bed just a bit earlier than usual instead.  You can certainly take it easy, and maybe a very short power-nap…but make sure to set an alarm so that you don’t end up sleeping all day.

 When you arrive, look to immediately get your stomach on schedule with your new time zone. if you arrive at the lunch hour, eat lunch, if you arrive at dinner, have dinner (even if a light one)....This helps get your brain synchronized with what time it is too. 

 When planning your trip, I’ve heard it’s beneficial to break up the trip a few times.  Layovers, or even switching from plane to train, gives you the ability to cross time zones more slowly and also get up and move around. This of course depends on how far you are traveling...obviously it only makes sense if you are going to be going a long distance!

 For lots of super tips on jet lag with babies and children, take a look at this excellent page on the "Delicious Baby" (maybe a questionable choice of words for a website name, but a really great source of info!)

Surely you've heard of the Ancient city of Pompeii (and it's amazing ruins), but have you also heard of Herculaneum?

Herculaneum, called by the Ancient Greeks Hercleion, is located near Naples in what is now a small modern town called Resina. It's said that Hercules himself founded the city, hence the name.

 Because of it's natural beauty and proximity to Rome, it became a sort of resort for Roman nobility during the times of the Roman Empire. It was one of the cities destroyed and buried in the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24th, 79 A.D.

There's actually a surviving text/account from a eye witness and survivor, Pliny, who became a Historian.

Compared to Pompeii, it seems a lot more Herculaneans managed to escape before the final devastating stage of the eruption. And in fact, there are very little things left behind like money and jewelry and even furniture in the ruins, further demonstrating that they knew that bad news was coming and had time to get themselves and their belongings far away.

Though most people seemed to have escaped the destruction of the city, some did not. This interestingly enough provided archaeologists and anthropologists with the first Roman skeletal/physical remains found (as Romans cremated their dead normally).

Herculaneum was buried underneath 20 meters/50-60 feet of mud and ash. It was rediscovered accidentally and only recently (well recent being relative here) in 1709.

Though the Ruins of Pompeii are more popular, these are actually better preserved. You can get there via bus from Naples main train station OR take that same little Bay Train Circumvesuvia you would for Pompeii and get off at the "Ercolano" stop.

The Domus Aurea, also known as Nero's Golden House, this already archaeologically troubled site had a terrible incident this past week in which a large section collapsed (about 60 square meters/645 square feet). So this week's blog is dedicated to this golden gem of Rome's Ancient history, and here's hoping they are able to save the parts that caved-in, and that "magari" (hopefully) one day it will be re-opened to the public.

 Emperor Nero had this Golden Villa built in the heart of Rome, just after the Great Fire of 64 AD conveniently cleared this area of its inhabitants. Please note the word "convenient", as it's believed by many that this fire was deliberately for this purpose, so that he could build his elaborate villa right where he wanted.  The nickname of the Golden House comes partly from the gold-leafing, but also from the extravagant decoration inside: semi-precious stones and ivory decorated the walls and ceilings.

Where today you will find the Colosseum, was once where his man-made lake for this Golden House was. The Colosseum was then built shortly after Nero's death in 68 AD, starting construction in 72 AD (though at the time of the construction it was still called the Flavian Ampitheater).  This was truly a party pad. It had something like 300 rooms, but still no rooms that would be bedrooms or kitchens have been found. After all Nero still had his palace nearby on the Quirinale Hill (which is where the modern-day Presidential Palace is).  Not all of the Villa or it's exact area has been fully discovered. It's estimated that the Villa and the gardens surrounding covered something like 300 acres, , including the Palatine, Esquiline and Caelian hills.

Nero, who was not known for modesty, also had an enormous bronze statue of himself on this land. It was 35.5 meters/116.5 feet tall, and was called the Colossus Neronis. After his death, the Statue eventually was placed near the Flavian Ampitheater/Colosseum by Hadrian. There's debate among scholars if it was originally associated with the sun God Sol or only after his death when it was modified to look less like Nero. As a sidenote, the Colosseum as we know it called today, took it's name from this colossal statue which was nearby.

Immediately following Nero's suicide in 68 AD construction started over the Golden house and the surrounding area. Ironically, this in the end also helped protect the inside frescos which remain(ed). The precious stones and gold inside was stripped pretty much directly after Nero's demise.  Inside the ruins there were some pretty famous "signatures" scratched into the walls, including the Marquis de Sade and Domenico Ghirlandaio. Some of the masters of the Renaissance such as Raphael, clearly took note of the styles they saw in these frescos.

Presto Tours has a new website, and to go along with it we have decided to start a new and improved blog!

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