Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chianti
For the two weeks before the Palio, each contrade has a day that is theirs to promote themselves, and they put on their colors and march in the street. Today was Il Pesche (the fish), and we passed them as we walked towards our tour bus to Chianti wine country.
We stopped at a landscape museum, which had some exhibits explaining the makeup of the soil where Chianti grapes are grown. Their "civilization of landscape" included references to Lorenzetti's "Allegory of Good and Bad Government" we'd seen at the Palazzo Pubblico.
The bus tour stopped at a sculpture garden, which was narrated by a German woman who explained each piece in perfect Italian and English. The third piece we named ourselves as "the ribs that tipped over the Flintstone car." Some of them had interesting background stories, like the "Rainbow Crash" one, which was made out of pieces of shattered Murano glass, and the swirly Picasso-looking one (named "Twist"), which was planted on a bed of thyme.
The vineyard was gorgeous - went on for acres and acres of grapes and cypress trees.
Inside, we had a tour of the winemaking and storage facility, and a wine tasting that included three types of red wine and a syrupy amber dessert wine.
Everyone pretty much passed out asleep on the bus ride home -- it was the same "crayon bus" pattern that we had on the bus from the Rome airport. You can't forget this kind of fabric pattern.
