Hungarian Guest Wine - Tihanyi 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon

Ah! Apparently when I was writing about guest Hungarian wines from my ill-fated July trip to Lake Balaton I completely forgot to publish this last post! I need to clean out my draft box more often...

Aside from the Georgian restaurant a colleague and I found in Budapest on our free day, the only highlight, indeed the only thing that made the eight days I was stuck in Lake Balaton, Hungary bearable was the Hungarian Festival with its myriad of food, wine, and craft stalls. Especially the wine stalls.

Set in the middle of a park (which we don't see too much of in Istanbul to begin with!) the festival was very atmospheric with lights strung up in the trees and communal tables for eating and drinking the many offerings. Many of those many offerings were pork-based foods and you can bet I took advantage! Oh my gosh the food was amazing. Because we were there for work our company covered all our meals-as long as we took them at the hotel. Unfortunately the food there was really not good so as the week dragged on more and more people eschewed the hotel dinging room in favor of the festival flavors.

I tried many of the wines on offer. For a small deposit you got your wine glass and could then taste and buy glasses and bottles all night long with that glass. When you were finished you returned the glass at any of the wine stalls and got back the deposit. One of our last nights at Lake Balaton a small group of us started here with a bottle of the Tihanyi 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon which ended up being one of my festival favorites. Our table quickly collected more and more colleagues looking to escape from the horrors of our retreat and as new people joined our table they went to get their glass and yet another bottle of the Tihanyi to share around.

I found one thing good about this trip!

PORK!!!

So there we are, probably 12 of us, and suddenly the stalls are shutting down and the festival is closing for the night. The group of us descended on the poor kids working the Tihanyi booth with a proposition: rather than refund our glass deposits, just give us as many bottles of wine as the deposits will afford. Hungarians must not be big drinkers because we had to convince these kids, who got to know us turning up every 20 minutes for a new bottle, that yes we really did want some 10 more bottles.

We left the fair grounds for the park along the lake and drank more bottles there until we were rousted by cops. Apparently the lake has a closing time too. I packed it in when we finally trudged back to the hotel but about half the group stayed out to finish the remaining bottles (and order more from the hotel bar). Needless to say we did not see everyone at the first session the next morning.

So what was this wine which we imbibed so enjoyably?

The Tihanyi 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon was a medium-bodied dark, raspberry colored wine with a gorgeous combination of flavors. Raspberry and red fruits like red currants and other berries were foremost but there were hints of green pepper, jalapeno, and mint. From the oak I got some interesting cedar and smoke flavors.

Was this the best Cabernet Sauvignon I've ever had? No. Was it good drinking? Yes definitely. It is also what leads me to conclude that wine, like proper grammar, saves lives because without this and the many other Hungarian wines I (and my colleagues) drank on this trip I think our work retreat might have turned into a J.G. Ballard novel.

The Charm, the Confusion, the Food That Is Florence

L and I chose to use  AirBnB for our trip. It was the first time either of us had ever done so and there were definitely some pros and cons. Pros: More bang for your buck-in both places we had 2-bedroom apartments to ourselves for a great deal less than a hotel room, let alone two rooms in the center of the city, would have cost us; it's definitely nice to have laundry facilities, a full refrigerator, etc. Cons: We had to take all our things with us between Rome and Florence then back because there was no luggage room like hotels have; we had to make sure to arrange with the owners to meet them at specific times rather than just showing up, and they're a little trickier to find. Which was an issue in Florence.

My suitcase is wider than the door!

Carousel in Republic Square

Our AirBnB in Florence was supposed to only be a 10 minute walk from the train station and it probably was; but I was having trouble matching streets on the map with streets in real life (really Europe, we need to work on posting street signs more regularly). We finally found the correct street but finding the right number was something else entirely. We were looking for number 77 but out of no where the numbers jumped from 50-something to 100-something. We walked back and forth, back and forth, and finally, after passing 125, found 77. What the frack?! We found out that there are two address numbering systems: one for residential addresses and one for businesses. When we finally did find our AirBnB it was like finding a door into Narnia. The little half-door was so narrow we might have missed it even if we hadn't been confused by the numbering. Because the door, even though narrow, opened into immediate, and super steep concrete stairs the door didn't open all the way so we had a hard time getting our suitcases in and had to turn sideways going in and out. While it was just two floors compared to my five the stairs were so steep it was really tricky getting our cases up and down. Totally worth it though. The apartment was gorgeous. Throw in an oven and I'd never have left.

Santa Croce Square

Santa Croce

I was in Florence in 2000 and my main memory was that I did not like it. What a difference some maturity and different company make because I loved Florence. Loved, loved, loved. More than Rome.  I imagine it was less charming when it was a medieval city but now the remaining medieval elements; narrow, winding streets; beautiful, old buildings; squares, etc. all create an atmosphere that's really hard to put into words. I actually felt pretty chic walking around those streets and I am not a chic person.

The famous Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River

As with Rome, one of my favorite activities in Florence was a food tour. I would have loved to do some wine tours, hello Tuscany!, but L can't drink red wine so that really limited our wine touring abilities. In Florence we booked a tour with Urban Adventures through Winerist. Apparently we were the only ones to sign up for the Sunday tour so we had the privilege of a private tour! Our guide Linda was fantastic. Very knowledgeable about Florentine history, the culture, food, and wine. In addition to running the Florence Urban Adventures she is a certified sommelier and took her certificate in Florence. Unfortunately I was too involved in the tour to make note of all our stops. Needless to say they were fantastic. After the tour I dragged L back to one of the stops to pick up some cheese and a jar of truffle honey. TRUFFLE HONEY IS A THING!!! It's a fracking amazing thing too.

It was while on the food tour, through conversations with Linda that I was suddenly struck by an epiphany both surprising and yet stunningly obvious...I should be a sommelier! [insert dumbfounded face] These last couple years of pretending to know what I'm talking about as I review Turkish wines are actually leading to something! I have no idea why hasn't occurred to me before now. I'll stay in Turkey for the next year to finish up some commitments I have here and do lots and lots of research in order to choose a program and town. I'm not going back to the US for this. Right now I'm undecided between Italy and Serbia. If I manage to successfully complete the program I would like to specialize in Balkan/Georgian/Turkish wines (thus the idea to study in Novi Sad, Serbia) but, Italy. Come on. Does anyone know if there are sommelier scholarships?

On the Ponte Vecchio

I loved Florence. As much as I would like to move there for the sommelier program I highly doubt I could afford the cost of living while paying for language schools and tuition and not working. It's such a beautiful city that we visited it twice! Or at least the train station. On the way back to Rome we boarded the train on the right side of the platform which we did not realize was the wrong train until it started moving. Shouldn't they make the announcement about which train you're on before it pulls out of the station? For people who have been traveling as long as L and I have collectively traveled this was a pretty rookie mistake but surely we can't be the only ones ever to have done this?

So many truffles!

So, Florence. We were blown away by the Duomo, charmed by the city, a little drowned in the sea of art that is the Uffizi, in love with the food, and stunned by personal revelations. Before I wanted to be a pirate when I grew up but that is somewhat impractical these days. I think I could be quite happy as a sommelier though!

I hated to leave Italy but if nothing else had to get home to my cat, Sherlock. Before that could happen though I had to figure out how to get my suitcase down to the allowable 20 kilos. When I packed everything I'd bought I was at a staggering 28 kilos! With some repacking that resulted in insanely heavy carry on bags I was good to go. Although the added weight of duty free had me staggering around the airport. It was worth it though...look at all the goodies I brought home! Maybe I would make a good pirate after all!

The Duomo of Florence

The best place to start a tour of Florence is the Duomo. For one thing, it sits pretty much in the center of things and so it makes a great point of reference. While I've never found the interior to be very impressive, the exterior is undeniably stunning.

'Duomo' is the Italian word for cathedral. The actual name of the Duomo is Santa Maria del Fiore (St. Mary of the flowers) and was built between 1294 and 1436. The exterior is paneled in green, pink, and white marble. It wasn't until 1887 that the facade we see, dedicated to the Mother of Christ, was done. I this the only other building I've photographed as much was St. Vitus in Prague. Some might say that the exterior of the Duomo is extravagant and over done but I have to go with 'spectacular'.

We were in Florence over a weekend which meant I needed to go to Mass. And if you have to go to Mass in Florence you might as well go to the Duomo! Especially when you're like me and think all Masses should still be in Latin and you know that the Duomo has a Latin Mass at 10:30 on Sundays. It was so nice to hear that again. I can count on one hand the number of things I miss about DC but Latin Mass at St. Matthew's is one of them. In Istanbul I semi confidently follow Mass in Italian and, weirdly, stumble through Mass when it's in English. I haven't regularly, or purposefully, attended English language Mass in 12 years. Also I take linguistic exception to some of the new translations.

 

As with St. Peter's you can buy a ticket to visit the dome, which L and I didn't do. Stairs. A shame as I'm sure the view of the city would be amazing. Frankly though every time we passed the Duomo I was stunned all over by the exterior and couldn't even contemplate the view.

I feel like even if I hadn't seen anything else while in Florence the time I got to spend admiring this amazing building would still have made it worth the trip. L said that it "kicks the ass of Milan's Duomo". I've never been to Milan so I'll have to take her word on that; but it really rather does kick the ass out of the majority of churches I've seen I rather suspect she's right.

The Dead of Pompeii

One of the interesting things that I learned during our guided tour of Pompeii was that of the people who died (many did manage to escape) the majority were the wealthy of the city. They refused to leave because they were afraid that their houses would be raided and treasures stolen in the chaos/aftermath of the eruption.

Amphitheater at Pompeii

Temporary memorial exhibition

As I mentioned in my previous post about Pompeii, L and I gave into morbid curiosity when we heard there was a special exhibition in the amphitheater about the dead of Pompeii and how their final moments were recovered. Who doesn't want to see plaster casts of dead people?

The temporary exhibition is housed in a wooden pyramid and features not only plaster casts but a history about how these were done. I'll admit that until more recently than I'd like I assumed these plaster casts were the ashy remnants of the dead. Which is stupid because absolutely everything organic in Pompeii was consumed by the 250 C/482 F surges of heat from the ash.

You can see some of the bones and teeth still.

It was Giuseppe Fiorelli who, in 1863 realized that the cavities in the ash containing human remains were left by decomposed bodies. He devised a technique by which liquid plaster was injected into the cavities to recreate the body. His technique is still used today although with more durable resin instead of plaster.

The result of Fiorelli's discovery and the memorial exhibition is haunting. Yes there were certainly elements of the morbidity which drew L and me, especially when we caught the gleam of bones and teeth amidst the plaster; but it was far more moving than I expected.

Legendary Pompeii

L and I both wanted to see Pompeii so we set aside a day during our Rome leg specifically for that. I spent a fair amount of time investigating how to get there and in the end we decided to book ourselves a shuttle "tour" with Enjoy Rome. This agency offers many tours and what we ended up booking was basically just a bus ride to/from Pompeii. I don't remember the price off the top of my head but I do remember that it was comparable in price but easier than booking a 35 Euro train ticket each way to Naples where we would transfer to a local train to take us to Pompeii.

The larger of the two theaters in Pompeii

A thermopolium

The size of Pompeii alone is impressive. Although over the last couple hundred years there certainly has been time to do major excavations. After its burial in ash in 79AM Pompeii was first rediscovered in 1599 but recovered only to be 'properly' rediscovered during the excavation of nearby Herculaneum in 1748 and has been a tourist destination for over 250 years. Not to sound like a ruins elitist or anything...but I've seen cooler. As a snapshot of ancient Roman life, art, and architecture it's phenomenal, don't get me wrong and the surviving frescos and artwork are beyond words. However Pompeii had nothing outstanding to single it out; no Roman Colosseum, no Ephesian Celus Library, or Athenian temples. Had it not been preserved by tons of volcanic ash Pompeii would have lived and died and been forgotten by history.

Traditional villa courtyard

Enjoy Rome offers two options with the shuttle deal: just the shuttle, or the shuttle and a two-hour guided tour. L and I chose to take the guided tour. While we didn't see as much of Pompeii as we could have done on our own we got a lot of information we wouldn't have got just from the guide book. Some of what he told I us I learned (but if I'm honest I learned then forgot) from the Roman architecture class I took. Some of it was very new.

Stepping stones for when streets flooded

Wall detail

For example, the old Latin word for brothels is lupanare. The root word for lupanare is lupus, wolf. I'd heard before that brothels were called lupanare and always wondered why. Our guide explained that in order to advertise their presence and guide customers through the streets to find them, the girls would lean out the windows and howl. If you needed more help than that to find the lupanare you could follow the penises etched/embedded into the streets that pointed the way. Seriously. Some of the surviving Pompeii frescoes are in the lupanare. According to our guide, the different paintings advertised a girl's particular skill or "game" and the stone beds in each room encouraged customers to play through quickly and not linger.

Ceiling detail

Public bath

A lupanara

Brothels weren't the only place to get your party on. You could also find 'company' on the floor above a thermopolium. Aside from the wealthy who had other people to do it for them and space for a dedicated kitchen, cooking was not a high priority. Many people got food from thermopolii where you could also enjoy a brief, unlicensed "game" upstairs. A thermopolium was like an ancient fast food place with large jars sunk into a counter where cold/dried foods and wine were stored and served to go.

'specialty' fresco in a lupanara

stone bed in a lupanara-does not encourage lingering!

'specialty' fresco in lupanara

After our tour we did not have much time left to wander around on our own. Choosing morbid curiosity over vivid frescoes we headed to the amphitheater where there was a special exhibition about the dead of Pompeii (will post about that soon!). As that didn't take quite as much time we suspected we elected to book it all the way across the city to visit the Villa of Mysteries.

On the outskirts of Pompeii, the Villa of Mysteries, despite also being buried in ash, sustained very little damage and many of its frescoes were found to be well-preserved after the villa was recovered. The villa gets its name from the frescoes in the triclinium (basically a dining room) which people believe depict a young girl being initiated into one of the more secret cults of Bacchus. If I were going to join a secret cult it would definitely be one headed up by the god of wine. Bravo young girl.

The triclinium