Memories Made

Some of the best memories are made while traveling. During our time in

Florence we took out a day to see some of the surrounding area. We saw the leaning tower of Pisa and we went wine tasting in the Chianti region of Tuscany. The drive up to the winery was super long and curvy and for the first time since I was a little girl I was feeling carsick. We arrived and I was looking forward to sitting down and having some water. They gave us a tour of the facility and then took us to our wine tasting area. It was set up so we would have 5 wine tastes paired with cheeses, bruschetta, and pasta. But what I was most excited about at that point were the water bottles on the table.

So we sit down and enjoy the appetizers and pour ourselves some water. There are about 20 other people in the room participating in the tasting with us. We start the tasting with our first wine - super yummy. Dan finishes his wine and to my surprise and horror he picks up the water bottle and pours a little into his wine glass, swishes it around and, pours it into the bucket. He looks at my face and says, "I was cleaning it out for the next wine." I explained, "But, they usually order the wine in such a way that you don't need to wash your glass each time as long as you finish the previous wine or you pour it out. But now everyone has seen you and they'll..." I couldn't even finish my sentence when we noticed the two couples to our right pour water in their glasses and clean them for the next round.

I looked at Dan accusingly, watching my precious water wasted. "It's not my fault I look like I know what I'm doing," he shrugged. I just shook my head trying to hold in my laughter. I'm sure in a perfect wine tasting atmosphere one would have a clean glass for every wine tasted. But this wasn't a perfect wine tasting atmosphere, this was a functional wine tasting atmosphere. And that water was for drinking. Not for cleaning. Dan stopped cleaning his glass out but the damage had been done and our 4 new friends continued to make sure their glasses were spick and span for each new wine. I even helped them pour their dirty wine-water out into the bucket situated in front of me, mentally shaking my head each time another glass was "cleaned". We just wanted to make sure our fellow wine tasters knew the proper wine tasting etiquette.

P.S. I have now been to 2 of the 3 countries that Elizabeth Gilbert went to on her year long journey in Eat, Pray, Love. Anyone up for Indonesia?