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Postcards from

Tuscany

This is the villa called “Pipestrelli” that we stayed at in
the village/estate of Montestigliano. Opposite: This the
Tuscan countryside as seen from the hilltop village/estate
of Montestigliano.

and sunflowers, olive orchards and country lanes lined with Massimo spoke Italian while his sister, Luisa, translated.
those dark, spiraling cypress trees.
People no longer pick olives, according to Massimo, they use
Once when they were installing new gas lines at the Mon- electric-powered gizmos that shake the olives off the trees.
testigliano, workers dug into several Etruscan tombs. Pipes- The harvest is in October and November; the key is an olive
trelli has Wi-Fi and a heated pool, but when we wake up each that’s not too green, not too black. No more than three days
morning the view from our second-story window is little from shaking to the mill or the resulting olive oil can’t be
changed from Etruscan days. In the distance is a landscape considered “extra virgin.”
lost in time. Hills, fields, villages, farm buildings built of
stone and topped by roofs of terra-cotta tile. Close your eyes There are some 2,000 trees in the Montestigliano groves,
and imagine an elegantly rustic villa where Cary Grant might which produce about 2,000 liters of olive oil each harvest. In
have romanced Audrey Hepburn -- and that’s Pipestrelli. 1985 Tuscany was hit by a monster freeze that destroyed or
damaged many of the trees. Massimo managed to save some
Love, and salvage others by cutting them back severely, allowing
J & J the roots to regenerate new growth. He walked over to one of
his gnarled old-timers and patted a trunk with his old-timer
hands. “This one’s more than 100 years old,” he said.
Dear Ron,
After the grove tour, came an olive oil tasting. Nine of us
Yesterday was olive day at Montestigliano. First we got a tour staying at Pipestrelli sat at a table in the mill’s upper floor.
of the grove just down slope from our hamlet of B&B farm- We each had four oil-filled shot glasses, slices of green apples,
houses. It was a bright, cool spring morning; the ground was bottles of “frizzanti” water, and a scorecard.
freshly green and sprinkled with pink, white and blue wild-
flowers. Co-owner Massimo Donati, who runs the farm op- Massimo explained the drill: Drink a shot of olive oil, take
erations, gave us a mini-lecture on the art of olive husbandry. note of its virtues or vices on the scorecard, then eat a pal-

Wine Dine & Travel Winter 2015 71