Our group enjoyed part or all of three weeks in May of 2006 sharing a 12th century castle that had been restored to gracious living quarters. In the castle compound was a small church with paintings dating to the 13th century, a working vineyard and winery, and an olive oil orchard with 12,000 trees.

Our stay was characterized by spectacular weather. The days were in the high 70' and low 80's, the night down in the high 60's and low 70's and we only had a few days with rain. A lot of the mornings there was fog in the hills which added to the charm.

The castle is located about 30 km east of Florence, part of the Chianti region. There were vineyards, olive trees and wineries everywhere. The castle of Volognano, which is a small village by itself is also located between three small towns that were within walking distance.

Walking on the roads took some getting used to as they are very narrow with little or no shoulder. But we quickly discovered that the drivers were used to pedestrians and didn't think twice about walking to town.

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