The wine tasting

A bit later than usual but I may have been a little incoherent previously; I think the air is thinner up in the hills and one has to acclimatise.
After breakfast we had 4 hours for a last wander round Florence so we managed to find the famous (but very small and hidden away down a back street) Rivoli which is reputed to make the best gelato (ice cream) in town. It was gorgeous. Had lunch at a street cafe and bought a Pinocchio for the Christmas tree and something for George's birthday (I hope it doesn't melt by then). Then we got on the coach and set off for our new hotel somewhere I've never heard of and which I can't remember the name of. On the way we passed through Chianti wine country and visited a big vineyard where the owner gave us a guided tour and then sat us down and fed us meat, cheese and bread soaked in olive oil. But, more significantly there were 3 wine glasses in front of each person. He poured a different wine into each glass and explained what it was. I was expecting some of that pretentious twaddle about sniffing it and detecting hints of caramel and baby talc etc, before swilling a drop round your mouth and spitting it out. But no, he just said drink it and when I checked, mum had necked the lot!
Well, you may have spotted the deliberate mistake there; mum actually had a tiny sniff of each and left the rest. Well that's rude, so I drank it all so as not to offend the kind man.
Anyway, it's funny cos I don't like wine but I was getting the hang of it so I bought 2 bottles!
The new hotel is in a little village in the middle of nowhere but it's far posher than the last one. I've never had a hotel room with its own entrance hall before. But the evening meal was a formal affair in a posh dining room and we sat at tables of ten people. There were 4 courses and no choice. So the aperitif was exactly the same cheese, meat and bruschetta we'd had earlier! Then we had a piece of lasagne and some pasta tubes all on the same plate. But the main course was pork cutlets wrapped in some fancy pine nut stuffing mix. Mum couldn't eat that but to be fair me and the Man City fan from Blackburn who was sitting next to me were the only 2 who ate all of every course and most of our table left the pork! Pudding was some sort of ice cream with nuts and biscuits in it. The whole meal was well cooked and presented but it took 2 hours and 20 minutes which is 2 hours longer than it takes us when it's self service! Didn't have any alcohol with the meal but I'm having a beer now just to check my new bottle opener works, you understand.