Antinori Winery

The following day, we visited the Marchesi Antinori Winery. I was expecting something like a typical small US winery - small tasting room, maybe a beautiful hillside, maybe a quick tour past some wine making equipment... well, this place was anything but that. 

It turned out to be a beautiful, 50,000 square meter building built into a hillside. The wine we tasted there was good, and the tour we took was interesting, but the architecture and design of the building were far and away the highlight of the visit. A few of the way-too-many pictures we took are below, and you can read a little more about the compound if you are interested: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/04/antinori-winery-by-archea-associati/

Outside the main level of the winery

There was a crazy spiral staircase out there

Another angle on the spiral stairs

Can you tell we liked these stairs?

Just an everyday, dramatically lit wine storage area

Even the hallways were interesting

Rows and rows of huge tanks

Dramatic lighting at the wine tasting too

Oh, and the tasting room was a glass cube sticking out over the barrel room 

After the tour and tasting, we got a great lunch at the restaurant at the winery

After lunch, we headed home to sleep off all the wine, food, and walking. Another awesome and fun day, even more so because the winery was so unexpectedly amazing!