moltacino

a tuscan landscape in moltacino.


on monday, we spent the whole day in moltacino. this is a small wine making vilage in tuscanny where paola's dad has another vineyeard, and had to take care of some business. apparently, it is the best wine making region in tuscanny. walking through the village, 4 out of five store sold wine. this was mainly for the tourists, i imagine, since i dont understand how the locals would buy so much wine. indeed, there were a lot of tourists, which surprised me since the town was so far out of the way. i guess being the best wine making town makes you popular.

a quick story. paola's dad informed us that until about the 1950s, this town was very poor. the land could not grow much, due to its poor quality. well, it so happens that grapes thrive in such an environment, and someone figured out to grow grapes here. apparently it developed really good wine, so the town exploded. it became very wealthy. at one point, many plots were farmed by sharecroppers, who worked another person's land. at some point, the government decided they did not like this, so they said the sharcroppers had a right to buy their land from the owners with the assistance of low interest loans. many did, and either kept it, or sold it again for a profit. however, one of those people who kept it is an old man who shares land borders with paola's dad. it is his assumption that the land that he probably bought 40 years ago for about ten thousand dollars is worth about ten million now. neat. we met this old man and his wife, and he looked like a typical farmer. i suppose that millionaires from tuscanny are different from millionaires in beverly hills.