What’s the best indie travel experience you’ve had in Italy? Or, if you’ve never been, what’s the place you’d like to go in Italy more than any other (and why)? More generally, what do you do when you visit popular places in order to have an indie travel experience?

I’ve never been to Italy.  Though I did plan a trip there a few years ago before I found out the exchange rate between the Euro and the Dollar (at the time about 1.5 dollars per euro).  That’s how I ended up in Croatia….

So…where did my Italian plans take me?  Well, I dreamed of starting off by heading down the Almafi coast.  The photos I have seen there are stunning.   Sheer rocky cliffs.  Winding road.  I wanted to slowly meander down this vertical paradise on my way to…SICILY!

Why Sicily?

FOR WINE!

One of my favourite wines is Cottanera’s  Nume cabernet.   Its virtually impossible to get in the states, but I used to work at a fine dining Italian restaurant which was lucky enough to be one of the few places that could get it (when it wasn’t ridiculously backordered).

Nume wine is one of those wines that is only made the years the grapes are perfect, (The last year I have found it made is 2007), so to find it, order it, get it imported, and then be lucky enough to have enough supply to actually receive it seems to be mercy to the will of some higher being.   It’s nearly impossible to get.

Nume Cabernet tastes like vanilla and toasted almonds, and when you eat it with a little bit of chocolate, the chocolate brings out the dark berry flavors and it tastes like chocolate, berries and stronger toasted almonds.

Its amazing.  The way the flavors blend together so smoothly, yet remain so complex is unbelievable.  And how the taste of this wine merges and changes with a simple thing like a few chocolate chips in your mouth, is heaven.

I had the opportunity to try many wines at the restaurant I worked at.  Wine going up to $350 a bottle WHOLESALE.  And by far, my favourite wine there was Cottanera Nume cabernet.

I want to go to Sicily to track this vineyard down and have this wine again. Its been years. About 8 or 9 years since I’ve had this wine.

Yes, I’m not really answering the last part of this question.  At this point it’s a whole other blog post. (I’ll write about it later).

But if I went to Italy I would make sure I go to Sicily just to track down and stalk (all creepy like) the Nume Cottanera wine vineyard so I can have another glass of their cabernet again!

CHEERS!

This is part of Boots n All 2012 Indie Travel Challenge. I’m doing this in hopes of becoming a more consistent and better travel-blogger.  And maybe finally visiting the Cottanera vineyards in Sicily.