La Querciolana wines

A visit to La Querciolana winery on the outskirts of Panicale is part of the routine as they make very good wine and both Maria Luisa and Alessio make you very welcome. As well as the winery they have an agriturismo - in this case, an up-market farm stay, where the mother Luisa cooks excellent meals in her restaurant. Son Alessio is the wine maker and other family members also work in the business.

La Querciolana is built on the foundations of a 13th century Benedictine monastery and it still has the chapel with valuable frescoes on the walls. Unfortunately I have not seen inside the chapel.

These olive trees across the road from the chapel are proof that you cannot kill olive trees by heavy pruning. We loved their shapes.

We drove home the long way thereby taking in some views of Lago Trasimeno.

After a drink in the piazza with accompanying panzanella, chips and peanuts in their shells we didn't feel much like dinner so we had a platter of things we have been yearning for.

Fresh pecorino cheese with honey, ripe tomatoes and basil, juicy ripe apricots and some potato and rosemary tarallini biscuits.

These interesting plants growing out of the rock walls of our hilltop town Panicale are caper plants. They have very pretty flowers but unfortunately the plants get trimmed off before caper berries form.