Castello di Amorosa - a Lovely Castle Winery in Napa Valley Region

There are numerous wineries in the Napa Valley region in California.

Today, we visited this famous wine making region. We left San Francisco in the morning and stopped at one of the restaurants in Napa Valley for lunch.

After lunch, we drove to visit another famous winery in the region.




















The winery we were going to visit was located  about 20 minutes away.

We drove by a lovely little hamlet called St. Helena.



















Though a small town, St. Helena was humming with activities and quite a few visitors.

My husband suggested that we went to the Castello di Amorosa winery housed in a medieval castle replica.

So off we went!

Visiting this castle winery was not in our plan and we had to go out of the way a little bit.

However, I really didn't care where I was. As long as I am with my loved ones, anywhere I go and anything I see is beautiful to me!












 I squealed with delight as we were greeted by beautiful tall trees leading us to this castle winery.

These majestic trees reminded me so much of our pleasant visit to the Tuscany region in Italy a few years ago.

We arrived at the Castello di Amorosa winery in the late afternoon. The winery celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

This medieval castle replica was funded and built privately by one of the local wine makers.



Evidently, much research and careful design went into the designing and building of this castle winery.








 The castle is surrounded by a moat.

Castello di Amorosa - a Lovely Castle Winery, comes with a moat, in Napa Valley

It even has a drawbridge leading into the castle building!

How I wished we were here years ago.

Our children would have been thrilled to see this castle as they were fascinated by knights and castles during their elementary school years.

There was a guided tour as well as wine tasting offered by the castle management for a fee of  US$40.00 per head.

But if you missed the guided tour, you could still go for the wine tasting at a lesser charge.

We missed the formal guided tour but took a self guided tour of the castle and the property around it.






















This castle winery has been designed to imitate the Medieval life as much as possible.

 It has a farm with a few goats kept behind a small barn and with some chickens
roaming freely nearby.

Strolling around in these lovely castle buildings, I found it hard to believe that these buildings were rebuilt as replicas since everything looked so authentic.

These buildings and courtyard looked every bit like the ones we saw in Italy where we visited a few years ago.

I distinctly remember visiting a church in Assisi with very similar
architectural design such as these arches with flower containers placed underneath them.











What impressed us a lot was the details in many of these buildings. One particular room which wowed us was the Great Hall which was the centre of life during the Medieval period.

 Great Hall of the Castello di Amnorosa Winery, Napa Valley

Apparently, people in the area can rent this room and host their special events in the Great Hall of the Castello di Amnorosa.




We ventured down to the cellar for  some wine tasting.




















We passed by the gift shop selling various wines and other souvenir items.

Our friendly hostess at the wine tasting session

There were quite a few people enjoying the wines produced at this particular winery.

Out host was very helpful and friendly.

Cheers! Wine tasting at the  Castello di Amorosa winery in Napa Valley

For each person who signed up for the wine tasting session, he/ she was given five different drinks of their choices.





















We met a lovely couple from another part of the U.S. at the tasting session and enjoyed a great conversation with them.


Some of the locally produced wines have garnered awards.

 We learned that these wines are only sold at this winery without being sold elsewhere. The winemakers of  Castello di Amorosa have established a thriving business making and selling their own wines directly to the public from their gift shop.

After the wine tasting session, we still had some time before it closed.




















We toured the castle property a little bit more and climbed the stairs to the top of the castle to have a better view of the surrounding area below.

View from the top of Castello di Amorosa, Napa Valley, USA

We had a really good view of the courtyard and vineyard below us.





















We knew that we wanted to visit a vineyard in Napa Valley.

But Castello di Amorosa was not on our itinerary. My husband discovered it by chance after we picked up some brochure in the region.

Sometimes, in life, we cannot plan everything.
Once in a while and by chance, we will come across some amazing thing that would wow us.

Castello di Amorosa was such an awesome experience for us.

We enjoyed the visit tremendously and glad that we spent some time there with our loved ones and share some precious moments with them.














We drove back to SF at around 9pm; we were tired but had an absolutely enjoyable day!

R.T.
Castello di Amorosa
Napa Valley, California
USA

A Visit to Napa Valley - A Famous Wine Making Region in the U.S.

E. took a day off on Monday and rented a Zip car driving us to where we wanted to go.


We heard so much about Napa Valley and were glad to have the opportunity to visit this region.











We started driving after 10am to avoid the rush hour traffic. Driving on the Bay Bridge to get out of the city of San Francisco, we enjoyed the scenery on the way.

It took a little more than an hour before we reached Napa Valley.





Because of its sunny warm Mediterranean like weather and perfect soil condition for growing wine making grapes, Napa Valley is a famous wine making region of the United States.

A vineyard in the Napa Valley region, USA.

Napa Valley's sunny warm Mediterranean like weather is perfect for growing wine making grapes.

The Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, USA

Having just visited Nevada, a desert region, a few days ago,  we noticed the sharp contrast in the landscape and greenery between the Nevada and this wine making region.

Front entrance of the Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, California

 Our first stop was the Robert Mondavi Winery as recommended by our hotel concierge.





















It was a beautiful sunny day.

The patio at the vineyard was open.

Visitors could enjoy the fine weather and had a beverage outside.

We stayed there for a few minutes to enjoy the scenery.

There are numerous  smaller wineries in the Napa Valley region. The Mondavi is one of the larger ones.

















Since it was lunch time, we went for lunch in a local restaurant.




















Lunch at a outside patio was lovely!

We basked in the Californian sun and enjoyed the gentle breezes caressing our faces.

These days, we prefer having the biggest meal of the day at lunch than at dinner. But again the portions served in American restaurants were just too big for us.














E. had sole, S. had chicken salad and I ordered a smoky hamburger which came in a gigantic size. I could hardly finish half of it.

Numerous winery in Napa Valley with wine tasting facilities

E. forewarned us that he took the day off from work but needed to make a business call in the late afternoon.

Therefore half way through lunch, he had to excuse himself for the business call.



















Initially, E. rented the zip car until 4:30pm. But
the Napa Valley region was very lovely with numerous winery, we decided to stay longer than we had planned.

Aware that it might take us a little longer to get back to SF, E. kept extending the time for the rental car until he decided to rent it for the whole day.















 This made our day trip much more relaxing as we could take our time to enjoy the region in a more leisurely way.




















After lunch, E. was still on his business call. So we left him alone and wandered on our own to visit briefly the winery close by.

My husband was smart. He found a shady spot, parked himself on the bench under the tree and read to his heart's content while I went around with my camera to capture the scenery.
















Napa Valley is a lovely region to visit!


R.T.
Napa Valley
California, USA

A Good View of San Francisco's Famous Landmarks on Telegraph Hill

After the church service, we walked along Jones Street down to our hotel.










Seconds after we crossed the street, we heard a lot of noise behind us.

We turned back to look and there was a big commotion with a few police vehicles rushing to the street where just moments before we were strolling by.

The cops quickly put up their yellow police tapes and more police arrived. We were glad that we were not caught in the middle of the street when whatever just happened there.

No wonder E. insisted that we should change to another hotel.

We listened, called our travel agent to cancel the rest of our stay. They did refund us the rest of the money and found us a better hotel.

We retrieved our luggage from the hotel,  hailed a taxi and checked into the Hilton Hotel in the San Francisco's financial district.

E. came around 5:30 pm and he took us to Telegraph Hill. We walked up the stairs to Coit Tower.

























It was a delightful walk up to the hill on a beautiful path.




















On our way to the Coit Tower, we passed by well maintained and beautifully renovated houses built on a steep street.










I have been to San Francisco a number of times.
























It didn't matter when I was in this city, I always see brilliant colourful flowers.

Coit Tower

The Coit Tower was closed by the time we got up there.

Statue of Christopher Columbus beside Coit Tower, SF

The statue of Christopher Columbus standing proudly beside the Coit Tower and greeting visitors to the hill.

 Instead of going up to the tower, we had a good walk around the area and took many pictures.

We had a good view of San Francisco, the famous bridges from the top of Telegraph Hill.

A beautiful view of the bridges, famous landmarks of San Francisco from top of Telegraph Hill

After our visit to Telegraph Hill,  we walked down to the North Beach passing by a beautiful church located in Washington Square.






















There were quite a few people in the Washington Square on this Sunday late afternoon enjoying the fine weather and the green space.

There was a band playing lovely jazz music in one corner of the park.

The Washington Square is located in  North Beach which is a lovely neighborhood with lots of outdoor eatery.

We wanted to enjoy the lively music in the park therefore we ordered our dinner at one of the Italian restaurants close by and ate outside.

My husband had chicken salad; I had eggplant parmigiana and E. had seafood fettuccine.
The food was really good!

E. was eager to show us around San Francisco. Though on my forth visit to SF. I had not been to Ghirardelli Square before.

Instead of ordering hot chocolate, E. recommended us to try a chocolate drink made with the famous Ghirardelli chocolate.

It was my first chocolate drink, pretty tasty,  rich but not too sweet.

E. seemed to be more relaxed with us. We could talk a little more and he seem to enjoy spending time eating with us.

R.T.
North Beach
San Francisco
USA