Sighnaghi

26 September 201

I have entered the land of wine, cheese and churches.

The Christian influence in Georgia is immediately obvious with prominent churches taking centre place in each village.

One of the girls living next to the guest house had written this on the garage door. It says " beware of the bear" in Georgia's squiggly script.

 I am staying deep in the wine making countryside in a village called Sighnaghi. It resembles similar hill top places in Tuscany with its red roofed buildings, rustic churches, small squares and the very popular terraced cafes serving copious amounts of wine.

There are grapes every where; fields of grapes line the roads to the village, vines hang over house gardens and truck loads of the green variety rumble off to the markets and wineries each evening. At my home stay there is a wine maker set up by the front door; yesterday the last bottles of red wine were produced, today the green grapes are being crushed. Wine drinking has become an unavoidable part of each evening!

I got the chance to see the Davit Gareja site of several monasteries, the oldest dating back to the 6th century. The Udabno monastic collection of caves were easily the most impressive. Despite graffiti and bullet holes ( the area was used by both the Soviet and Georgian armies for artillery practice), the frescos in the caves are remarkable. There are small chapels along the hillside and a group of Azerbaijani and Georgian soldiers to remind you that the caves line the border between the countries and you won't get far if you try to cross here!