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Day 1 Departure from New York JFK Airport at 11:55Pm on Turkish Oct 7 - Day 1 Departure from New York JFK airport at 11:55pm on Turkish Airways flight # 12 Oct 8/9 - Day 2 Arrival to Tbilisi – Transfer and overnight at the hotel Oct 9 - Day 3 Breakfast at the Hotel Explore Wine Region of Georgia - Departure to Sighnaghi, Kakheti The Monastery of St. Nino at Bodbe - is a Georgian Orthodox Monastic complex and the seat of the Bishops of Bodbe located 2 km from the town of Sighnaghi, Kakheti, Georgia. Originally built in the 9th century, it has been significantly remodeled, especially in the 17th century. The monastery now functions as nunnery and is one of the major pilgrimage sites in Georgia, due to its association with St. Nino, the 4th-century female evangelist of Georgians, whose relics are shrined there. Sighnaghi – is a town in Georgia’s easternmost region of Kakheti and the administrative center of the Sighnaghi district. It is one of the country’s smallest towns with the population of 3000. The town was developed in the 18th century by the king Erekle II as a refuge for the population against Lezgin and Persian attack. The name sighnaghi comes from a Turkish word for shelter - “signak”. Sighnaghi has wonderful views over surrounding hills, the Alazani valley and the Caucasus beyond Most of Erekle II’s 4km-circumference defensive wall still stands, with 23 towers and each of its six gates named after a local village the town is surrounded by. Part of the wall runs along Chavchavadze on the hilltop on the northwest side of town, where you can enter the tiny Stepan Tsminda Church inside a tower. The 19th-century Tsminda Giorgi Church abuts another stretch of wall, lower down on the northeast side of town. A little further down you can climb up inside one tower and walk atop the walls down to the gate over the Tsnori road Sighnaghi was one of Georgia’s leading trading centers in the 19th century. The majority of the houses of Sighnaghi still date back from 17th, 18th and 19th century and a large part of its 4km. defensive wall still stands. Sighnaghi’s economy is dominated by the production of wine, traditional carpets and traditional food. The town and its environs are also known for their landscapes and historical monuments. The town has recently undergone a fundamental reconstruction and has become an important part of Georgian Tourism Industry being known as “the City of Love”. This excellent, well-displayed, modern museum has good exhibits on Kakheti archaeology and history, and a room of 16 paintings by the great Kakheti-born artist Pirosmani – the biggest collection of his work after the National Gallery in Tbilisi. Explanatory information is in English as well as Georgian. Lunch in Sighnaghi – Pheasant’s Teras Pheasant’s Tears – a winery that produces artisanal natural wines according to ancient Georgian traditions. All wines are fermented and aged in Qvevri – clay vessels lined with organic beeswax and buried in the earth. The ancient traditional Qvevri wine-making method was inscribed on the UNESCO representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of Humanity in 2013. The Pheasant’s Tears wines are fermented using naturally occurring yeasts and painstaking attention to achieve wines of character and sophistication deeply rooted in the richness of the Georgian soil and Georgian culture. Departure to Kvareli Gremi - is an architectural monument of the 16th-century, the royal citadel and the Church of the Archangels – in Kakheti Region, Georgia. The complex is what has survived from the once flourishing town of Gremi, which was the capital of the Kingdom of Kakheti in the 16th and 17th centuries and is located in the Kvareli district, 175 kilometers east of Tbilisi, capital city of Georgia. The town of Gremi was founded by Levan of Kakheti, it functioned as a lively trading town on the Silk Road and royal residence until being razed to the ground by the armies of Shah Abbas I of Persiain in 1615. In the year of 2011 the Gremi Complex was fully restored together with all the small churched around the area. It leaves all the visitors under strong impression with its uniqueness and simplicity. Dinner in Kvareli – Winery Khareba “Winery Khareba” is established upon the ancient traditions. The company works over maintenance of the unique vine culture and wine making both using ancient methods and modern technologies; consequently, the company produces high quality wines. According to the modern market and technological developments, “Winery Khareba” reorganized and considerably improved technical equipment of the winery. The company owns the land plot where the high quality wines are produced. Wines are made in two regions: Kakheti – in the east and Imereti – in the west Georgia. Wine making in the east – in Kvareli wine is kept in 7.7 km. long tunnel cut off in the stone massif of Caucasian mountain range. The massif includes granite surrounded by shale layers. At any time of the year, the temperature is 10-11 C. Wine is being aged there in the oak barrels. Overnight in Kvareli Oct 10 - Day 4 Breakfast at the Hotel Visiting Twin’s Cellar Twins old wine Cellar in Napareuli is a delightful agro-tourism winery and vineyard site. The winery is named for the twin brothers who own the winery. Twins Wine Cellar welcomes large groups and provides many activities for visitors. In 1994, the brothers opened the first modern Georgian winery to bottle a qvevri wine. Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli opened in a previously built winery. Special techniques are used when making the qvevri wines including cleaning the qvevri with a white cherry bark brush attached to a pole and burning sulfur inside the qvevri prior to placing grapes in the qvevri. The wine labels for Twins Wine Cellar note, “God gave us the wines and its tradition. We have to care about the wine and the vineyards because wine is alive. When we open the qvevri it is like the sun rising.” Lunch Departure to Tsinandali Tsinandali – is a village in Kakheti region (79 km east of Tbilisi) noted for the estate and the historic winery which once belonged to the 19th century aristocratic poet Alexander Chavchavadze (1786- 1846). The house-museum often hosts various exhibitions of prominent Georgian and foreign artists. The house is surrounded by a beautiful park with unique and interesting layout with a mixture of natural and decorated gardens that occupies 18 hectares. Departure to Tbilisi Free Time Dinner in Tbilisi Overnight in Tbilisi Oct 11 - Day 5 Breakfast at the Hotel Departure to Mtskheta Mtskheta – one of the oldest cities of Georgia is located about 20 kilometers north of Tbilisi at the confluence of the Aragvi and Mtkvari rivers. The city is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and today is populated by around 19 500 people. The town has an extraordinary importance to the Georgian Nation as it was the capital of the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. Mtskheta was the site of Georgia’s adoption of Christianity in 334 and remains to be one of the headquarters of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Mtskheta is of primary interest to any visitor interested in Georgian history and/or Orthodox Christianity. Due to its historical significance and numerous ancient monuments, the “Historical Monuments of Mtskheta” became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The historic churches of Mtskheta are outstanding examples of medieval religious architecture in the Caucasus. They represent the high artistic and cultural level attained by this ancient kingdom. Svetitskhoveli – the Living Pillar Cathedral is known as the burial site of Christ’s mantle and was the site for coronation and burial of the kings of Georgia. The Svetitskhoveli complex in the center of the town includes the 11th century cathedral, the palace and gates of the Katolicos Melchizedek from the same period, and the 18th century gates of Erekle II. The cathedral is domed and cruciform in plan. The interior was originally covered with wall paintings, but these were whitewashed over and only recently have fragments of them been revealed again. The facades are ornamented with decorative arcading which unites the separate components of the structure. Severely damaged by Tamurlaine, it was rebuilt in the 15th century; more serious alterations took place in the 1830s on the occasion of a visit to the Caucasus by Tsar Nicholas II, when richly ornamented galleries and subsidiary chapels were ruthlessly swept away. Jvari Monastery – “the Church of the Holy Rood” is situated on top of the hill on the left bank of the Aragvi River. According to local history, in the early fourth century a wooden cross was erected over a pagan sanctuary on a rocky mountaintop overlooking Mtskehta, the former capital of the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli - Iberia. The construction of the cross symbolized the fall of paganism and rise of Christianity in Georgia. In 545, a cruciform church, known as the Small Church of Jvari, was built just north of the cross. Between 586 and 605, a larger church was constructed directly above the site of the wooden cross, the base of which is still visible inside the church. Exceptional relief sculptures decorate the exterior facades of the Great Church. Their fine proportions and remarkable technique distinguished the sculptures from the earlier bas-relief carving common in the region. In 2004, the monastery was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the “Historical Monuments of Mtskheta” and was added to the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger in 2009. Lunch in Mtskheta Departure to Kazbegi Kazbegi – Stepantsminda – formerly Kazbegi is a town situated in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region in the north-eastern part of Georgia.
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