Gama jobber.

This is the Tivolisi podcast covering life, travel and more in the country of Georgia, brought to you by foodfundtravel.com, comma, expathub, dot, ge and eat thistours.com.

hello, hello, hello.

Welcome to another episode of the Tbilisi podcast, a show about life and travel in Tipilisi and Georgia.

I'm your host, Meg.

I've been gone for a while.

I think.

I think we haven't released anything in a year.

Whoops.

Oh, is it that long?

Does anyone remember?

Many months.

Hello, I'm Meg.

Nice to meet you again.

Lucky people.

Just keep listening to the old episodes.

Not that they're that old.

That is true.

2023 stuff still up there.

And of course, that other voice you can hear is Tom.

Hi, Tom.

Hey, how's it going, everybody?

Nice to be back.

Yes, thank you to everybody that has messaged us since we have.

We've been really busy.

We've been crazy busy.

Tour season is insane this year compared to last year.

It's much, much, much, much, much busier.

That's why we haven't released anything new in quite a while.

But we're here.

Thank you to everyone that messaged us saying that you listened to the episodes that we do have out and that you found the information really useful.

We love hearing from you guys, so thank you so much for messaging.

In response to that, we've got a new episode.

Huzzah.

Yes.

Ready to release some new stuff and maybe some more episodes coming this year.

Let's hope so.

Let's hope so.

But this episode we are doing today is all about Signagi.

It's one of the main places that people do want to visit when they're coming to Georgia.

It's one of the main tours that we run and we thought we'd give you guys just a little bit more information about what is Signagi.

Why is it so cool?

Why should you go there?

What's going on?

Mmm.

Yeah, well, it is cool.

I love Signagnagi.

I think it's very cute.

They've done a lovely job.

It's a mountain village in Karketi, just about an hour and 45 minutes, almost 2 hours from Tbilisi.

And you get incredible views of the Caucasus mountains from the city walls.

It's surrounded by fortifications about four and a half kilometers of city walls.

And we're gonna get into some more details as we go along.

But just setting a picture here as you get a, you get us a full panoramic view of the Caucasus mountains from Signagi and the little town village itself is.

It's technically legally a town.

I think it's a city.

I think it's one of Georgia's smallest cities.

I thought.

Yeah, well, maybe they've given it city status now, but the city of love, this is called the city of Love.

But then in the soviet era, it was nominated as a town, was finally established as a town, and that was quite a while ago.

So maybe they've officially given it city status, but it's a very small city if it is legally a city of only about 2000 permanent residents, isn't it?

Yeah.

Everyone else coming through as tourists and.

Yeah, it's one of those places that gets very quiet at night when all the tourists leave and then it's like bustling during the day and then it's very quiet again at night.

Yeah.

So what are we going to talk about, signagi, this incredible mountain town, city, village?

What are we going to say?

So let's jump into it.

So we're going to talk a little bit about why it's the city of love, a little bit about the historical background, its unique charm, its beautiful architecture, lots and lots of different things.

Signagi has been, as most places in Georgia have been around for quite some time.

The area has been inhabited since the paleolithic era.

That's quite a long time ago.

I mean, I don't remember it personally.

Yeah.

But sort of like the city, town area sort of as we know it more recently was formally established in 1762 by King Irakli II.

He was the king of Karketi and Cartly at that time.

Well, not of Cartli then.

He was the king of Karketi in 1762.

He eventually became the king of Cartli and Karketi a bit later when his father died.

Yes.

So we'll get into some of that history stuff later as well.

Yep.

But King Heraklia is really known for that sort of.

Definitely the Karketi area.

You see statues because he was the king of Karketti and he reunited Georgia.

He reunited central Georgia with Karketi, which hadn't been together for a few hundred years from before that, actually a persian semi autonomous area for quite a few hundred years.

And it eventually got ceded back to him by the Persians, which was very nice of them, but.

Well, was it nice of them?

No, they were having trouble with their own wars in other lands and decided they could trust King Orkla to look after that area and decided they didn't have time to look after anymore.

So he got it ceded back to him and he became the king of Karketi.

Apparently the town itself was actually formed as a strategy against the Persians.

You mentioned that before.

For coming back.

Yes, they were coming back.

We don't want you.

So how much did, did they put the trust in him?

And he was like, well, yeah, you trust me, but I don't trust you very much.

But that is one of the things when you are actually in Signagi, one of those things.

I find I do this a lot in certain places in Georgia.

I'll stand there and be like, yeah, I wouldn't want to be invading this space.

Like, you put yourself in the shoes of the invading army and you're like, that's a pretty big hill to climb.

I don't want to be climbing that hill.

Or if there's a big fortress here, which there is in Signagi, you're like, I don't want to be trying to take down that fortress.

That sounds hard.

Let's just, you know, go get some mead and go home.

Yeah.

So, well, if you're persian, I don't know if you're drinking mead.

Not so much meadow.

Maybe not.

Depends which century we're talking about.

So.

Well, one of the things, of course, that we alluded to here is it's on a mountain, but it's on a mountain right above the Alizani valley.

And that means the Alazani valley is like the main winemaking valley of Karketi.

And that's where the Caucasus mountains are, on the other side of that valley.

And this is why the view is so amazing, because Signagi is a few hundred meters up from the central valley.

So, yes, if you're an invading army, you don't want to be climbing that hill to try and invade.

It's big, especially when they've built 5 walls around the outside.

So, yeah, yeah.

That wouldn't be a fun place to invade at all.

But they didn't build the walls straight away, did they?

First of all, Heraklay moved in, or started moving in in 1762 and decided to turn this into his summer palace to make the entire village at that time a summer palace.

Well, yeah, it's much cooler there, a.

Few hundred meters up from the valley.

Nice fresh breezes.

Yep.

Beautiful views.

I think if I was a king, I would choose that.

And even if I wasn't a king, if I was just looking to buy a hotel, maybe I would buy one there.

It's a nice spot for it.

It is, it is, it is.

Yeah.

So back in the day, the way that they actually settled the town was they gave armenian and georgian merchants, they were encouraged to settle there because they got tax privileges.

So that's how they actually got people to move in once.

Once Erekli had things set up there.

And because of that, it actually really became an important trade hub as well.

So for the people that were welcome, they set up a lot of trade and it was like a really important place for that.

People who are not welcome, you're like, you can stay away.

And here's my walls.

Yeah, well, I mean, this is sort of the georgian history, really, isn't it?

If you're welcome, then come in and have some wine.

And if you're not welcome because you're about to invade us, then we will slaughter you.

Yeah, that's the way it rolls in Georgia.

So, yeah, that is the georgian strategy.

Makes sense.

Anyway, that is a very, very brief sort of little background about how it all started.

We'll talk about like, a little bit more about everything in a little bit.

But let's start because the most things people are not listening to this podcast are not for a history lesson.

They want to know what to do in signagi.

Fun things.

Yeah.

So let's do that first.

All right.

So what's the number one thing?

What do you think's the best thing to do in signagi?

Explore the walls.

Well, I mean, we're not reinventing the wheel here, but it's true.

You are going to want to do a quick walk along the walls.

Well, the thing we didn't actually mention is it's one of those places where you can actually get up and walk along the walls.

You can climb it.

There's like going up to it.

Yeah, there's a small section that you can actually go along.

And no matter what season it is, it's actually really interesting to go and visit that section of the wall and take your photos and stuff like that because it's open in winter and it's all covered in snow and the Alizani valley is all covered in snow.

Or you can go in spring when everything's just flowering.

Definitely in winter and spring, your views might not be as fantastic.

I think the view in winter is significantly better because if it's a crisp, clear day, you can see the mountains perfectly.

That is true.

My best photos are from winter.

Summer it gets a little hazy.

That is true.

That's a really good point.

I think winter is true.

I was thinking more like just like cloudy, bad weather days.

But happen that often?

Yeah.

I mean, we also have some pretty nice winter days.

It might not be warm, especially not up there.

And there may be snow all over the place, but it's going to be crisp and clear on some of those days, so you pick the right day and you're going to get amazing photos.

That's true, yeah.

During the summer, if it's a cloudy day, then you're just going to seize.

Haze above the mountaintops, especially if you're coming from Tbilisi.

If you do go out there in the summer days and you spend the night in Signagi and get up early in the morning, then you can get some really good views.

Yeah, yeah.

Early start, if you want the best views, for sure.

One of the other things that's changed, and one of the other reasons I like the winter, is because you get all the snow caps on the mountains and even more than just the caps, whereas in the middle of summer, the snow's pretty much gone by the end of May.

And apparently, speaking to some georgian friends here, they say that their parents used to say 40 years ago that there was always snow on the tops of the mountains for the entire year, even in August.

And it's not true anymore.

Thanks.

Climate change.

Yeah.

Climate change is real people.

If you don't believe it, you're denying the wrong thing.

This is definitely happening.

Definitely.

If you want the snow caps, then between early December and late April, you're still gonna have some snow.

I've been out there this summer as well, and there was still a little bit of snow left in June, but really it was pretty much all gone by June, so even may, probably not.

All right, so, yeah, you walk the city walls, it actually only takes like, 20 minutes.

You climb up at one end in the village, and then you walk down the walls to the other end, and then you can walk back up the street or back up the walls up to you.

Yeah.

Or if you're on a tour like ours, then the driver picks you up at the bottom, or can pick you up at the bottom, depending on whether you want to walk up the hill again or not.

That's the part that you can climb, but you can also just walk around different parts of the city and see different parts of the wall and take photos and do stuff like that.

So, exploring the walls, like, to actually climb the walls, maybe 20 minutes.

Actually exploring the walls all over the city takes a fair bit longer.

Yeah.

I mean, if you want to walk around the main areas as well, you're going to want at least an hour to walk around and walk along the walls.

And that's for a relatively speedy sort of visit.

That's the sort of visit that the average tour group is doing, like any tour you're going to go on is maybe doing 40 to 50 minutes total, but that's it.

Walking on the walls is great.

Amazing views.

You can see the walls on the other ridges opposite the city.

So it really is such a long wall that you can just watch it wrap around the entire place.

I read somewhere that it's one of the longest continuous walls, town walls in Europe.

Yeah, it is one of the longest.

It's not the longest, but I think it's in like, the top ten or something.

Yeah.

And in Georgia, it's definitely the longest.

The great wall of Georgia.

The great Wall of Georgia.

You can call it this.

So, yeah, that's the number one attraction.

What else have we got?

Okay.

Another thing I really love doing when I visit Signagi is going to the museum.

I'm a museum person.

I love going to museums.

I love learning things.

I don't like going to a place and not learning something new.

And the signagi museum, it actually, I will admit it took me a while, a couple of visits to signagi before I actually visited the museum.

And that's why I'm saying straight off the bat, go visit the museum.

It's good.

Don't put it off because I really enjoyed it.

I think mainly I love the Piras mani exhibit upstairs.

I mean, you can get certain museums where there's like, oh, here's some spears and here's some clay pots.

It's a lot.

You do get a lot of that.

Yeah.

And this museum has some of that.

One of the famous people from the region, his name was Niko Pirasmani and he was born in a village nearby, Signagi.

We did a full episode on it.

You can go back and listen to that full episode if you want to find out all about Nico Pirouzmati.

But one of the cool things about the Signagi museum is they actually have some of his original paintings there that you can go and see.

Don't make my mistake.

I thought they weren't real.

I thought they were remakes.

And I stepped over the line to take a closer look.

Security were on you in seconds there that grandma hauled.

Grandma's security.

She was there to rouse on me.

She was like, no, they're real.

And I was like, oh, my bad.

So they're real.

But Nico Pirosmania is, like, really, really important in georgian art history.

So to actually get to go and see the originals, I thought was really, really cool.

Yeah, no, I like the museum.

It's good.

So you need about maybe 30 minutes for that museum.

It's really not that big a museum.

It depends on what sort of museum person you are.

Yeah, yeah.

If you want to read every single plaque and know what every spearhead was made of or whatever, then, yeah, might take a bit longer, but, yeah, 30 minutes, I think, for the average visitor, average tourist would be enough.

All right, what's next?

What else would you say to do in signage?

I don't know.

Do you want to talk about wine?

Because mainly all I want to do is talk about wine.

Okay.

I'm having to listen to you talk about sightseeing or whatever.

I don't know.

We talk about wine.

All right.

What wines do you rate in Sagnagi?

All right, so because this area is elevated, it's a few hundred meters up from the valley.

There's not actually much viticulture going on in and around the city itself.

They're all down in the valley.

They're mainly down in the valley.

There are a few that are sort of close to signagi in higher elevation, but they're not, like, right there.

So what you get in Signagi is cellar doors.

You don't get vineyards.

So if you want to go to some cellar doors, you want to go try some wines, maybe meet some winemakers, if you're lucky as well, then there's definitely a few places to go to.

Now, all the guidebooks say the first off thing they're going to list is pheasants tears.

Everyone's heard of pheasants tears.

They're really good at promoting themselves, and everyone knows who they are.

They've done a lot of work with the georgian community and really promoted the natural wine scene around.

So that's one place that you could go.

But I wanted to talk about some other places that are a little bit more.

They don't get so much promotion and definitely deserve to be heard.

Yeah.

Places that, you know, you might enjoy more because they're less well known, you get a little bit more off the beaten track.

So what have we got?

My number one pick is going to be ceravani.

Every time.

Ceravani is part of the natural wine association.

I think they make fantastic wines.

They're really, really solid amounts of care put into the wines they make.

It's all small batch stuff.

Their wine room is sort of very central in Signagi.

It has a nice view, not towards the Caucasus, but in the other direction.

And I think their yard is really lovely to sit in.

And then Marani is actually right there, so they make the wines there.

Unlike pheasants tears, which is in signagi, pheasants tears is just a restaurant.

So it's a restaurant where you can taste wines made by them.

But the marani is not there.

It's actually quite a long way from there.

It's like a 30, 40 minutes drive in Tibani.

I think Caravani is more of an interesting stop for people who are not just casual wine enthusiasts, but people who want to go and try something and probably meet the winemaker.

The winemakers, there's two of them, Archil and Ilya is his cousin.

They work together and make wine, but Archil is like the main guy, so they're there most of the time.

One of them is there, or someone from the family's there.

And it's a much more sort of family oriented place where pheasant steers.

You're gonna mainly have one of the waiters or maybe the wine host would serve you.

You wouldn't actually meet the winemaker normally.

Yeah, I've never met him there.

I've been a few times and I've never met him there.

And I haven't met the owner either.

So I think they're joint owners, actually.

Anyway, so that's probably my number one.

Caravani would be where I'd go for a really sort of personal experience.

Meet the winemaker, sort of thing.

Yep.

Nice quarry wines.

And they also do a pet nat as well, which is the georgian sparkling wine.

Better to book in advance.

They are open all day, but better to book in advance.

They're not big, so definitely book in advance.

Yeah.

Groups are going through all the time.

We have groups going there almost every day during the season.

Sometimes we have two groups a day going there during the season.

You could also join one of our tours if you want to get a guaranteed spot with other people, because we book everything in advance, so.

Ethisthistours.com plug.

You know who I am already, if you're listening to this podcast.

Come on.

That's my number one.

We go there a lot.

My number two, which I shouldn't say number two, because it's also actually really fantastic.

It's just a different vibe.

The second one that we're making, mentioning this is in no particular order, also.

Makes really interesting natural wines, is cradle of wine, which is just a little bit up behind the village.

So you get a really nice view of Signaghi town itself.

So I think it's great to sit there either inside or even on the terrace.

And it's a wonderful place for a view.

Makes some very interesting wines.

The winemaker, Paul, is actually american, but he's lived in Georgia for like, 15 plus years now, so he's pretty much fully ingrained in society, so very much taking seriously everything.

Georgian traditions.

He's a really interesting guy to meet.

If you're there, do go and visit them.

Also worth booking in advance, although they might take walk ins.

They have sessions in the afternoon.

Normally, if you turn up at the right time and the session times may change.

So do contact them first to check, then you might get in a session there.

Otherwise they probably tell you to come back in an hour or something.

When they've got another group in that.

Sort of thing, expect to try some really kooky wines there.

They've got their standards that are fantastic.

Paul likes to experiment.

Yeah, I mean, I love some of the experiments.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it could be pushing your boundaries a bit more than Caravani, if you're onto the experimental stuff.

But he's pretty good.

And is the hosts who work there, he's not always there, by the way.

I'm not saying you're gonna meet him.

The hosts he has there will talk to you a little bit and probably figure out, they're like, oh, this person's not gonna want to try any of the crazy stuff.

Let's just stick to the normal ones.

But if you tell them you want crazy, they're gonna pull something out, probably.

That is a little wild.

So that's pretty fun as well.

Next on the list, slightly more famous.

And as I said, this is just a list.

No particular order as such.

Okro's wine.

And they've got a restaurant with views of the Caucasus.

The terrace upstairs is really small that has the views, so you would either want to book in advance or hope that it's not already got a load of people on it.

Good thing there is, you can pretty much get a wine tasting on the spot and they'll serve even one person.

I think Kervanni will serve one person if they've got bottles open, but if they've got nothing open, they might be a little bit more hesitant about that and you want to join a group.

So Okrose is very easy, and they also make natural wines, and they've famously been making natural wines since around 2004.

They've got a lot of pedigree behind them and they've got a big selection of different wines.

Different family members make their own wines as well.

And you have options to taste various things while you're there.

And the food's good as well.

Yeah, traditional georgian food.

So, yeah, caravani do food as well.

And cradle of wine also do food, if you book in advance, a bit more of the sort of buffet.

Not buffet, but like.

Yeah, not like full a la carte menu or anything, or just being like service of certain dishes.

And it's like a set menu thing that you get with the wine tasting.

So there's my top three.

My three picks that I would recommend for people to go and try.

Yep.

I also will just throw in a little mention if wine isn't your thing, which, you know, some people do come here and they don't really love wine just outside of signagi.

So it's sort of.

Signagi region is a place called lost Ridge and they are actually a microbrewery, so you can get some good beers from there.

If you're more into the beers than the wines, then you can definitely drop into lost Ridgeon.

Have yourself a Luigi.

Ludi.

Ludi.

I just said blue.

You said, ludi, you can have yourself a blue.

You have a blue.

It's not that sort of place.

It's not a blue place, Ludi.

Definitely more of a beer place.

And they have great accommodation as well.

Really nice.

Sort of small.

Not not small, sort of boutique.

Yeah.

Boutique hotel rooms.

And it's on the other side of the ridge.

So it's the lost ridge, not the main ridge.

Yeah.

There's a horse ranch there as well.

There's a horse ranch.

The rooms are great and you've got views in the other direction.

Not at the Caucasus, but it's a quieter.

It's not where all the tourists go.

So we've spoken about wine, we've spoken about beer and now there's only one.

Natural thing to speak about next, I guess the munchables.

The edibles.

That's the wrong word for it.

It's not that sort of town either.

City.

I'm just going to call it village town city, interchangeably.

You guys can research for yourself what.

We legally think it is.

Edibles.

You're not getting edibles there.

Yeah, but things that are edible.

There are definitely some restaurants that you can head to, as we mentioned, caravani do do food as well.

But you need to normally book that in advance.

It is not a restaurant.

It is very much.

If you've got a group and you want to book in advance, order some food.

And okros, of course, we mentioned already.

So where else is interesting?

I think what's interesting is ammo and also the terrace.

Both of these are not in the main town, they're up the ridge behind the town, which is still part of Signagi.

But it means you've got a view over Signagi as well as to the mountains.

Whereas all the ones down where the city walls section is that you can walk where, like the center of the old town is where you can go through and see all the little craft stalls and everything else.

That's a bit touristy, but not too crazy touristy.

That section, you only get views of the mountains, whereas from up the top, where Amo and the terrace are, you get amazing views of the town and the mountains.

There's a whole bunch of photos on our website of this, I think, because.

Yeah, I love that view.

I think that's, like the best view.

It is like one of the best views in Georgia.

Can I say in Georgia?

It is.

It is.

In Georgia.

It's one of the best views.

You got the mountains, you've got the city walls, you've got the town itself, you've got the church.

Everything from up there you can sort of see from the top.

And both of those restaurants consistently doing solidly good food.

Both have a nice seating area.

Ammo has this sort of glass section that they put over in the winter.

So you can actually sit in sort of a conservatory style area that's perched on the side of the cliff and have a nice view without being as cold.

And the terrace has a terrace, of course.

Of course.

So both of these places, the foods you're going to be getting traditional georgian food.

And there's quite a large selection.

The wine lists there are a little bit just meh, average stuff, but not like bad stuff.

I just mean, like, you're not getting any.

Or at least the last few times I've been there, you weren't getting any wild and crazy wines.

You're getting your regular selection of sort of the medium sized and larger wineries, which is still some good wine.

So you want to eat with an amazing view.

I'd suggest you take a little trip just up the hill.

So like a ten minute taxi ride, if that.

Like a five minute taxi ride.

Or walk up there and they're open.

I think in the evenings, the terrace gets really a bit party and they're like live music.

Not live music, but like loud music might be on.

I've heard that feedback from some people.

Okay, mostly we go there during the daytime because that's when tours go through and whatever.

So that's one thing to consider.

Maybe check with them before you book.

If you're not going to want to have a massive speaker next to your head blasting some georgian pop music.

Yep.

But still both great.

Oh, also forgot to mention before, Lost Ridge is vegetarian.

Yes.

But they do have meat dishes.

Do they?

But they're predominantly.

Predominantly vegan, vegetarian focused.

Yeah.

And they do have some really good vegan vegetarian food as well.

But they do have some meat dishes for those who want to eat meat, which most people going, I guess, do.

I don't know, especially Georgians, I'm pointing out to people that mostly don't want to eat meat.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's where you could go.

Yeah, yeah.

You could go to lost Ridge, for sure.

All right, so, because signagi is a really small city town village, we should.

Have just looked up what the official decision was on this.

No, I prefer it.

We'll just stick with this.

There's only, like, a certain amount of things that you can do within the city, and then there's, you know, other things you can do surround.

City town village.

Yes.

So, yeah, you go there during the day mostly.

If you wanted to stay overnight, there's some great places to stay.

Hey, there's loads of places to stay overnight.

But I'm always surprised that I think people maybe have busy days out on tours or driving around, and then they just pass out and you don't feel like the place is pumping at night.

I'm not going out going like, every table's full.

Even in the middle of summer when I've been there, I'm like, well, yeah, there's a few people out, but it's not just crazy.

Whereas during the day, bus tour after bus tour can be coming through during that July August busiest period.

Another reason to go in winter, if you want quiet during the day, it's very peaceful.

Yeah, it's lovely.

But are there any attractions nearby, Signagi, that you would recommend?

People drop in and check out?

We're already leaving, signagi.

I mean, I can talk about wine forever.

As you know, the crazy thing is that there isn't any really notable attraction, attractions that I would specifically recommend other than wineries in that area.

It is very wine focused.

There are some interesting.

There's an interesting old wine factory down in Cardenaki, which has over 700 quevres, which is Cardenaki wine factory number one.

It's a bit of a dark tourist spot, in my opinion, because most of them are not being used anymore.

They're making a little bit of wine there, but they're not really utilizing that huge 19th century sort of warehouse of wine making that obviously used to be making a lot.

And now it's a bit dilapidated, but it's super interesting to go and see because it's one.

It's one of the biggest.

I think it might be the biggest amount of quveries all in one space.

700.

It's spread across like two spaces on the site, but they're right next to each other.

It's the most I've ever seen.

Yeah.

I was like, wow.

Yeah, this place is amazing.

So for a bit of dark tourism, just pay for the tasting.

I don't know what it is, like 30, 40 lorri.

And then you can go in and see the whole place as well and try a couple of wines.

But nerf or attractions wise, specific attractions.

Whenever people say, what else are we going to do near Signagi?

I go drive towards Tilavi.

Well, what about the Bodma monastery?

Oh, okay, so by outside of Signagi, you mean literally next to Signagi?

Within like 1 meter of signagi.

Bodbay is so close to Signagi, I almost consider it as being sagnagi.

It's right there.

I mean, Bodbay is closer to Signagi than Lostridge is.

And we were just talking about Lostridge being signagi.

Yes.

Sorry.

If we're talking about attractions that are at Signagi, pretty much.

You can walk.

You can walk from Signagi.

It's like a 25, 30 minutes walk up the hill, something like that.

You want to walk to Bod bay.

This was the final sort of religious site of Saint Nino who established Christianity, or at least brought Christianity to Georgia.

A jewish lady from Cappadocia who introduced Christianity to Georgia.

Yeah.

In the fourth century.

In the fourth century.

And she had a bit of a life.

The exact length is not fully documented exactly how long she was around.

But during the fourth century, she crossed Georgia a bit and she ended up finally in Signagi.

And there was her final sort of establishment of Christianity.

And she is believed to be, or at least as part of legend, she is buried below the bodbay convent and complex down in the valley near the river.

So not that far.

You can walk down to it if you want to.

And it still is an act of nunnery even today.

Yes.

I think I've mentioned this in past podcast episodes that if you go to a site in Georgia that is an active nunnery, you're gonna get a great garden.

Yeah.

The nuns take good care of the gardens.

Monks are busy making wine or beer, mainly wine in Georgia.

And the nuns are busy making the garden.

Amazing.

Yeah.

So if you really like gardens, then you can always go to a nunnery and you'll be like, oh, this is a pleasant place.

This is nice.

Yeah, it's.

It's very well kept.

During the season, it is very, very busy.

They built, like, a new car park area because they had so many people coming through during the season, so you can expect to see big buses there, which is another reason, if you're staying overnight, you can turn up, like, first thing in the morning before the big buses have really started to overrun the place or go during the winter.

So this was originally a fourth century site, and as with most of the georgian religious sites, they then built more permanent structures later on.

And the structure that's currently there was appropriated by the Soviets because during soviet time, there was no religion and it was turned into a non religious area.

And then after the Soviets left, it's been restored and brought back to its sort of religious status again.

So, yeah, very cool place to go.

Lots of different buildings around it.

It is a full complex.

It's not just one church or anything.

You can spend 20 minutes there, or you could spend an hour and a half there.

If you want to walk down to the little river stream area and see the burial site, or at least the area where it's marked.

There's like a small building down there as well.

It's like the most popular religious site in that area.

Everybody knows about it.

And every tour goes to this site.

Apart from our tour, we are too busy eating and drinking on our tour, and I think the old town itself, in terms of sightseeing and pictures and whatever, is maybe more interesting.

So if you're on a very, very, very quick trip and you don't have 30 minutes to stop there, or you're too busy drinking, which I normally am, then maybe up to you if you're going to stop there or not.

And, yeah, it's a bit too touristy for us as well.

That's another reason we don't like to do really touristy stuff on our itineraries, mainly.

Yeah, it's got to the point where there's sort of, like, little souvenir shops have been set up in the car park and stuff like that now.

It's just a little too touristy for our likings.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

So, anything else on the agenda?

I mean, I think that covers a lot.

It's a very.

It's a very small city, town, place, village, zone.

Satillage.

It's a very small satillage.

So, you know, it is a very brief visit.

But, yeah, great wines.

Some great restaurants that you can visit, go to the museum.

Is there anything else that we forgot?

I mean, yeah, walking around the town itself, going to the craft markets, there's.

A lot of handcraft stuff where women have crocheted different things or local jam spreads and all that sort of stuff.

It'S not going to be the cheapest place to buy this sort of stuff, but it's not overpriced yet.

It's just a always a little bit inflated.

Oh, my goodness.

Do you know what we forgot, Tom?

What?

We forgot to tell everybody.

Why?

It's the city of love.

Oh, we mentioned it in the beginning and then just completely buried that, Lee.

So there is something else on this list.

City of love.

Why is it the city of love?

Well, that is because up until stupid Covid face ruined things, it actually had a 24 hours wedding chapel there.

So, yeah, the Vegas without the Vegas part.

No casinos, but there was a guy.

Dressed in definitely no else money who could marry you.

No, that's not true.

Oh, my God.

No, no, that's not true.

There is not.

Basically, if you're young and in love, or not so young and in love, if you're in love, love is beautiful and you could run off to signagi no matter what time of day and go and get married.

In fact, when we got married, we got married in Tbilisi.

People were shocked that we didn't go to Sagnagi to get married, because it's just what you did.

We got married in 2018.

So now, sadly, after Covid, while the chapel has reopened, it's not 24 hours anymore.

You need to book in advance.

Yeah.

And best to sort out your paperwork in advance, probably in Tbilisi because it's gonna be a bit more efficient.

So do the actual paperwork part and then take all that over to the chapel if you want to get married there.

We've got an article on getting married in Georgia old.

Throw it into the show notes.

If you're feeling a little romantic marriage y marriagey.

If you need to get a bit marriagey, then, yeah, go do it.

That's why it's the city of love.

And also, you know what, there's beautiful, the homes are just, you know, beautiful architecture and it's the cobblestone streets and it's sort of like this fairy tale kind of city, village, place, zone area.

Someone who is being a bit too critical, in my opinion, said it was a bit too Disneyland for them.

No, but it's real.

But it's real.

It's renovated real, though it was in a bit of a state in the early, like, after the soviet era, people.

Are allowed to renovate without it being called Disney.

I know.

I thought that was very unfair.

But if you're wanting that sort of Disney feel of a real old town that has a little bit of that mystic and magic to it, with the mountain views as well.

It is beautiful.

There's something in the air.

When you get to Sagnagi, there's something in the air and you might just be swept up and feel like getting married.

It's not the.

The smell from the edibles or whatever.

The burning edibles.

That's Finetti.

The only edibles is mitzvah.

And that is pork.

Yeah.

And that's good bread.

That's good.

The pork is very good.

And so, accommodation wise, we said there's lots of different places to stay.

Everything from guest houses all the way through to five star hotels, tiny little.

Homestay family places where you're paying sort of $15 a night, or all the way up to.

Yeah, four star.

I wouldn't say there's anything that's genuinely five star in Signagi or in Karketti even.

It's a stretch to say that Sinondale estate is a five star, but not much else is really actually five star, even if it says it is.

I'm ready to be proven wrong.

When someone.

If you open a five star hotel and you think it really is five.

Star, we are waiting to review your hotel.

Yeah, yeah.

Come and prove to me.

Office and email.

I will pop in and tell you.

Whether it's a five star hotel if.

It meets my international five star standards, which currently, Sinondale Estate is the only one that's really close to that.

All right, so, quick roundup.

Practical tips for visiting Signagi.

As we said, you can go there all year round.

Generally, as Tom mentioned, if you go there in the winter, early spring, and on a crisp, beautiful day, that's when you're gonna get some fantastic shots.

Yep.

Also some great views, but you can go any.

Any time of year.

If you are here during the peak summer months, when a lot of tourists do come to Georgia, it's much cooler there.

So, yeah, I mean, it's like three degrees cooler than down in the valley, I guess, something like that.

Ways to get there.

You can book a tour with.

Eat this tours.

Shameless plug signagi tour.

And we also do a signagi winter wine tour, which is focused on.

It's pretty much the same sort of stuff we do on the summer one, except it's focused on the mountain views and the bit of the snow, which obviously we can't guarantee, but where there is often snow and fireplaces.

So if you want a glass of wine by the fireplace or even some mead.

Yeah, well, I wouldn't promise that.

Wasn't one of the family doing mead last year?

Well, no, they were doing mulled wine.

Oh, is that what I meant?

Mulled wine?

And we do like Christmas foods as well, so you actually get to have a short cooking class to learn about a couple of Christmas foods that are made in Georgia.

Even if you're here in March, we still do the Christmas food stuff through until sort of late March, when the snow is starting to melt.

But, yeah, so we've got that.

And the summer tour as well, without those bits, but still all the signagi, all the wine and Supra.

We do Supra at the end of that one.

So if you haven't read about Supra or listened about Supra, go back and listen to one of our episodes on that, because Supra is really fun.

You can, of course, rent a car and drive up there, which a lot of people do.

I don't recommend it.

I think Georgians would be crazy on the road and you're crazy if you try to drive with them, but that's an option.

You can also hire go trip, for example.

You can hire a driver to take you up there for the day.

Go trip is a really great option.

Or you can, if you're really on a budget, you can take a mashuka up there.

They are the blue micro buses.

Some of them are different colors because they're like private ones.

The ones in the Tbilisi city are all been replaced with blue micro buses, mini buses.

But the countryside ones could be anything.

It could be an old bus, it could be a new bus, could be anything.

But they are cramped, but they are very cheap.

They run pretty frequently, I think, from Audachala bus station in Tbilisi.

Yeah.

Auditschala is the bus station, is the way, is where to get the machukas from, and that's the cheapen.

Yeah.

I don't like cheerfulness.

No, it's not cheerful.

I've already been on a few and I've sort of decided not really to do them anymore, but I don't know.

I'm Bougie now.

Yeah, I'm in my forties, I'm Bougie.

I don't do that.

Take the train.

But there's no train.

There's no train to signagi.

Take the train somewhere else.

Yeah.

What we do is we take a tour.

Eat these tours.

Did we mention we.

I think we might have mentioned this.

Did we mention it?

I don't think we did.

Might have mentioned this a little bit.

I mean, at least it means there's no designated driver.

The march shuka doesn't stop at wineries.

Just saying.

Yeah, no, that's a valid point.

All right, so signagi.

It's a place.

So that's it for this episode, I guess.

It's a place that we like.

It's a wonderful place.

That was not my review.

It wasn't.

It's a place.

Two stars.

It's like.

It's a place that we like.

Five stars.

You absolutely should add it to your Georgia itinerary.

There's a reason everyone goes there.

Because it is great.

It's beautiful.

Yeah.

But, yeah, you can do it in a few hours.

You don't need to spend the whole day there.

But we normally stay overnight.

I think it's more pleasant to stay overnight.

Yep.

So I will add the links to different articles and things that we've mentioned in the show notes so you can find all of that in one nice little place.

And you don't have to do too much searching or.

Yeah, basically head to eatthistours.com.

and we've got articles on signagi.

We've got different information about some of our favorite wineries we like to visit in that region.

And also just different information about what you can do in Georgia in general.

Plan your whole trip through our website.

You don't have to book the tour.

We're just giving you information.

Yeah, but you could book the tour if you want to.

I'm just saying.

Do we have a tour company?

I think there's a tour.

Oh, there's a tour.

There might be tours available to signal.

You'll have to go to the website and find out and let me know.

But, I mean, be careful because we will get you a lot of wine and food.

You're gonna be full by the end.

Sorry about that.

That's just what we do.

All right, let's.

Let's stop rambling and wrap up this episode.

Thanks again for listening.

We will hopefully have some more episodes coming out in sometime, at some point.

At some juncture in the future.

But if you're listening, thank you.

We appreciate you and we hope that you'll come back and listen to some more.

Bye for now.

Thanks for listening to the Tibbolissi podcast.

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