There is a lot of hype about Sighnaghi.

Approximately 100 km southeast of Tbilisi, overlooking the fertile valleys famous for their grapes and facing the awesome Greater Caucasus mountains, Sighnaghi is one of those places that you hear a lot about as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Because it is in the heart of wine country, it has become the government’s darling of the wine tourism industry, receiving buckets of money for improvements, beautification and marketing. As a result, it is indeed very nice… and also unlike most other cities in Georgia.

Sighnaghi's Town Center

The powers that be have done a very nice job of making Sighnaghi warm and inviting. It is a quaint and cozy place. Nicely paved cobblestone streets, lamp posts whose lights all shine brightly, Georgian and international restaurants, hotels and guest houses, statues, a nice museum, street vendors, churches. People don’t stare at you blankly.

Even though the city as whole is not what I would call “authentic” Georgia, a couple of things stand out as genuine. For one, the surrounding nature is truly gorgeous:

The natural beauty of the Caucasus mountains is stunning. They appear to be rising out of a sea... except there is no sea.

The view from atop a stone wall surrounding the city.

The other “real deal” was, quite surprisingly, the Mexican restaurant. That’s right — a small little place down a side street in a southeastern Georgian town serving up pretty damn good Mexican food, fresh and made-to-order.

A pretty decent burrito and tomato salad. Not pictured: the mouth-on-fire HOT and really delicious habanero salsa. Yes - real habaneros. So good I brought the leftovers back halfway across the country to Akhaltsikhe in a plastic cup covered in saran wrap.

Sipping fresh sangria out of glasses with umbrellas. Where are we?

It was a quick trip — less than 24 hours — but the four of us had a great time. It was refreshing to sneak away to a quiet corner of the country after the busyness of the all-Volunteer conference. The hosts at our guest house were some of the most genuinely hospitable people I’ve met in Georgia, and that’s saying something in a country known for hospitality. Plus, we even got to hole up in our warm and toasty room that night to watch the Hawkeyes bring the hammer down on the Boilermakers.

Partly because it is so different than the rest of the country, and partly because in spite of that it still manages to have its own kind of authenticity, Sighnaghi — nicknamed “The City of Love” — is someplace special.

See more pictures here.