Assuming that you’re already in Sofia and want to make a one-day tour to some place that would offer to you some strong taste of Bulgaria – seeing the second largest town in the country – Plovdiv is a must.
A town situated on seven hills, as Rome itself, and maybe older than this famous city . It’s uninterrupted journey through the ages, starts far back in the Thracian times under the name of the Thracian king Evmolpias.
Fiercely attempting to subdue the freedom loving and highly skilled warriors, as the Thracian were, the father of Alexander the Great – Phillip came here in the 3-d century B.C. takes the town of Evmolpias- for some time.
But what lasted eternally was the name of Alexander’s father, which he gave to the town in the form of Phillipopolis (meaning the town of Phillip). The name survived till now day through Thracian translation as Pulpudeva and later Slavic pronunciation as Plovdiv.
Not only the name of the town, but every step of the territory of the present day central part bears the evidences of its continuous existence during at least 25 centuries. Here the restored remains of the  Roman theatre coexist with the fairy-tail living houses of 17-19-th century residents of the Old town(some built upon the remains of the Roman fortress walls) and medieval churches.
And if you have already visited the wine houses and restaurants  in the Old town of Plovdiv, and want to get more in depth familiar with the local tradition in wine production and see and learn more about those who started this tradition decades of centuries B.C.- the legendary and mystical Thracians, there are at least two possibilities to do this in the beautiful vicinities of Plovdiv.  That’s about what may two following proposals are:
the village of Brestovitsa (about 20 km. from Plovdiv) and the village of Starosel (some 45 km from Plovdiv).

So, suppose you have two short winter (November-March)  days in Plovdiv, or at least one long, like never ending  day  of summer generosity, as they are here on the Thracian valley, where Plovdiv lays, from the beginning of June to the middle of September- Go and see two very important things for Bulgaria – a Thracian tomb and a wine tasting facility, which means production and restaurant and hotel complex- all these in the village of Starosel  - some 45 km. to the north west of Plovdiv. And “north” here means, that traveling only a short distance you find yourself from the hot valley right at the foot of the biggest mountain on the Balkan peninsula – the Balkan mountain. The two Thracian tombs at Starosel, discovered in 2008 belong to the family of other about 1000, dispersed through the present territory of Bulgaria, and mainly in the region a little bit to the east of Plovdiv- on the so called “Valley of Thracian kings”. Only about 300 of these domed structures  have been so long researched, the Starosel Tomb being the only example built using columns. Being tombs and ritual places for the ancient people (most numerous after the Indians, according to Herodotus) these structures were for the Thracian some sort of “doors” for the dead to step through, with body and soul,  entering  another dimension. For us, they offer a door to look into their surprising and amazing understanding of Cosmos. One of the “surprising” things is that the wine that was widely known and produced by the Thracians was at first place an object of their ritual performings. And only as a “secondary use” they drank it themselves and sold it to the besieged  brave Trojans . You could taste some sorts of local and common wines here in Starosel.