The sky was overcast yet again today when we woke up, had breakfast and checked out of our room at the convent in Siena. After retrieving our car from the parking garage, we headed south to Montepulciano, which had come highly recommended by our brother-in-law, Steve. The trip lasted only a couple of hours and was uneventful; I'm getting the hang of this Italian driving! Our Garmin has been screwed up and is very frustrating, to say the least. Up in the Camaiore area, much of the data is missing. On the way from Siena to Montpulciano, however, the Garmin suddenly started showing roads. So the GPS helped somewhat, but Bev's navigating was still the deal-maker as we arrived at our destination shortly after noon. Once again we followed Rick's recommendation and called a phone number he gave for a place with a nice view that was in our price range. We arranged to meet the owner of the Belle Vista at her place, and after she showed us the room with a pretty spectacular view (see video), we took it for the night, got our car from the outskirts of town and parked it in a lot close to the hotel. There were a lot of stairs to climb to our room, so once again we were thankful for not having to haul luggage—even luggage with wheels, up the many steps. Backpacks are truly one of the greatest inventions since the wheel!
After getting unloaded into our room, we had a great lunch at a wonderful Rick-recommended risorante up the street from our hotel, then set out to explore this beautiful little mountain town, where “New Moon” was recently filmed. Late in the afternoon, we stopped for wine-tasting at Contucci winery, where we were charmed by Adamo, and took some photos. We were curious about the church that we could see down the hill from our bedroom window, so we walked down there, took some photos, and went inside to check out yet another really old Italian Catholic church! By the time we climbed the long road back up to our part of the city, it was starting to rain again, lightly, and when we got up to the old part of the city, it was time for dinner. We walked around in the light rain, under our umbrella, looking for what looked like the right spot for a light meal, as we'd eaten a lot early this afternoon. We found a place that was very busy and looked very clean—two key ingredients to a potentially good dining experience! Bev and I each ordered a pizza, and shared a salad. While dining, we quickly realized that we were the only “tourists” in the place, and it was packed—with locals. That's always the sign of a good restaurant. Most were ordering pizza, and for good reason: they were terrific. There's just something about being surrounded by locals—friends and families enjoying Italian meals—that enhances the experience of foreign travel! Even though we can't speak their language, we've gotten used to being imbedded with the locals, and much prefer that to being surrounded by a hoard of American tourists.
We purposely over-ordered, by each ordering our own pizza, since pizza makes for a great lunch on the go the next day! By this time, we'd eaten more than our share, and had several good up-and-down hill walks under our belts for the day, so we headed back to our room and called it yet another good night in Italy!
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