Montepulciano, Tuscany

We had decided we wanted to spend more time in Tuscany, instead of travelling all the way down to the Amalfi coast for basically one day of sight seeing, so we parted company with Mary and Dick who were very keen to see the Amalfi coast and headed off into the Tuscan hills instead.

The bus for Montepulciano left from the train station (not the bus station) - so we were told. Getting clear information on these sort of matters is sometimes difficult, but it turns out our source was correct, and as a bus with the sign 'Montepulciano' roared past the station we slung our bags into the hold, jumped in and headed off with a big group of school kids out into the country side. The kids all gradually got off as we wound our way though the hills and villages and finally our bus stopped at a big bus stop - from where we could see Montepulciano perched on the hill above us. We followed the others on board and got onto a little bus (then off again to go and buy a ticket, then on again, luckily it was still there ..... but as we found out, things move pretty slowly at Montpulciano, which suited us fine).

Michael's dream was to have a room with a view over the Tuscan coutryside. The hotel was called 'Bellavista', but we weren't too sure. We found the hotel, pressed on the buzzer and were over the intercom told the key was in the door of room 3, and the outer door electronically opened. We lugged the bags up a flight of stairs, opened the door and tentatively threw back the shutters - to display the most magnificent view across the Tuscan countryside. We were perched up the top of a steep hill, looking out onto farms, hills and mountains in the distance. It was beautiful.

The weather was closing in though and it started to drizzle as darkness set in. We set off to dinner at a restaurant recommended in the book (La Cantucci) but it was full, so we said we'd return the next night. Instead we ended up downstairs at Cafe Metropolitana, where we had a beautiful meal of local cold meats and pecorini cheeses, followed by a great shared ravioli and shared potted rabbit.

We woke in the morning to find the valleys below shrouded in mist, which gradually cleared as the sun rose higher in the sky. A guide book we had read in Siena ('Rick Steve's Tuscany' - more on Rick later) had sort of recommended Camere Bellavista "if all else fails you can always fall back on Camere Bellavista, but be sure to ask for Room 6 which has a balcony". So we dutifully asked for room 6 and were able to move there the next morning. It did indeed have a balcony - over the old gate to the city! With an absolutely sumptious view. Thanks for the hint Rick. The first of many from him in the week to come ......

After changing rooms, we set off on foot to explore the surrounding coutryside. So down, down, down out of Montepulciano, then off on a small road leading to Montefalconi - we think. There were hardly any signs, but it was a beautiful walk along a twisting road, then revealed gorgeous new panoramas every few hundred metres. We walked for several hours out along the road, then back again. See the photos.

We returned to our new room with balcony for a bit of a light, late lunch and a good rest, and a sit on our terrace to watch the sunset, before another delcious meal - this time at La Cantucci. It was an old fashioned trattoria, where we had a good meal, but not as outstanding as the night before.

The next day we set off for another walk, but not such an ambitious one, as we had to do business first - such as booking the bus and train to Rome the next day. The helpful lady in the tourist information station told us there would be a bus strike the next morning, so we couldn't leave town until 12.40, which would only give us 10 minutes to make our connection at Chiusi with the train to Rome! When we returned up to town we had a wander and bought a roll and some sausage from a liitle shop. It was the most enormous mortadella - almost a metre long and half a metre wide - in this little shop in a little town - it was a bit incongruous. But it seemed that it was THE mortadella shop, perhaps THE sauasage shop as there was a continuous queue of people lined up waiting for the lady to hack a few slices off - it was too big for any slicing machine.

Late that afternoon the rain really poured down and a storm swept up the valley. We were so high up in our room that we could look down on the poor pidgeons circling in the air below, being buffetted by the wind and almost going backwards as they attempted to find safe refuge from the storm. The rain had stopped by about 8.00pm and we picked our way along the wet cobbled streets to another fine restaurant - which the restautanteur had literally dragged us into the evening before and introduced us to a young American couple eating there, who told us it was the best place they'd eaten in Italy. Sure enough we had a very fine meal (we had desert for a change - tiramisu and zabliogne - delicious), accompanied by the restauranteur breaking into operatic arias every now and then.