Marvellous Tuscany - Montepulciano and Sienna

Chester again here, writing from Florence. We've been in Tuscany for a full week since leaving Rome, and it has been a perfect next note in our Italian journey - restful, beautiful and relaxed. 

Montepulciano

After our early morning visit at the Vatican, we picked up a rental car from Rome and white-knuckled our way through Rome and onto the autostrade bound for Tuscany. We were both apprehensive about driving in Italy, but with Nikita navigating and myself behind the wheel and a bit more aggressiveness in asserting ourselves and our vehicle in traffic, we found that driving was not as bad as we imagined. Plus, distances here are relatively short so you never have to drive the mega-distances we are used to on the west coast.

As such, it took us just over two hours to reach our B&B below the hilltop town of Montepulciano, where we would be staying for five nights. The B&B was part of a working winery - Manvi  - so we were surrounded by rolling vineyards and had a beautiful view of Montepulciano. All that plus a swimming pool was exactly what we needed to shake off the overstimulation of Rome.

Pool at the B&B 

The first day we took very easy, relaxing by the pool before heading into Montepulciano for some exploration in the afternoon. We found Montepulciano to be charming and chill, with tourists but not crowds in early June. We enjoyed lunch and read in the park before we did a bit of wine tasting with a great view of the surrounding fields. It was around this point that we realized that we were not going to be finding any of the Montepulciano wine we had seen at home, as that wine as it is marketed in the United States is actually Montepulciano di Abruzzo, so the Montepulciano grape from a completely different area of Italy. Montepulciano's pride and joy is Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, a sangiovese centered blend that we found to be very drinkable and delicious.

Walking to dinner, we were alarmed by an ominous rumble that approached us from behind, not quite like the sounds of motorbikes and delivery vans that we had grown used to. It turned out that rumble belonged to barrels, pushed through the stone alleys of Montepulciano by teams of two joggers/pushers. These women were training for il bravio, a competition originating in the medieval ages that involves teams of two racing through the streets of Montepulciano while rolling a barrel to win victory for their cantrada, or neighborhood. The main festival will be taking place later in the summer long after we are out of Italy, but it was really nice to see a bit of this still living tradition.

 

Our second full day in Tuscany we had recovered our energy so we took off in the car for the day with plans to wander before some more set plans later in the day. We stopped first in Pienza, a famous hilltop town that was a bit more touristy than Montepulciano where we did not do much other than take in the atmosphere and a bit of percorino cheese from a cheese shop. We then continued in the direction of Mount Amiata, getting a bit lost but ending up at a decent spot for lunch.

 

Pienza

 

I'll pause here to do what many visitors to Tuscany feel the need to do at some point and I am no different: talk about how beautiful Tuscany is. It really is something special, with rolling hills of wheat, olive orchards, vineyards and flower fields, it feels like the perfection of rural living and farming. When you add in gentle dirt roads, flower fields, cypress trees, noble villas, dense green forests and rushing rivers, it almost becomes too much. Nikita and I were saying "woooow!" and "beauuuuuutiful!" around almost every curve in Valle d'Orcia, fully understanding why this region has the reputation it does for idyllic, rustic landscapes.

 

 

And what do those landscapes produce? Fantastic olive oil, cheese, beef and most importantly, wine, as we found out at our next stop. With no bookings, we decided to roll up to a winery we found on Google Maps that was well-rated. After arriving and not seeing any of the usual signs of tastings that I am used to (picnic benches, umbrellas, even a sign announcing the winery really), we nearly chickened out. However, soon a kind older gentlemen opened a door and said hello to us, and next thing we knew we were meeting the wonderful family that runs Sesta di Sopra. They were very kind and inviting, bringing us out of the hot Tuscan sun into the family home to enjoy a tasting and tour of the cellar run by Matteo, one of the founders' grandchildren. He was an impeccable host and we enjoyed chatting with him and connecting on his recent visits and time in California. He showed us the steel tanks and oak barrels used to create the wine, then let us taste three of the wines as well as some grappa. Sesta Di Sopra is a producer of the esteemed brunello expression of Sangiovese, and we both found it was delicious and purchased a bottle, sacrificing a small amount of space in our luggage in order to enjoy again later on the trip. This visit was a nice experience for us, and many thanks to Matteo and his whole family for a warm welcome to two overheated and slightly underprepared American visitors.

In the cellars of Sestadisopra

With the tasting done, we zipped further south for an experience that I had found but Nikita was the real target for - alpaca walking. This was a completely random find of mine as I scanned Google Maps for wineries and knew Nikita would be keen on as alpacas are one of her favorite animals. The idea is simple - you walk with alpacas (a pretty exotic animal for Italy considering they originate in the Andes) on a small walk, learning and interacting with the alpacas as you go. Kind of silly, but also, why not?

We arrived and got the safety briefing, finding that we were the only non-Italian speakers in the group of ten or so. Then we were assigned our alpacas. Nikita got the owner's favorite Rudy, while I got Obrio. We led them on 45 minute walk down to the river and back. They were gentle and easy to lead, but much more interested in the tender grasses that were available on the walk than displaying any affection or any attention to us. 

 

No problem - we soon had their attention after the walk when we were able to feed them in their pen, first the females then the much more pushy males. The alpacas were absolute fiends for the small pellets we were given, and we used that to our advantage for photographs. Overall, this was an out-of-the-box experience that we are glad we found.

Much more cooperative photo subjects when you have a handful of pellets!

 

Some excellent portraits by Nikita.

We didn't start the next day with any set plans, but decided to head to Lake Trasimeno for more exploring. Castello di Lago was the starting point, where we had some good sandwiches overlooking the lake and explored town a bit. We then decided to drive around the lake, which if I am being honest was a bit underwhelming compared to my expectations of gorgeous lake views and winding roads. The road was more like an interstate with no views, and the areas we pulled off to get closer to the lake had the feel of a tired resort town past its prime. Also, the lake itself seemed as if it had seen better days as the level was low and the shoreline was mostly mud. I was bummed by this, but as Nikita reminded me, not every day is going to be a winner. If we had known, we would have visited Cortana, which looked lovely when we saw it in Under the Tuscan Sun, which we watched that night.

The lake.

Our last full day around Montepulciano we had a more set plan, starting with the thermal baths beneath Bagno Vignoni. These ancient baths had provided refreshment to travelers for centuries, so we decided to seek them out. We found them pretty easily along a dirt road where a few other people were congregating. They were okay, more like cool ponds than active thermal baths, but wading beneath the thermal formations with castles in the distance was neat. We then headed to San Quirico d'Orcia, yet another charming Tuscan town, for a bit of wandering and lunch. Side note: We have finally figured out that you don't need to eat a full plate of pasta or pizza for lunch, combining various appetizers like prosciutto melon and cheese plates into a lunch is a much better way to avoid a sleepy afternoon.

The baths.

 

 

The landscape surrounding the baths.

A trebuchet in San Quirico that I was very excited about.

The last thing we did around Montepulciano was a wine tasting at our B&B. Our host was very kind in showing us the cellar and presenting three different wines they had produced on site, mostly of the Vino Nobile blend. We had a nice time talking with her about running a winery in Tuscany and her and her husband's transition from the corporate world to the farming world. After the tasting and another glass, we melted by the pool for a bit, soaking in the landscape, before heading for our last dinner.

Sienna

Sienna, like Salerno, was another in-between destination that I didn't know much about other than it looked cool, so I gave us a day here and largely focused my attention on planning bigger stops until we got here. But, again like Salerno, we found we really liked Siena! There is a lot to like at first sight: the fan of the wide, red-bricked piazza campo, the colorful cathedral, and the lively feel on the narrow medieval streets. The first evening, we climbed all the way to the top of the clock tower and took in the views of the whole city before heading to a Chinese restaurant (surprisingly good!) as we had grown weary of the limited menu options in Tuscany. 

 

 

Scenes of and from the clocktower

  

On our only full day in Sienna, we opted for another self-guided audio tour of the city with Rick Steves which allowed us to explore the interior of the Cathedral and the rest of the city at our own pace. Through the tour, I came to appreciate a few more things I did not get at first sight: the rivalries between the different neighborhoods of the city with their animal mascots, the origins of modern banking in Sienna, and the city's role in promoting humanism during the middle ages that led to the Renaissance.  Also, seeing the colorful, almost psychedelic duomo exterior in the late evening light was really special.

 

 

Around the Duomo and inside.

 

 

We capped off the day with a really nice almost private dinner at a small bistro and wandered around for a bit longer. The next morning we left Sienna for Florence, but not before Nikita squeezed in her first yoga class in Italy, something that reminded her of her rhythms back home. 

 

Evening in Siena

 

 

Etc.

 

We are coming up on a couple important milestones in our trip - our departure from Italy and the end of the first month. We can sense the mild crowds and weather of the shoulder season of May and early June slipping away as we transition into the jam-packed and sun-baked midsummer. Based on that change and some of the challenges we faced in Amalfi even in the shoulder season, we have made some changes to our last few days in Italy next week that I am excited about. Still, it will be hard to say goodbye to Italy as it seems like almost every single corner of this country has something worth seeing and we were only able to see small parts of it.

 

As for coming to the end of our first month, time flies! So far things have gone very smoothly, small flashes of stress here and there but we've been able to put our heads together and figure things out. We've been figuring out how to balance things as long-term travelers, reminding ourselves that we will be in a worse position if we give into every indulgence of a vacation (looking at you, gelato and cheap wine), but also that this is a special thing we are doing and we should lean in when it feels right. We will continue to learn as we start changing through countries more quickly soon, something we are ready for. 

 

Check in soon!

Chester 

 

A photo I took on the alpaca walk, modified with AI to look like a Cezanne painting.