Tuscany 3. Into southern Tuscany

some classic Tuscan countryside -
Stone pines, vines and a dilapidated redbrick farmhouse

 
 

Having walked downhill being dragged by our suitcases out of Assisi back to 
the carpark, we set course for Montepulciano via a picnic lunch on the edge of Lake Trasimeno. It was quite hot now around lunchtime and I estimate that it was about mid 20’s C, high 70’s F.

a town gate and our house right next to it

chillin' out in the living room of our house

The house we had rented had a large ground floor room which was kitchen, dining and living area all in one with a very high ceiling. Bedrooms and bathrooms were on upper floors and like most of the accommodation we’ve stayed in on this trip, idiosyncratic is the word which springs to mind. It was spacious and importantly had a good sitting area where we could all sit together. Restaurants and shops were close by and we chose what was described as a wine bar but was really a smart restaurant with a proper wine bar where they really knew what they were talking about (I think). The wines being sold by the glass, twenty or so, were all in temperature controlled cabinets around the restaurant. We chose various ones by the glass, generally various Montepulciano wines. The differences were all explained by our waiter and when Heather wanted a second glass, she asked a different waiter and tried to explain what it was. He just picked up her glass sniffed it and said “I know what this is” and came back with the right wine. We were impressed.

quite a wine bar

a very traditional doorknocker

Montepulciano is a beautiful mid sized walled Tuscan town, much smaller than Assisi but bigger than say Pienza. I know that won’t mean much to you but even here traffic is largely excluded and the special buses are now only two passenger seats wide. Any smaller and we’ll be expecting motorised roller blades with seats. Montepulciano is like many of the old towns, built on a hill for defensive purposes when medieval city states went to war with each other. Not unexpectedly, we had to park outside and drag our bags uphill to the house we’ve rented which is right next to one of the old city gates and seems to have been built as a replacement for part of the old wall. This meant that we had tremendous elevated views over the rolling Tuscan countryside from the house. In the early morning the position of Lake Trasimeno could be identified by the low mist hanging above it which burnt off pretty quickly once the sun was up and about. The town wasn’t built on a handy level plain on top of a hill, inside the walls it was still pretty hilly with steps in various places. One narrow alley heading uphill we saw had a spiral staircase at the end where it was just too steep for a slope or a standard set of steps.

not the 'no pizza' restaurant but we had a very good meal here

At the highest part of the town was the town square with an impressive campanile or belltower with narrow steps to the top. At the bottom of the stairs was a sign which read “Not suitable for persons of a wide berth”. This day seemed to be some sort of celebration and if I was a travel writer with a team of researchers I probably would have known what it was but we never did find out. I did see a marching band walking somewhere early on when I was on an abortive mission for breakfast croissants and later there was a big market at the bottom of the town. Perhaps other things were happening and we never saw them.

the Piazza Grande at the top of the town

early morning with mist over Lake Trasimeno in the distance
 and unusually only a single swift high in the sky

By now I think we’d all realised that we were moving too often and we weren’t in Montepulciano for more than a couple of days before we were on the move again, this time to Siena. The problem wasn’t just packing up every time but that by the time we’d checked out, driven even a relatively short distance, checked in and had a break, most of a day had flown by. With that in mind, our route to Siena was deliberately chosen to be on small cross country roads and we saw some delightful classic Tuscan scenery before we dropped the car off on the outskirts of town and got a taxi to our Siennese hotel.

Heather relaxing before we left

the 'jam the luggage in the boot' crew

After arrival we decided to have some lunch near our hotel and because we were two or three miles from the city centre we weren’t paying tourist prices. So instead of the ‘normal’ price of about 15 Euros for a simple pasta and tomato sauce, it cost me 5.50 Euros. A day later, a good pizza here cost me 8 Euros, instead of about 15.

Bonnie had been unwell for some time and we didn’t know what was wrong so at this point Heather, a much better organiser than she believes, took her to a local hospital. They couldn’t find a taxi so went by bus although I still don’t know how they managed it. After several hours of examination, blood tests and a chest X-ray, a doctor told Bonnie that he usually dealt with people who were seriously ill or dying and whatever she had, she wasn’t going to die. Heather and Bonnie hadn’t realised beforehand but there was no charge for the consultation, tests or his best graveside manner. They did manage to get a taxi back though. We found out later that had they gone to a private facility the charge would have been around 300 euros.

Bonnie and that hospital

while they were at the hospital, Newt and I were
each forced to get ourselves outside one of these

30 April - 2 May 2025