After breakfast this morning, we headed out of town with surprising ease and drove to Montelcino in search of Brunello... the wine for which that town is famous. (Montepulciano has it's own claim to fame in the form of Vino Nobile). We drove past golden fields of wheat interspersed with large swaths of sunflowers and olive trees, all held together by rows of cypress trees... making a landscape like a great patchwork quilt. The "quilt" is dotted here and there by large palazzos now turned into tourist accommodations or wineries, and very old churches.
We spent some time exploring Montelcino, and tasting Brunellos. We bought some wine and then headed over to Sant Antimo to the ancient cathedral which houses some of the last Benedictine monks who sing prayers in the form of Gregorian Chants.
The chanting was quite beautiful too!! Eight monks file into the church and sit facing each other in groups of four. They sing back and forth. I don't know how they handle the spiritually-inclined but tone-deaf supplicants.
We stopped for dinner at a family restaurant very close to the Monastery and had some pasta, salad and some mighty wonderful roast pork (sliced so thin you could probably read through it). Lovely dinner! And then we drove back to Montepulciano and only had to retrace our route once before getting ourselves back to the hotel. No pedestrians were actually maimed in the process... although we noticed that one couple lept across the road to get out of our way, leaving their camera on the wall behind them. I can't even imagine what they would have done if I'd been one of those young Italian male drivers careening around the corner on two wheels!
Tonight is our last one in Montepulciano. Tomorrow we head for Montefiascone... our last stop before dropping the car off at the Rome airport.
See you in the morning.
