Brunello, Vino Nobile and Gregorian Chants

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.

Mueble Evoe, Montepulciano

So, true to our plan, we've spent today roaming the streets of this beautiful town.  Here are some of the sights:

The Sax Wine Bar:  we had lunch here on the first day while we were walking and completely lost

                                            The 13th Century Cathedral on the Piazza Grande

                                               The craft street again...  imagine driving through this!!!!

                                            Church seen from the walls of Montepulciano

                                               Houses outside the main walls

                                                            More hills!!!!!  They are everywhere.

                                                       Geraniums against the ancient walls

                                                                                                                                                                                 The Piazza Grande (a tad less grande with the concert apparatus)

                                                        Our room at the Meuble Evoe

It's true that the room here doesn't have the excessive opulence of the previous one, but it's comfortable and has everything we need.  Also, the family who runs it is warm and genuinely concerned with our comfort.  Plus, their restaurant is rated #4 out of 35+ Montepulciano restaurants on TripAdvisor, and locals rave about it....  Perfect!

Our arrival into Montepulciano

This is a walled village, slightly larger than the places we've been so far, that I have loved for a long while.  And I knew that it would be a challenge to A) find the hotel  and B) drive to a hotel-specified parking space.  That's because the streets are a maze of one-way only lanes the width of hiking trails.  OK.  So we got here probably around noon, parked the car in public parking outside the walls,  and began following the arrows to our hotel:  the signs looked serious and helpful until you tried to guess which street the arrow was actually pointing to.  And for an added challenge, the hotel where we planned to stay had a very small sign, and the restaurant beneath it had a different name entirely.  So we got a lot of hiking in before finally entering a restaurant to ask directions and finding out that it was indeed THE restaurant.  So, shock all around I'd say.  But the games hadn't even begun...  because then the owner drew on a tourist map how we should negotiate the warren of one-way streets in order to finally arrive in front of the hotel.  Honestly, I was concerned...  having been caught up in this town more than once.  But we set out, found the car and began our assault upon the streets of Montepulciano.  I can not adequately describe in words how narrow, steep, and sharply angled these lanes are.  And add to that the fact that hoards of people are walking in them, not to mention the street vendors who take up at least 1/3 of the width in many places.  Well anyway, we got ourselves almost there three times, but ended up in various other locations/predicaments.  The worst was this:  driving actually through a lengthy craft fair with just enough room to miss swiping the wares off the tables with the car mirrors.  The street narrowed and narrowed, with stall proprietors having in some cases to move their seats out of our way.  We ended up in a church parking lot and then had to walk back down through the fair to see how we might get free from  the position in which we found ourselves (with the least threat to the life and limb  of the inhabitants).  Finally we did find a way through and got to the designated parking space.  Our reward was a Gin and Tonic, and I don't mind admitting that even thinking of moving the car from its current position gives me hives.  We've agreed to just walk around this town tomorrow while we recover.

                                     This is the craft-show street that we drove down!!

I

San Gimignano and surprising evening entertainment

Yesterday (Friday the 8th of July) we drove to the medieval walled village of San Gimignano.  The road there was very twisty, and sane people would drive cautiously , particularly around  blind curves.  But that sort of driving seems to be particularly irksome to most young male Italian  drivers whose style seems to be to pass everything in sight especially on blind curves, and all of this is preceded  by tailgating as closely as possible.  This would be driving as a Grand Sport I guess.  At any rate, I kept pulling off to let the sports by as quickly as possible, and even then got the universal gesture for "you are an idiot" more than a few times.  All of this ate into my tension-free,  bon-vivantness a little bit...  but it was nothing a little hiking up and down nearly vertical hills in San Gimignano couldn't cure. 

Presumably a few pictures are in order:

The main square, with something in the middle that was maybe the town well

We ate lunch here

Remains of my salad, so that those concerned about my rich dietary intake can rest a bit easier

View from a park at the top of the village

So it's  beautiful, right?  It's also small.  And it's apparently on every tourist's "must see" list.  Therefore, there are many parking lots (good idea) that ring the town (because of course it's medieval and has no room for parking "inside").  You park, mog around in more than 90 degree heat for a few hours, and then begin to look for your car.  Hmmm, down this street?   No.   Hike back up.  Maybe here?  Hike MANY places up and down before locating the parking lot where your specific car is baking in the sun.  Congratulate self that you did not suffer a fatal coronary attack, and get back on the twisty road for more driving games with the young Italians. 

We rested up a bit when we got back to Castellina, and then went to see an open-air rendition of "Rent", all in Italian of course.  This was a fabulous experience!!  I was fortunate enough to have seen it in New York, and this one was really cast well... and was very very good.  And the Italian-ness shone through too:  largely in the costuming and gesturing.  It was such a fun thing to witness, and to sit under the stars.  This will form a good memory for me for always, I think.

A few more pictures of the place where we are staying:

The Palazzo Squarcialupi from the "street" outside

The Mural Room and one of the Wi-Fi locations

The palatial common living room

Breakfast buffet with everything you could imagine

The beautiful jacuzzi in the spa area

The pool

And all of this oppulance in one of the most beautiful settings imaginable, and all for 118 euros per night!!  Very much amazing, methinks.

The Principessa in her castle

We are now in Castellina en Chianti, at the Palazzo Squarcialupi Hotel.  But before I show you the place, let me tell you about the trip over. 

We took it very easy, driving on small county roads and stopping wherever it looked like there would be good pictures.  In this way, we found ourselves in Radda for lunch, and wound our way into Castellina around 3pm.

                                               A viewpoint between Greve and Radda

                                                    First medieval walled village sighting

                                                                         Radda en Chianti

                                                                  View from Radda

                                                     Town walls from the 11th century

Castellini has a Centro Storico closed to drivers for most of the day...  only opened to permitted cars two hours in the morning  and two hours in the afternoon.  This is because the streets are impossibly narrow, with no sidewalks.  The Medievals didn't have clarvoyant city planners, apparently.  Of course I booked a place right smack in the middle of the old part.  So we ended up getting to negotiate the car through a cobbled, narrow lane jammed with tourists in order to drop off the luggage.  This was an interesting exercise in patience and good humor.

The Palazzo Squarcialupi is magical, I think.  It is a huge old Palace, now turned into beautiful rooms and huge, palatial living room spaces.  There is a pool in the back, and an amazing spa in the caverns beneath the hotel.  Eileen, who checked us in, saw that I had booked a double-bedded room (standard rate)(because there was no twin option when I booked) and upgraded us immediately to a twin room.  While we waited for it to be ready, she brought us beer to drink on a patio with the most amazing views towards green rolling hills, old villas, vineyards, etc.  When we got to the room, it turned out to be like a royal apartment!!  It is huge and beautiful, and we just stood there with our mouths hanging open!  Here are some pictures, but they don't really capture the beauty of the place:

Room entrance

Living room portion

                                                               The regal twin beds

Amazing, huh??  My mother would say, "I wonder what the poor people are doing??"

Anyway, not surprisingly we decided to get some simple food from the Deli and eat in last night... which is what we did. 

As I write this, it's early morning here, the next day.  There are two Wi-Fi spots in the hotel:  a huge living room upstairs, and the bar area on the bottom floor.  I am in the latter, sitting facing the view of green hills.  The "e's" are not plentiful here, rather like in Venice.  Last night we had just a few minutes before being kicked off (hence you find me here in the deserted bar area at 6am). It's possible the posts will taper off for a few days.  I just didn't want you to think that I had suffered a premature death from gluttony and overeating.

The Angel of Espresso just brought me a small cup of it...  how totally wonderful!!! 

Today we will be visiting small villages around here and I will report back as I can.

Food Mecca Emporium Extrordinaire

Gallo Nero in Greve en Chianti

I mentioned this place last night, and indeed I was lucky enough to eat there two nights in a row.  They are just fabulous!  It's a family-run place presided over by Nanna in the kitchen.  She apparently does all the cooking and believe me, it's amazing.  The sweet and always smiling grandchildren serve.  Tonight we had wild boar tagliatelle, gnocchi verde (spinach and lemon potato/flour dumplings in a creamy sauce, fillet of beef cooked over a wood fire with spinach and grapes, plus a rich brown sauce over all, and panna cotta with caramel (Dawn) or chocolate (Diane).  And the ever-popular house wine which comes in bottles.  I tried to remember to take pictures before diving in, but as you will see I was a bit blinded by the food excellence.

Gnocchi verde


Tagliatelle with wild boar

Beef filet with spinach and grapes

Panna Cotta with caramel

Panna Cota with chocolate

Sweet dreams!