Montepulciano

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Montepulciano

It was a quick train ride to Montepulciano - truth be told the train station was actually in a town called Chiusi, which was about 20kms from Montepulciano. We were actually staying in a little town called Chianciano which was was smack bang in the middle between Chiusi and Montepulciano and we had to take the bus - I'm sure you'll be surprised to know that there were a few dramas getting to our hotel once again, including a little issue in that we thought Chiusi was actually Chianciano, which created a large amount of disorientation, but I wont bore you with those details again... Needless to say a good lesson was finally learnt - not a lot happens on Sundays in regional Italy and public transport is pretty minimal.

It was quite overcast when we arrived and by the time we got to our hotel, it was bucketing down. We decided quite early on that we would stay an extra couple of days, mainly due to the weather, but when we asked our hotel if we could stay there, they told us that they were actually closing down for the winter as of the next day. So we found a place just down the road that we could stay an extra couple of days that looked ok (turned out to be one of the best moves ever!) and we booked that. We went for a bit of a walk - I'm sure the other guests and the hotel staff thought we were mad walking around in the rain, but oh well. As I said earlier, not a lot happens on Sundays in Italy so the it was like a ghost town, but very nice. We had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed.

The next day the weather was pretty much the same. We wandered down to our new hotel for some very nice surprises. When we walked in, the lady at reception said "Mr Longmore? Oh... we've actually upgraded your room". "No problems", I replied. "Also included in the price of the room is entry into our day spa, which is a relaxation pool". What was I going to say? You little ball tearer! Once again - could not believe our luck. So we settled in, went for another walk this time to do some washing and it was pi$$ing down. The dude at the laundry seemed quite pleased that he could practice his English on us and told the other customers about Crocodile Dundee when he found out we were from Australia. He also seemed to think that we'd never used a washing machine in our entire lives and proceeded to outline what to press, how long each cycle would take and what to do while we were waiting. Very nice bloke.

Anyway by the time we got back to the hotel the relaxation spa was open, so we got in our bathrobes and shower caps (mandatory to wear while in the pool- the caps not the robes), and headed on down. The pool had different coloured lights, music and different kinds of spas going. Very very relaxing. They also had some rosehip tea to drink to assist in the relaxation process. After they had kicked us out, kicking and screaming, we had some dinner and went to bed.

The next day was finally the big day - we were heading into Montepulciano. We got the bus down after breakfast and walked up about 100 stairs to the heart of the old section of the town. This place was amazing - an ancient walled city, the streets were all cobbled and very small, and filled with wine cellars. We walked around the town for a while (visiting the sights of New Moon), including a stop at the Redi Cellar, which was an ancient wine cellar. You walked about 25 metres underground and found these massive wine barrels (some were twice the size of me in height). There were ancient wells and little passages everywhere - luckily a lot of them were blocked off though, otherwise we would have been lost down there. Pretty cool stuff.
After that we decided to do a wine cellar crawl and take up some of the free wine tasting that was on offer throughout the town. Damn the wine was good - mind you, probably not as good as Markos from Cinque Terre, but it was more red than white. We also sampled some very nice breads and cheeses. A lot of the places gave you the chance to tour their wine cellar, and a lot were similar to the Redi Cellar in that they were quite low underground, and very very old. There were some amazing sights. We finally had to say goodbye though and caught the bus back to Chianciano and heading back to the spa for another dose of relaxation.

The next day we had to catch the train to the coastal town of Livorno to catch a ferry to Spain, but not before a trip to the relaxation spa and a very hearty breakfast. It was very tempting to stay in Chianciano until the start of December but we managed to drag ourselves away - next stop Barcelona!

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