Montepulciano

This was the first town we explored, set on a hill 13 km away from the nearest town. Our taxi driver was very excited about dropping us off, giving us a rambling commentary on the hills, the vino, the food, you name it, all in Italian. Thankfully, it sounds similar to Spanish & I could catch the gist of the monologue. It looks like a medieval movie set, aside from the modern touches--many, many leather shops & gelatto stores to keep the tourists happy. And happy I was! Two leather bags later....one bright, yellow clutch & another blue satchel, both in soft-as-butter leather you have to keep touching. Jody was satified with the gelatto & somehow managed to resist the leather. I will say she had 3 gelattos a day. But, ya, price-wise, she still wins.

Montepulciano is famous for their red wine named after the town, and another red called Nobile. The surrounding hills also have wild boar roaming, so they are also famous for the "cinghiale" pasta. I dared to try it the first day, fell in love with it & had it every day for a week. Yum. Even bought a tub to bring home. The region is also known for Tuscan white bean soup, which was amazing! The thing about travelling in Italy is, that it literally is going from meal to meal & planning everything else you may attempt to do (like sightseeing) around these dreamy meals. We were both perfectly content to park ourselves in restaurant after restaurant for hours. I'm surprised I'm not 30 pounds heavier than when I left. But....I did manage to exercise, a bit unwillingly, later in the trip, which I will get to later.