The sun was shining this morning in Florence as we packed up for our next part of the trip.
There were lots of people out and about enjoying the weather, biking and running. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and drove out of town in the direction of Siena with the hilltop town of Montepulciano our destination for today. The route out of Florence took us up into the hills on the Oltrearno side of town by the Pitti Palace and then into the Tuscan countryside. We passed lots of wineries and farms, a bike race and some very heavy industrial zones. When Sara spotted San Giminigano from the highway we decided to take a detour and stop there to look around. It was quiet and parking was easy so we spent an hour or so walking around and even had a gelato because the sun was out and it has warmed up considerably.
We got to admire all the towers and medieval alleys pretty much by ourselves. Sara also made this classic Cinecitta tribute short video
Leaving San Giminigano we got back on the highway, passing by Siena and Volterra on our way to Montepulciano. When we got into town our super nice Airbnb host, Lucca met us and caravanned with us up to the apartment because it’s in a restricted traffic area. This town is so cool and the apartment location is great. You enter the town about halfway down the hill and the walls enclose the rest of it around the top of the hill. The apartment is on the edge of town so the view out the windows is down onto the valley and smaller hills.
Also, one of the big cantinas producing vino Nobile (the local wine) is literally across the street from the front door. We walked around a little and had lunch in at a very nice place called Le Lodge di Vignola. The plan was to eat dinner in but all the grocery stores in town are closed because it’s Sunday afternoon so we will probably have a light dinner out. Tomorrow the plan is to take a drive through the surrounding country and visit a winery in the afternoon.