So this morning we left for Orieveto, Umbria where we took a funicular up this huge hill where the village is located. Many of the small towns are built on top of hills and it was strategic locations like this that were important to the security of the townspeople. A huge horizontally striped-in-stone church dominates the town square. I mean a huge church! We walked around the town and its quainr shops but I passed on the 87 steps down to the well where the inhabitants would go in the old days to draw water. Then they would have to go up the 87 steps with the water to carry it home. The streets are cobbled and steep everywhere, the locals are probably very fit and they pretty well have to drive small cars to be able to drive down some of the streets which were made for a cart and horse.
From here we drove to another town on a hill, Montepulciano, where we visited a real cave wine cellar. The cave was used by the Estruscans in centuries BC as shelter in the hills, then as the Romans moved in, dwelling were built upon the caves and the town on the hill developed. We had a tour of the Di Nobile Wine Cellar and saw the early caves. They are quite proud of this history. The oak barrels are huge and there are a total of 130,000 liters of wine made and stored here. The bottles retail for about $20 to $40. I asked about the barrels and they last about 90 years according to the owner. We then went up to a plate of cold cuts and cheese with four different wine parings It was great and this was lunch. I now know about "legs" of a wine, the bouquet and the different taste centres in a mouth. We all had our favourites of the four wines. The last was a sort of |Italian Ice Wine", they leave the grape on the vines for the cool weather and then let it sit further to develop the flavour. This was paired with a piece of chocolate made in the town from only chocolate and sugar, no cream and nothing else. Paired with the wine it was sublime. We rolled out of there and had to climb down narrow cobbled streets that were steep - very slowly. This was in the heat of the afternoon
Once we checked in at Chianciano, Debbie and I went down to the Spa as they have thermal waters here and we did the jets at the warm pool, then the aromatherapy showers, then we stayed a long time in the Turkish steam baths, from there a cooling shower and then into the Silent Room to lie down. I could have slept, we were so mellowed by the waters and the steam. But we had a dinner this evening with the group and so we went off again to get all fresh and dressed up - Debbie had a dress and dummy here did not even pack a long skirt (which I though I did) as lots of the women are wearing the casual long summer skirt here. I don't know what I was thinking.
We had a traditional Italian dinner with vino of antipasta, pasta and the main course and a delicious panna cotta with fruit. I am going to try this dessert at home sometime. If one like pudding-type desserts it is very good and not sweet. I think one can decrease the sugar even more.We had a great dinner and conversation and tomorrow we are travelling to Siena and San Gimignano with our next three nights in Viareggio.
I did see some birds from the bus today and will have to look these up in my Birds of Europe bird guide that I brought from home. Oh yes, I saw olives on trees today almost ready for the picking.
So another wonderful day, with lots of walking again but today with steep climbs and descents.
Barb & Debbie
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