We start at our Agriturismo with our sites on hiking to the hill town of Montepulciano. 2.25 kilometers.
We follow the signs for trekkers along roads and paths mainly going up.
We pick up some panini to bring home for lunch and then head back to our Tuscan home.
#LaBruciata, #agriturismo, #tuscany, #montepulciano
The family here at La Bruciata invited us to help pick their grapes on Saturday morning. What fun we had!
The family uses this wine for their own consumption and to serve to their guests.
We drive an hour northeast to visit Cortona. Parking in these hill towns is always a challenge! We pass by Cortona and parking and decide to go a few more kilometers to a hermitage originally started by Saint Francis in 1211. It is a much larger place than we imagined, but they have preserved the original cell of St. Francis.
We visit the beautiful Santa Margarita Church.
We head into the historic center and finally find a place to park. The town is medieval charming and we grab a quick pizza and sit on the piazza enjoying the people.
On the way home we stop at Leuta Winery, recommended to us by Tim’s sister, Bekki. We just happen to find the owner, Denis, available for a wine tasting.
What a fun evening participating in a Tuscan cooking class! I’ll just post some photos and captions.
Arezzo is a city where much of the city was damaged during World War II. We walked the steep streets to the historic center and thankfully much of it was preserved. We visited three main piazzas.
The church of San Francesco contains frescos by Piero della Francesca that tell the Legend of the True Cross.
Judy and I hiked up to Piazza del Duomo. The building of the cathedral began in 1278.
Our next piazza is Piazza Grande. We found out that the movie La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful) was filmed in Arezzo, with a scene here in this piazza.
We took a drive to a tiny town, Oliveto. We thought there was a museum there as it was used as a concentration camp for Italian Jews during WWII. We couldn’t find a museum, but we were greeted by a woman from her window with a cheery, Buona Sera! The town seemed very sparsely populated.
Oliveto home.
After an afternoon siesta we drive to nearby Pienza for the evening. Another beautiful city!
Monday is another beautiful day in Tuscany. We visit Montepulciano this morning. It is a hill town close to our farm stay. It was a delight to walk around town and see the different architecture and enjoy the views.
A delight on our walk was a visit with Cesare Mazzeti. A funny man who enjoys interacting with tourists. He designed and manufactured the viper top of the Duomo in Siena.
We are now in Tuscany at our lovely Agriturismo, La Bruciata. We have been here for three days now.
We picked up our car in Siena and met Tim’s sister, Judy and her husband, Eric at the train station and drive the one hour to our farm stay.
Sunday we drive around the area and visited two small hill towns, Monticchiello and Chianciano Terme. Both had medieval charm with piazzas and walls and views.
We spent the last two nights in Siena. What a beautiful medieval city! There are tall old buildings, narrow curving roads to get lost in, an amazing main piazza and a wonderfully unique cathedral. Not to mention the gelato!
Saint Catherine of Siena is real important here. San Domenico has some relics of her on display along with beautiful artwork.
Just beneath our hotel is the house of Saint Catherine. It has a well decorated chapel and frescos.
The main piazza is Piazza del Campo. It is a gathering place for the residents and the tourists. It is the site two times a year for the famous Palio horse race
The Duomo or cathedral is like no other. The architecture, the floor mosaics, statue and painting are all so amazing.
We were able to go into the baptistery, the crypt and the museum that held the original statues from the exterior and the stained glass window.
We were able to climb to the second to the top level for a view of Siena. Many go to the top, but my fear of heights held me back.
Another day in Rome and this time on E-bikes to go south to the Ancient Appian Way. We bike for about 17 miles.
We have stops along the way to visit interesting historical sites. One is a part of the ancient Roman walls. We were able to climb to the top for some great views.
We travel along the Ancient Appian Way with a good part of it still intact. It was very hard to bike, though. This is a road built by the Romans in 312 BC.
Because the Roman’s could not bury inside the walls, many catacombs line the road. We visited the Catacombs of San Sebastián. It is a huge labyrinth of tomb sites. No photos were allowed.
A highlight on the ride was our tour around the park that has remains of the old Roman aqueduct.
It was a long tiring but enjoyable day. On our walk to and from our tour meeting place we just had to walk around the Colosseum.
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