Our last photo of Tuscany, which I'm ending with not because of the beautiful buildings, but because I think Somchai looks like a movie star here. Isn't he adorable?



Well, to finish up the trip, Somchai left to visit some friends in Vancouver very early the next day, while I had to go later that day for a business trip to New York. Unfortunately, a nearly perfect trip ended badly due to Lufthansa, the world's surliest airline (excluding the US airlines of course). The Lufthansa flight from Rome left a couple hours late, but I ran through the Frankfurt airport to get my connecting flight, which I missed by about a minute. I was greeted by a nasty Lufthansa employee who shook her head and gave me a tsk, tsk, tsk, like it was my fault their flight was late. She then informed me that the connecting flight had told them I was coming, but they couldn't hold the plane for connecting passengers. This is strange, because I've been on at least 14,000 flights that have been delayed for late connections, but the one time I needed a one minute delay, I got a reprimand instead. So I got to spend the night at a godawful airport hotel in Frankfurt, and headed to New York the following day.

Walking around the town, it looked like lots of the houses were missing their facades as well, so maybe it was considered fashionable back in the day. I actually like the look on the houses, but it's very depressing on a cathedral.



Montepulciano is also famous for its wine, which sits between brunello di Montalcino and Chianti in terms of prestige. There's certainly a lot more of it than of brunello, judging by the prevalence of wine shops. But the wine shops we visited was quite attractive, and the owner very knowledgeable about all the reasons that montepulciano actually makes the best wine in the world.

I'm sure you're tired of hearing this, but the views up on the walk were stunning, pure Tuscany. Here are the last photos of the Tuscan hills I'll be inflicting on you.

82. Montepulciano

Montepulciano is the largest town in the area, and situated on the biggest hill as well. We started our visit outside the town at the base of the hill, where the quite stunning church of San Biagio is for some reason located. This was a high renaissance church, but was unfortunately never finished. We then walked up the steep hill and through the gate into the bustling town.

We dipped into the village and found a nice restaurant specializing in cacio, the local sheep's cheese, which was used liberally on all dishes, in every course. We then walked off all that cheese along the town wall, then hit the van for our last stop.

The piazza contains what is supposed to be the perfect Renaissance cathedral, decorated with the pope's family's coat of arms, plus a palace for the pope next door for his visits to his pet project. It may be very nice artistically but it wasn't designed well. It's built on an eroding cliff so there are cracks all over the walls that have to constantly be patched up, and there's a strong sulfur stench that comes up from the ground occassionally. The palace was closed the day we were visiting, so we had a shorter than usual visit.

Montalcino is the producer of the world famous brunello di Montalcino wine, definitely Tuscany's best and among the top two or three in Italy. We bought a few bottles from the wine shop set up for tourists inside the castle, so I'm sure we got a very competitive price. We then walked around the nooks and crannies of this hilly town for a while, and headed for our next town.

We climbed to the top of the castle for absolutely stunning views of the town and the surrounding hills, still wrapped in morning mist. It was a long climb, and when we got to the top, Somchai realized he had left the camera in the car and couldn't decide if he should go back and get it. So I pleaded, "but what about the blog?!" so he went back down and up again for the blog's sake. (And yes, that is what we all learned in high school english class was an anachronism.)

80. Montalcino

Our last day in Tuscany, and also one of the best. Met up with Sylvio and his van in the morning, and drove southeast to Montalcino, probably my favorite town in Tuscany. The town was annexed by Siena in the thirteenth century, and this formidable fortress was built to defend the town. When Siena fell to Florence in 1552, the Sienese nobles fled here, and governed a make believe Siena in Exile for a few more years until Florence finally annexed Montalcino, its last conquest.

From the back and inside the cathedral looks more typically Italian. It's a big barnlike structure that was tinkered with over six hundred years, so it doesn't really look like any particular style. We then walked back to the train station, and headed back to Florence.

The city, like Volterra, was run by a warrior bishop, but was annexed by Florence in the 14th century. The Medici then plopped a big fortress across from the cathedral to keep things under control. Strangely, this nexus of political and religious power is at the edge of the city, on the crest of the cliff. The area has now been turned into a very English looking park, and the cathedral has even been given an English belltower, although I don't think there's any connection to England. The park provides expansive views, and apparently only one bench for four strangers to share uncomfortably.

We had lunch at a nice outdoor cafe, with a memorably friendly waiter,then climbed around the city's medieval streets. Most of them were pedestrian only, and lined with lots of antique shops.

79. Arezzo

Today, Sunday, didn't go as planned as well. We were planning on hanging around Florence, cafe hopping, shopping, generally living La Dolce Vita. Unfortunately, it was raining and everything's closed on Sunday, so we reverted to Plan B, a train trip to Arezzo. Arezzo is about 1 1/2 hours east of Florence, our only foray into eastern Tuscany. It was surprisingly lively for a provincial town, especially on a Sunday. The entire town is built on a slope, with the train station at the bottom, the main piazza pictured here in the middle, and the cathedral and castle at top, whereupon it falls off a cliff. The piazza is sloped as well, and surrounded by elegant 15th century buildings.

The town actually had two rings of walls originally, but the residents eventually filled in the area between the walls with their homes. So the town assumed its current donut shape, just one circular cobbled road surrounded by cobbled homes, with the church sitting in the middle. We walked around the circle twice, without hearing or seeing any signs of life, so the town had a certain Children of the Corn feel to it. But we did find the town's only restaurant. The door was open but nobody was around so we just sort of wandered about, and sat down at a table with great views of the countryside. We then trudged back down the road to Greve, and waited a couple hours for the return bus.

We had dinner at a popular local restaurant, which was called something like Osteria Antigo, but that just means old restaurant, so I'm sure it was more complicated than that. Anyway, the place was packed and they had lost our reservation, so another logistical breakdown. But they managed to squeeze us in sort of a closet to the side, which was a very depressing addition to a fun, lively restaurant. (15-10-10).

78. Montefioralle

Montefioralle, like Monteriggioni, was a walled medieval town atop a mountain that served as a fortified outpost of Siena. However, once Siena was absorbed into Florence, most of the residents of Montefioralle had the good sense to decamp to a more convenient place now that the war was over. And that's how Greve was born. A half dozen families stayed up here, and if you don't mind the inconvenience, it's a very pretty place to live.

On the verge of giving up, I looked up and saw some medieval looking clump of buildings high atop a hill overlooking Greve. So I dragged an unwilling Somchai uphill for about an hour, listening to his nonstop complaining that a) we should have known the bike shop would be closed and b) we were walking to nowhere. He was right on a) but we were both pleasantly surprised on b).

77. Greve

The following day was the worst of the trip. The idea was fine, but flawed execution. We took a bus to Greve in Chianti, the center of the chianti wine area. Most of the vineyards are spread out around here, so we thought we'd rent a bike in the town of Greve, then ride around and do a bit of winetasting. We stopped for a nice lunch at an outdoor pizzeria in town, then explored the town. It's a handsome town, but not particularly old. It's mostly a market town selling the wines of the region, and had a nice weekend market in the main square.