9/18 Montalcino

My first afternoon in Montalcino was wonderful. This place is glorious. I took a ton of pictures but uploading them to the blog would take forever so I'll send out a gallery sometime soon. The views here are unbelievable--brought a tear to my eye at sunset last night. There is a large tower here that has a wine tasting room at the bottom...a big draw in Montalcino. I went and wasn't that impressed, which is usually what I feel about very touristy things. I really enjoyed watching all the old Itialian people walking the streets and the young kids playing soccer and being silly. After coming back to my room and cleaning up for the evening I went a few doors down to a wine bar to catch a little bit of the Friday night scene.

Up until now I've noticed that everyone wears practical shoes all the time. Last night was the first night I saw the girls dolled up. More college-age looking girls all sparkly and teetering on high heels. As I was enjoying my Brunello a familiar face came in. A girl named Chanette that worked at one of the shops I visited yesterday. She invited me to come outside and join her table. She was from Holland working in Montalcino, she had a friend who lived in San Francisco for a while but landed back in her native Italy. They both spoke very good English. Their other two friends spoke no English but all of the conversation, whether I could understand it or not, was very entertaining! Turns out Chanette knows the woman who runs the tour I'll be taking in Florence on Monday...such a small world! I bought a round of lemoncellos for everyone and I was on my way to find some pasta with porcinis.

This town shuts down earlier than Siena and the restaurants are smaller so they can't seat as many people. I ended up in a little pizza place getting my first Italian pizza to go. The super sweet guy behind the counter gave me a glass of rosso and we talked music for a while. And back in my room I devoured my pizza and the rest of my wine from the afternoon while talking to my kiddos on skype. The best way to end my days here~