A Taste of Tuscany..

Maggi took the wheel yesterday and was a real road warrior. I have to first apologize that it was a day that began with "if my head was not connected I'd have left it behind"....no phone OR camera was with mre on our first drive through Tuscany. Thank goodness Maggi had her phone or we ( or should I say you dear readers) would have missed everything.

We left to drive north towards Montepulciano intentionally staying off the autostrada. Of course we had the requisite drivers run up behind us, fly by on corners and probably cuss us at round-abouts but who cares, we enjoyed ourselves. There aren't any real pull-offs for picture taking, and wide spots in the road that were perfect in retrospect are passed in a blur, so countryside pictures this trip are at a minimum. The roads are definitely small car, stick shift oriented and probably a motorcycle riders dream, as long as they never wanted to enjoy the scenery.

The landscape was dotted with castle-like towns with romantic names that roll off the tongue, newly planted fields, grape vines and olive trees. In this part of Italy the olives don't drop to the ground but are harvested by hand. Many of the trees were just getting their leaves and all reflected the growth patterns resulting from continual winds. Giant cedars line many drives, lower branches trimmed off leaving an artistic canopy. Italian cypress are used wonderfully as wind breaks and definitely let us know we were in Tuscany.

Reaching Montepulcino, we stopped at a Fattoria (Farm) store where they produced and bottled their own wine, cheese, sausage, olive oil, etc. and was a wonderful break for two hungry women needing a rest stop. Samples abounded and we tried all the wines, the olive oil on toasted bread, various sausages and of course the cookies and chocolate, After buying an assortment we ventured next door for a bowl of Robillita (thick vegetable soup). Yesterday's high was about 57° and the wind was howling. In the sun and out of the wind, or in the car, we were actually comfortable. Maggi is definitely suffering more than me but I can't figure out why.

After Montepulciano, we ventured to the Abbiazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore where we toured the part of the Abbey open to the public. It was much more impressive than the Duomo in Orvieto, but think it also wasn't as old. The Benedictine Monks (no vow of silence here as I heard them chatting as they left the chapel) were chanting the applicable Nona liturgy. It was beautiful to hear, even for a non-Benedictine.  After figuring out how to pay for parking at the off site validation area, we zoomed back to Orvieto on a more direct but still lovely route. We dined on our own wine, sausage and cheese bought at the Fattoria along with toasted bread with olive oil and tomatoes. We made a quick trip afterwards to the bakery to buy morning pasteries and ogle the guys and then sprinted to the gelato place before closing. After all that, we called it an early night. Ciao.