P is for pizza, and pasta, and parmesan, but it’s also for the lovely little villages of Pienza, Pistoia, and Petronagno. While I’ll have to save Pistoia and Petrognagno until the next update, let’s set off now from Bagni San Felippo, and head for Pienza.
Vroom, vroom!!!
By now I was getting pretty zippy in our not-so-zippy FiatPandaExpress and taking the highways, and now smaller roads, like a boss. Which was good, because the challenges of driving a stick shift in Tuscany is not for wienies.
The next stop on today’s agenda was the town of Pienza, about 2 ½ hours north of Rome. We had no aim other than to just walk about and soak up the atmosphere of the Tuscan charm. And find a bathroom to use. It’d been a long time since we used the hot springs.
Just kidding, just kidding.
Maybe.
Pienza was lovely. I was becoming totally convinced that the all the hype about the Tuscan charm was indeed true. These villages are, in fact, old and great pains are taken, it seems, to keep the original authenticity intact. There was no trash strewn about, no graffiti (thank you, Naples, you gave us more than our fill of that), and no loitering gang bangers. In fact, there were hardly even any tourists either which made for some exquisite photo opps. Trust me on this: Late Fall is definitely the time to visit Tuscany; the weather is still perfect, kids are back in school, prices are now cheaper being off-season, and most places are still open. “Most” is a very important qualifier….
We wandered around for an hour or two popping into shops now and then. My photos show no evidence of any lunch, so we must have passed it up or had car snacks. My memory is crap now so let’s just go with the No Lunch Theory.
Next, we drove a very short ways to Montepulciano, home of the world-famous Nobile wine. This is ground zero, Friends, for those amazing Tuscan wines. Did I try any in Montepulciano? No, but I would at dinner later on in San Gimignano.
*** Wine Talk, Feel Free to Skip***
A quick mini-lesson: The Montepulciano is a variety of GRAPE, and wine from this grape is grown all over the place, from Texas to Australia to, of course, Italy. But the “Vino Nobile di Montepulciano” is altogether different and made from mostly Sangiovese grapes and ONLY made in or around Montepulciano and had the DCOG designation. I wanted to try the Nobile while I was actually WHERE it is made. No, I’m really NOT a wine snob, but had heard of it and thought I should drink some since I was right there!
<steps off very low wine soapbox>
So, what DID we do in Montepulciano? We visited a church (shocking, I know) and did a bunch more walking around. LOL!
I LOVED this invitation to be respectful inside the church. It was a good reminder to turn off the phones so others could worship should they be there to do so.
The life-sized Nativity was also really neat. It was carved and remains here all year.
I have NO idea what this might have said, or what language it even is, but I sure thought it and the stone were incredibly cool! I can’t even imagine how old it must have been!
It was here that we also found a whimsical piece of art of Pulcinella. “Pulcinella embodies the Neapolitan plebians, the simplest man who occupies the bottom place on the social scale, the man who, although aware of his problems, always manages to come out of them with a smile. Pulcinella represents the soul of the people and its primitive instincts.”- wiki
Continued in next post…