Day 3: SIENA - MONTALCINO - ST. ANTIMO - BAGNO VIGNONI - PIENZA - MONTEPULCIANO - SIENA
Saturday, January 8, 2011
It's 7 in the morning and the alarm has sounded. I remember bells half in dreams and screams of people speaking Italian. I think it has not been a dream and the explanation is that the walls of the Siena hotel are made of paper. Of course, although we have woken up several times, today we do not forgive even one of the visits we have, including Piece and Montepulciano.
We go out for breakfast, but first we want to put money in the parking lot, since it is a blue zone and is paid from 8 in the morning.
Albergo Chiusarelli is less than 5 minutes walk from where we left, so we prefer to go before breakfast and charge energy.
But as always there are unforeseen events, even when traveling, when we arrive we see that the rental car in Tuscany is only on the street and as we get closer, we see a pink paper on the windshield wiper. You guessed them, right? fine singing.
I see a policeman, I ask him and he tells me that he is sorry, but at the beginning of the street there is a cartel that says that on Saturdays they clean the street from 6 to 8 in the morning and you cannot park.
Well, nothing, we return to the hotel with a pink paper worth 38 euros in our pocket. Of course, now he has told us that we can leave it parked, yes, paying the blue zone.
What a peace of mind, now we can return to the hotel quietly to collect our bags.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Tuscany
- 10 essential places to visit in Tuscany
- 10 essential places to see in Siena
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Tuscany
Our idea was to leave around 8 in the morning, but between one thing and another we meet again in the car at 9.30.
We are more than an hour late, so we begin to think that we will not have time to do all the towns of The Toscana What we want.
It took about 45 minutes to reach Montalcino. The landscapes of The Toscana So far they have not been too spectacular, although they have been better than those seen so far.
In Montalcino we park at the foot of the city, in the blue zone, for 1.50 euros per hour.
We started climbing until we met the Cathedral. From there we go back up to Fortallezza, where we do not enter.
Montalcino
The town is quite lonely and we thought it was bigger or that we would find it with more people. We are taking a leisurely walk and take advantage of buying a bottle of one of the most famous wines in the world: Brunello de Montalcino.
With the first purchase of the day made, we set off to our next stop: The Abbey of St. Antimo.
It takes about 15 minutes to arrive, which begin to fly through the landscapes of The Toscana We started to see.
Landscapes of Tuscany in a day where we will meet Pienza and Montepulciano
Time is giving us a truce and the sun begins to rise at last.
The abbey is seen from the top of the road, but as you get closer it is when you start to see how big it is.
It impacts from afar.
In the middle of vineyards and cedars. We park in the blue zone of the entrance and this time it is not up to climb a single slope. It is all flat.
The Abbey of St. Antimo
We take a few pictures of the surroundings and enter the abbey (the visit is free, even if it seems a lie)
We are there half an hour in total. It's about 11 long and we go to Bagno Vignoni.
It took us about 30 minutes to arrive and as always, we parked at the entrance of the town in the blue zone.
There we discovered a small town, but with an impressive light, at least today.
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- Excursion to San Gimignano, Siena and Chianti
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There are quite a few people, which catches our attention, not to think it was so touristy.
In the middle we discover the hot spring pool built by the Medicis.
Bagno Vignoni
The sun begins to squeeze a little and we have no better excuse to sit on a terrace than that.
There we are making the appetizer a good time, warming ourselves in the sun and with exceptional views.
It's 1 noon and it's time to go to Pienza, our next destination and the place where we will eat… more than anything for the hour it is !!
On the way we stopped several times to take pictures of the landscapes of Tuscany. They remind us of the postcards we have seen.
Landscapes of Tuscany
It takes us a little longer to arrive at the stops and we park in a parking lot just outside Pienza.
As soon as you enter, we begin to see the large number of stores of typical products of The Toscana. We enter several and more or less we have the idea of what we want to take.
Pienza we are surprised, we didn't think we would like it so much It has lovely streets and above all a few corners of the postcard.
Pienza
We arrive at Piazza Pio II and there we see the Cathedral and the monuments that surround it.
Before going to eat we stroll around to find the best viewpoints we have seen so far.
We have before us the best views of Tuscany that we have seen so far.
After all this, we look at the clock, mostly because the stomach has sounded a couple of times and we see that it is 2 o'clock in the afternoon, so we enter one of the stores and take everything we had thought of: spices, Pasta, oil and the typical cheese of After shopping we go to find a restaurant and after trying our luck in the 4 or 5 that we are in the street, they tell us that they are all full.
We started to pout, when we remember that next to the parking lot we had seen a tratoria.
We leave without much hope that it is "good" and it has been the big surprise of the day.
It has already given us a good thorn when we have seen that there was only one empty table left.
We have eaten like kings: bruchetta al pomodoro and pecorino with olive of first and second: ravioli to tartufo and spaghetti to a 'gliolo.
Pienza
We have left there that we burst, luck that we have had coffee and that has awakened us to be able to continue until our last destination of the Toscana from today: Montepulciano.
We have stopped a couple of times on the road, to stretch our legs, but above all to take some pictures.
In less than half an hour we were already at the entrance of Montepulciano.
From there we have already seen what we had read in several forums: upload, upload and upload!
So we have parked in the entrance area, we have taken oxygen and we have started to climb.
The same street already makes you continue ... we have entered Via del Corso, where there are more concentrated craft and food stores.
Montepulciano
There we have already signed some pottery to buy, but first we want to see the rest of Montepulciano.
We continue to climb and take pictures of the alleys adjacent to the Corso.
In the end we arrive at the Piazza Grande, which is the historic square of Montepulciano. We have the legs and the body in general quite touched, today has been a day of exercise!
It has started to get dark, so we decided that it is best to go down again, take advantage to buy and return to Siena.
It's 5.30 when we take the car again. We return to Siena. Today has been a full day of our travel through Tuscany, where we wanted to concentrate in a short time many places to see.
Surely each of them deserves more than one day, but at least we take a memory of each of them ...
It took us an hour and 20 or so to arrive in Siena.
We leave shopping at the hotel, park near the stadium and go to dinner.
Siena
We ended up in the Piazza del Campo, in the same restaurant yesterday, but today before the appetizer we already ordered dinner directly.
After a dinner of the most Italian, about 9 pm we return to Albergo Chiusarelli.
Tomorrow is our last day and in the morning we will visit Siena, our last visit in The Toscana.
Now it's time to dream of all the fantastic places we've been lucky to meet today: Montalcino, the Abbey of St. Antimo, Bagno Vignoni, Pienza and Montepulciano.
Day 4SIENA - PISA - GIRONA
