The Tuscan Run

Tuscany, Italy - It's a holiday weekend and Tuscany is overrun with tourists. We are based in Siena, which is absolutely lovely first thing in the morning. But by 10am, the narrow streets are filled with groups of senior citizens with matching red scarves, following a lady who holds a big umbrella high overhead; the grand Piazza il Campo is carpeted with bodies soaking up the rays; and suddenly, we are feeling claustrophobic, as if all the tourists followed us from Venice.

We armed ourselves with a book of walking routes around Tuscany, and we hopped on the first bus that would take us out of Siena. That's how we found ourselves in Montalcino, a medieval town that sits high in the Tuscan hills, surrounded by vineyards producing the celebrated Brunello.

But even Montalcino was packed with people. So instead of looking at churches and fortresses, we followed a walking trail accross the hills, through the vineyards and olive groves, ending at abbey of Sant'Antimo, just outside the village of Castelnuovo dell'Abbate. This is what I imagined Tuscany to be - 12th-century churches in the middle of green and yellow hills under blue cloudless skies. I was thrilled to be outside, breathing the air, working my muscles, escaping the crowds and drinking in the countryside.

We missed the last bus out of Castelnuovo, so we hitched a ride back to Montalcino, where we had a couple of hours to sample the local reds and buy a few bottles to stock our future wine cellar. That is my house project this year: a wine cellar. And what a perfect excuse to "invest" in some of the local vini!

Our first walk met with such success that we decided to repeat it the next day. This time our route would start in the tiny town of Pienza and end in magnificent Montepalciano. Unfortunately, there was only one bus from Siena to either of these towns - in the early afternoon - so we got a late start. But afterall, we needed the morning to figure out how we would be able to get home. It required interviews with no less than four representatives from various public transportation institutions before we finally figured it out. (See my previous post about the importance of asking the right question when dealing with public transport.)

Pienza is another walled medieval town perched on a hilltop. Besides a Romanesque church and an old palazzo, there is not much to see. Nonetheless, the place was swarming with tourists (mostly Italians enjoying their holiday weekend). Pienza is the center for the production of pecorino cheese and that's what everybody seemed to be doing: buying and eating cheese. So we did the same; we got pecorino and salami sandwiches for our picnic lunch, as well as a chunk of cheese to take back to Venice. Then we slipped out the southeastern gate and hit the road.

Once again, the countryside was achingly beautiful - more cultivated than the previous days, but the same deep greens and blues. Entire hillsides were covered in yellow canola flowers, red poppies or pink sainfoin. Ocassionally we would pass pecorino farms (distinguishable by the grazing sheep), small olive groves and old stone houses that look like they have stood there for centuries.

We descended from Pienza, crossed a valley and came to the tiny town of Montechiello. We did not mean to actually go into town, but we missed our turn and found ourselves there. This misstep would prove to be crucial in the end; but at that time it was a nice place to take a break and eat our sandwiches.

From there, we descended into the next valley and climbed (straight up!) the other side, from where we could see three medieval towns, all of them perched on their respective mountaintops all across the landscape (Montecchiello, where we had come from; Montepulciano, where we were going to; and Montefollonico in the distance). At times the panorama was 270 or even 360 degrees of fertile valleys and blue skies. Our destination - Montepulciano - looked like the Emerald City, a fairytale castle at the top of a mountain, with gorgeous green vineyards and farmland tumbling down the mountainside all around.

Unfortunately, however spectacular, this walk was taking longer than we hoped. While we were not in danger of missing our bus, it didn't seem like we were going to have much time in Montepulciano. In fact, we bolted past the majestically sited San Bagio church, at the base of the mountain, stopping only briefly to ask the shortest route. Then we practically sprinted the last 20 minutes, straight uphill into town. We dutifully climbed up to the Piazza Grande, the highest point in town which is the center of activity. Alas, that is not where the buses come and go, so then we had to run back down the other side.

At least we got to see Montepulciano - and I even managed to snap some photos as we zipped through. (New concept for inclusion in the next guidebook: Running Tour!) No chance to buy a bottle of wine, though. We'll have to pick up a sample of the vino nobile back in Siena. We know where it came from originally.