Day 6

Today began with beautiful sunshine coming through our windows. I slept like a rock, but needed some medicinal help. That's ok. Sometimes you just have to. So Guy let me sleep in a bit and went down to fix me a breakfast plate that I got to eat in the room. It was de-lish. Sweet croissant, a piece of cake, some yogurt, egg surprise and some juice. I ate EVERYTHING and got ready for the day. We set out for the picturesque hilltop town of Montepulciano. I packed all my camera gear today. My D7000, my D70 that shoots only infrared, my pocket size Canon and my iphone (all were used today) Once we got on the right road, it was a piece of cake to get there. The Garmin is a bust as she tells us the street to turn on but the streets are not marked and most of the time she is wrong. So Guy did it "old school" with maps and street signs. We stopped a couple of times along the way for some photo ops, but they just don't do this scenery justice. Simply breathtaking. So we made our way up to Montepulciano (I was expecting lots of switchbacks, but NONE!) We found a close spot to the town and paid for 3 hours of parking. We walked around the town taking in all the shops and smells and I took several photos from the top. I used my iphone for a panoramic photo from the top and it was really cool. Can't wait to work with some of these images. The infrared have to stay on the camera til I get home. I think I left the gadget to load to my ipad at home. It was bit hazy today, but I have software on my Mac that will clear that up. So between photos ops, I checked out several shops, but the prices are a bit high. I was eyeballing a local made necklace in a shop where the girls let me try it on. It is handmade with a landscape of Tuscany, but all made with local leaves and flowers. Ugh...I want it but I walked away! So we may be driving back by this town tomorrow and I'll go back after I ponder it overnight. :)

We chose a place for lunch called Osteria Del Borgo. It was outside and overlooked the beautiful Tuscan countryside. It was lovely and we were in full sun, which felt just wonderful. If in the shade it was a bit cool. We ate our lunch which consisted of melted cheese with honey and walnuts (we put it on bread like fondue...holy cow) then Guy had potato stuffed ravioli with wild BOAR ragu. :) It was good. I had pasta with duck breast meat/sauce. A bit more bland than Guy's but I'd order it again. Guy had to head down to the car to buy a new ticket in the parking lot because our 3 hours were up. So I paid the bill and worked my way back down thru the shops. I stopped in the shop to try on the necklace I liked and the ladies there were telling me all about the Twilight movie being filmed there. Guy and I were going to go to Volterra on our way to my glass class, but she said it was all filmed here in Montepulciano! She said in Volterra they were giving tours for 50 euros that told people the filming "might" have happened or Rob "might" have been here. So it was a rip off. I asked where the fountain was that Bella ran through. It was a hollywood prop they built. So the "church" Edward came out of was really the Montepulciano town hall. :) So I found all this out as I was walking out of the town, but I got several shots of the square just because it was cool (and looked familiar after I saw several "Edward was here" tshirts). At least I got the scoop before we went to Volterra, but she did say it was still a really cool place to visit.

So as we headed back, we went a different route to hit lake Trasimeno and a town called Castiglione del Lago. It was nice and we walked the main streets. We stopped for a gelato and I've said there IS such a thing as bad gelato, because Rosalie and I experienced bad peach gelato before, but this wasn't bad, just mediocre. Kinda frozen and true gelato should be soft and smooth. I still ate it, but definitely not the best on the trip. Then comes the clap of thunder and the cold wind began to blow. We hightailed it back to the car and decided to head for the hotel. It is already about 5:30 by this time. So we got back and I went downstairs to start downloading pics to my iPad. Guy came down and sat on the computer and surfed for a place to eat dinner. There we met two identical twin ladies from Chicago who we had actually seen the night before in the same restaurant we ate at in Cortona. Guy had told me last night the twins were in our hotel, but we got to visit with them a bit tonight. They are from Chicago and live together. They have stayed at this hotel before. We were talking about the Garmin and theirs isn't helping them too much either. So we told them we think our car's lighter socket is bad and they offered to go out into their rental car and test it. I stayed inside with Mary and Maureen went with Guy out to the car. It worked fine in their cig lighter, so it is our rental. Figures. But at least we know the problem. We decided to have dinner at the same restaurant they were going to because we heard the reception guy telling them about it. They left about an hour before us.

So we went back to the room after I had uploaded my pics and blogged a bit, and got ready for dinner. We decided to put some laundry in and go eat, hoping we were not holding anyone else up when they had finished washing. So we went to the restaurant Cantana Napoli. This was only "30 seconds" from our hotel. I counted and that was about right. We are in what we'd call a suburb of Cortona called Camucia. We got to the restaurant and it was hoppin. I sat at the table, but Guy said hello to the twins as they were just finishing up. We ordered - I wasn't starved so I ordered a calzone stuffed with mozzarella, ham, and tomatoes. Guy ordered fish with potatos. I'll attach pics when I can...uploads are slow today. Mine was cool looking, like no other calzone I've seen before, it was smiling at me. Guy's fish came whole, so the waitress beheaded it for him and took most of the bones out. Everything was really nice. Several tables of locals and several tables of tourists. We fit right in.

Back to the hotel we came to check on the laundry. Yikes, it is STILL GOING! ugh. So Guy went to the room to get my iPad and his kindle and I thought I'd just finish my blog out here and he could sit with me and read. Yeah, like it hasn't even made it to the dryer yet and it is 10:30pm. We'll be up for awhile.