After breakfast at the hotel, we started driving towards Montalcino, where we were staying that night.

On the way, we drove through the Arancia region to look at the landscape. It was very hilly, dry, and rocky with very dark soil. The landscape was barren but kind of picturesque in its own way.

When we arrived at Montalcino, we drove into the city to drop off bags, then drove around to try to find free parking. We followed the signs to a parking area and as we went down the hill to look for a spot, we realized that about 10 feet in front of us, the “road” turned into steep steps. We were on a hill. Theresa got out and tried to direct me to back up up the hill so I could turn around. It was difficult, narrow, and the clutch was burning. A man told us that we could not go that way. No kidding. We made sure to take pictures of that hill for posterity’s sake.

We ate lunch at a restaurant (we didn’t write down the name) which had very authentic Tuscan food. We had bruschetta, pasta with meat, wild boar with beans and an amazing house wine. This was the best house wine I had on the whole trip. My guess is that it was a Brunello, a local wine which is world-renowned.

After lunch we went to the Fortezza which was really cool. We climbed up and were able to walk around the entire top of the fort and go up to the towers. The view was good from up there, and I took a lot of pictures. In the Fortezza there is an enoteca, or wine bar. We did a five Brunello tasting from ‘97 - ‘99 vintages. We bought two bottles of the ‘99 Talenti and one glass of the same, then sat outside and drank. The wine and fort made for a relaxing time.

We walked towards a far away church in town (Theresa will say I made her go), which turned out to be not that great. I did however enjoy the walk.

There was a festival in town that weekend celebrating the four different neighborhoods. There were a few areas set with really long tables for a celebration to mark the beginning of the hunting season. On Sunday there was to be an archery contest with people wearing medieval costumes. Unfortunately we wouldn’t be there for that. We did see some people dressed in “neighborhood garb” parade down the street below our hotel.

Dinner that night was at Poggio Antico, which was a short drive away from town. It was one of the most recommended restaurants in the area. A long dirt road led to the restaurant, where we sat outside overlooking the vineyard and remote hills. The setting was very romantic. The food was good but not worth the large amount of money. We had a cheese sampler, risotto with squash and saffron, ravioli with white meat and truffle, duck with wild berry sauce, slow cooked beef with wine (called Paposa), and a chocolate dessert. With the cheese we had honey which tasted so fresh and sweet, and had a gritty consistency which we loved. This was when we realized the quality of the local honey, which we heard more about when we were near Perugia.