We left Montalcino without having breakfast and headed towards Bagno Vignoni. This old town has some old mineral baths and underground springs flowing downhill. There were lots of old people putting their feet in the running water. We walked around town and saw the main piazza. It had an old large pool of mineral water, which was the source of the springs.

Next we drove to Pienza, a nice small town with lots of beautiful houses with overflowing flower boxes outside. We went into a few churches and stores. Many stores sold different varieties of Pecorino cheese, which Pienza is known for. The streets smelled of this delicious sheep’s milk cheese.

The next stop on the way to Perugia was Montepulciano, where we had samples of cheese and wine. We considered buying some cheese but weren’t sure if we could take it on the plane. Later I found out we could have, but it was too late. We walked around underneath some stores that had old Etruscan tombs where they keep barrels of their wines. The town itself was very hilly and had some steep streets, reminding me a bit of San Francisco.

We had a lunch of ribollita, pasta with garlic, and strange crostoni at a cafe on a corner somewhere. Then we went into a church where an organist and soloist were practicing. It was very peaceful listening to them play their music. After walking around some more, we got the sourest gelati limone known to man at the local gelati place. Then it was on to Perugia, where we would be spending our last days in Italy.

After stopping by in Bagno Vignoni, Pienza, and Montepulciano on the way, we were headed towards Perugia, a city in the Umbria province. We got on the A1 highway but after a while realized the we got on too far north. So we got off northbound and back on southbound, and after a while realized we had to get off the A1 right where we originally got on. So that was a slight waste of time. Driving fast was fun though (it was all in kph, but I know I was going pretty fast).

While on the next highway to Perugia, we passed a large lake and some beautiful scenery. There were many exits for Perugia but we did not know which to take. We found the right road for Torgiano, a small town near Perugia, and found the hotel. The Le Tre Vaselle hotel is very big and maze-like. We got lost in the corridors a few times. The room had a small room with a TV, a bedroom, and a large bathroom. The bathroom had a kind of shower/bath where you could cover half the bath to take a shower, or open the door and take a bath. There was a pool with a great view and a grape covered archway to get there.

We ordered two glasses of champagne to the room, but when the waiter brought them, he broke the glasses by accident. After much cleaning up and effusive apologies, they gave us a free bottle of champagne. So we drank it all, and got, well, pretty toasty. We had to change the reservations for dinner to a later time.

We had dinner at the hotel, which was excellent. We had a fish mousse amuse bouche with a complimentary glass of spumanti (italian champagne). Then we ate red shrimp from the local lake with citrus sauce, asparagus with fried perch filet, eggplant stacked with cheese and tomatoes, potato and arugula gnocchi in cheesy sauce with green apple, duck breast with honey, beef tourenados with peppercorns, and for dessert we had key lime mousse with strawberry sauce. The wine was a local Rubesco from 1997. Rubescos are 70 percent sangiovese and 30 percent Canaiolo. Two bottles of alcohol and a glass of spumanti were too much for us to handle, so we went right to bed.