As usual, I wrote up my diary as I went along (sometimes late at night after rolling home the worse for a little wine) so the use of present, past and future tenses gets a little mixed. I hope it doesn't confuse you.

Tues 10th: Easyjet easily cancelled my 0700 flight at two days notice, so the chances of missing the 1105 Ryanair one looked high. However, the 0835 Easyjet did get me there in time: I checked in at Stansted about 40 minutes before departure.

Pisa airport still looks the same. My rental car is a Punto that has been in a few scrapes, so I wasn't very impressed, but it will do. The bonnet is buckled -- it seems to be made from cooking foil. I saw another with similar damage.

I think I've been caught out before by the sign to "Siena" on the Pisa-Firenze motorway. It directs you on a cross-country route rather than the autostrade "ring road" around Florence, and the main motorway South. Saved me paying for the toll section, I suppose. I managed to navigate back to the main Fi-Si halfway down.

I made one short tourist stop in Monteriggioni, and then on to the nearby hotel I'd booked in Badesse. It took a few passes before I found it: fooled by the fact that one street was "Y"-shaped with the same name either side of the fork. (But different house numbers. They're not completely mad. (Except in Florence where there are two overlaid property numbering schemes.))

The hotel is more of a Motel style, but the room is big and well-equipped. The restaurant attached was convenient for dinner, and not too bad at all.

Wed 11th: Exploratory trip to San Gimignano to check if the festival is on this weekend. I had the notion that I might travel on to Volterra, but actually stayed in SG all day. Not much to report: did the usual sitting around, watching the world go by. (The entire world seemed to have decided to visit, by the way.) I had dinner at La Mandragola.


Thur 12th: Siena is only 10km from Badesse. I tried to find the multi-storey car park that we'd got to by chance a few years ago. It's expensive but convenient for the Campo; in fact, it's called "Il Campo". Best way to find it is to follow the motorway all the way round and take the "Siena Sud" exit. The big advantage of a covered car park is that the car stays cool!

Siena was very hot. The open area of the Campo just bakes in the sun. I sat for a while in the shade in the courtyard of the town hall before going in to the museum. I was thinking I should send a postcard of "Good and Bad Government" to Tony Blair. Specifically "Bad Government".

I found the heat and crowds in the city a bit opressive, so I went  up to the small park "La Lizza" for a while. There's an Irish Pub nearby, so I stopped for a pint on the way back to the city centre (well, I was on my hols). While I was sitting there, a large Italian family (mostly little girls) peered in at the door giggling at the stange establishment. I felt like an animal in the zoo: Irishman in its natural habitat.

I had dinner al fresco in the Campo, but was plagued by little flies, plus the meal wasn't too good, so I ended up feeling a bit grumpy and irritable. I won't let that colour my impressions of Siena. One thing I noticed was the high proportion of very stylish women. Natives, presumably, although even the tourists seemed to be dressed better. (Better than in Florence, as I discovered.)

Fri 13th: Nothing bad happened -- I went to Florence. I still can't work out why you can always get a free free parking space on Piazzale Michelangelo. Maybe it's the long climb back to the car that puts people off. Another slight disadvantage I realised is that you come down to the Arno halfway between two bridges, so there's a bit of an extra walk to get across either of them.

You never know whom you'll meet on the top deck of a tourist bus.

To my disappointment, Santa Croce was closed to tourists for the festival of San Antonio so I couldn't say hello to Galileo and Maria Celeste. The pitch was laid for the football next week. Plan B was the Duomo, buth there were long queues of tour groups waiting to get in. I went to the cloisters at San Lorenzo instead. Pace.

I recrossed the river to visit Santo Spirito -- more early paintings than I'd remembered. I thought more had been replaced in the 16th & 17th Centuries (see last year's report). There was no bar in the piazza.

After my poor meal in Siena, I decided not to have dinner with the tourists and instead to try Monteriggioni, closer to home. Two navigational problems put paid to that. First, I went the wrong way on foot and had to make a long, hilly detour back to the car. Then I made the snap decision to visit Fiesole for the famous view over the city. Finding Fiesole was OK, and the view was too (although the equally famous Roman theatre was closed for the day). But I failed to get back to the Fi-Si motorway and followed the signs to Siena via Greve and Castellina instead.

The Chianti countryside is lovely and I made a note to go back to see it properly, but it was slow going on the twisty hill roads. When I got home I decided it was too late for dinner and pigged out on the snacks in my room. And some wine. It was just what I needed.

Sat 14th: San Gimignano had been pretty crowded on Wednesday. My plan was to get up at 0800 and arrive by nine. Well, I was kind of up by eight, but it was ten before I arrived. I wish I'd checked the time for events though, because nothing happened until 1700. I'd discovered on the reconnaisance trip that parking was not a problem in Parcheggio 3 (and, shhh, it's free if you stay past closing time).

Killing time in SG is easy enough: a caffe, a gelato, a doze in the shade. By mid-afternoon, people in costume began to appear. I comandeered a commanding position on the high steps next to the cathedral and held it against all comers. When the ceremonies started, I had a great profile view. The Queen of the festival drew lots to decide which rider (and horse) would represent which contrade. I don't know how you get to be Queen. This year's is a nice girl, but not film-star beautiful or anything. One of the jousting knights is female. Tough job.

The Rocca, or Fortezza di Montestaffoli as they seem to be calling it now, is set up as a war encampment of medieval times. The re-enactors sem to be having fun: archers and crossbow-men mostly; and of course, ladies -- camp followers -- doing what women do in times of war: making the meals.

Back in the piazza, a group of girls was dancing, medieval courtly style. I got quite misty-eyed at the romance of it. I'm sure the past was never really like this, but it fitted the myth of the past so well.

As evening drew on, the Piazza del Duomo was fitted out for a performance, and the crowd filled the cathedral steps. I'm not totally sure what it all signified, but there was spectacle, and fireworks, and fire-breathing and entities on stilts. And God created the Heavens and the Earth. And Lucifer was banished and He and two devils menaced the audience with flaming pitchforks until they were vanquished by two Angels with flaming swords. Nice girls. I'm pretty sure that was the gist of it. [Hey, the Queen just walked past.]

When I got to the car park at about eleven, it was still full, but no charge because the attendant had wisely gone home. Oh, I forgot: I subsisted all day on medieval cups of wine and pig sandwiches. No need for dinner.

Sun 15th: At least I had a printed programme with schedule now, and could see that the first event was a blessing of the combatants at noon. I thought I'd still arrive at ten though, and to prove I was an old hand, park in the exclusive "free" part of P3 that I'd noticed yesterday. OK, so I haven't had to pay anyway so far, but it's the principle. Or stupidity, or something.

The Queen arrived in a cart drawn by oxen, and she and her entourage stood in the hot sun on the cathedral steps for the ceremony. I'm not sure, but I suspect that the young priest isn't too convinced about blessing horses, but he got on with it. Incidentally, a small piazza with 16 nervous horses and a loud drummer corps could be a risky affair.

The girls danced afterwards and I had another pig.

Not much happening in the festivities until late afternoon, so I sat in the outdoor medieval tavern at the Rocca, had a couple of cups, and wrote a couple of postcards. Imagine my surprise when the Queen came in. She sat by the barrels in the back and had a drink, although I think it was water. Then she went on to judge the archery. I took quite a fancy to one of the two women archers in costume. I wonder if medieval women ever did have a go.

Then the joust itself. Pretty much a whitewash for San Matteo (green) although there were the usual disputes and false starts. The tiltyard is "grassed" with grass and a herb - sage? - which smells nice when people sit and walk on it. Time for another p.s. and maybe a gelato and home for an early night. Good by San Gimignano for another year.

Mon 16th: I decided to follow up on my idea of returning to Chianti: Castellina and Radda. Of the two, I think Radda has the edge. Both are pretty, with loads of medieval detail, and both are classy in establishments; C probably having more eotecas. I just thought R was more picturesque. It has several underground medieval passageways -- with shops and restaurants: the world's first malls.

I spent an hour or two in C first, and then a similar time in R. I had lunch in an enoteca (Colle Bereto, if I recall correctly) with bruschetta and their young wine. Thunder sounded and eventually heavy drops of rain started and everyone rushed inside. I had a glass of the Riserva (in a brandy glass...) while waiting for the rain to stop. Lots of thundering.
I was planning to leave quite early anyway. A visit to Monteriggioni and then back to the hotel to freshen up for the evening in Siena. It had stopped raining when I reached M, but the sky was dark and lightning strokes were hitting the hills all around. I had a coffee at the bar and did a complete circuit of the complete walls. And walked back to the car park down the new posh steps that aren't open yet.

I drove in to Siena and parked near La Lizza: handy for Piazza Gramsci where the ceilidh was to be held. In fact, the band, Will o' the Wisp, were already having a bit of a session as I passed. I should have stopped for a while really, but I must have been too keen on getting my pizza. Still, I got my pizza and visited the Campo and Duomo before coming back for the show and a couple of pints of the Black Stuff. A great time was had by all. Róisin from Dubleen even got up and demonstrated some step dancing in her bare feet.

Tues 17th: I checked out at Badesse.
First stop was the ruined abbey of S. Glagano. It's as pristine a ruin as you could wish for, with cut grass and flowers and swept paths. Chalk up another one to hubris and the plague of 1348. It was a hot day and the oratory of S. Galgano himself sits intact on a hill above the ruin. I was thinking "I'll be pissed off if you can drive up here." Of course you can. Worth the effort anyway to see the sword in the stone and the frescos. I like the preliminary sketches being visible, particularly Mary clinging to the pillar in panic in the Annunciation -- "I'm going to WHAT?!..."

Rather than go striaght to my lodgings in Massa Marittima, I went on past to Fallonica. It's a great sprawl of a resort along the coast. I took several passes through before coming on the part we'd found by chance in '94. The sand was too hot to walk on. After a reconoitre, I drove to the town centre and walked to the seafront from there. A basic lunch with a sea view: very reasonable. Actually, it's not a bad seaside place. Nice shops etc.: pedestrian areas. I don't think it's for me though.

So at about four I hit the road again and found the Hotel Girifalco in Massa M. I took a swim in their little pool (!) before going into town -- a bit of a climb in the afternoon heat. I quite like Massa: lots of medieval flavour, although you can inspect all of it in a couple of hours. Need another visit though to see inside the cathedral, the oratorio, and the Sienese castle (all closed after six).

The town was thronged with tourists -- almost all Dutch and German, I think. No Americans! The two outdoor pizzerias at the cathedral were doing a roaring trade: I was lucky to get a table. Next to me was a French group, speaking English to their neighbour: a German woman (mit 4 kinder). It got quite cold and breezy as night fell. I don't know what the weather holds for tomorrow.

---

Wed 18th:  A bit noisy in the hotel at eight this morning, but I dozed until almost half-past-nine. Breakfast finishes at ten. Am I being wildly optimistic, or were the two girls checking me out across the tables? Probably couldn't talk to them anyway.

Target for the day was Punta Ala and Castiglione P. I stopped off at a big beach complex first. There were parking spaces with reed roofs and I picked one with the roof falling in (nobody else wanted it). I drove forward until I heard the roof aerial hit. I sat in a shady part of the "free" beach for a while, and then went for a walk/paddle along the beach edge. At a fancy bar I made myself respectable again (by putting my shoes on) and went up and had a long, lazy lunch* while admiring the view. And the sunbather in the silver bikini.

*I forgot to mention the weird creatutre: like a butterfly version of a hummingbird: about half the size of the bird version, and with antennae!

Then I hit the road again. I was going to go straight on to Castiglione, but on impulse followed the signs to "Porto". It's a huge yacht marina, not a port, with the sorts of shops that yacht-owners want: Gucci and GPS. Well worth a gawp. Very little nautical activity though -- all that expensive tonnage sitting idle. Perhaps it does more at the weekends.

Then I went on to Castiglione P. It has a "seaside"  new town and a castle and old town up on the hill. No way was I walking up that hill in the heat though! There was no obvious driving route, so I settled for taking photos.

Home via Grosseto, just to see what it's like (capital of the province). Not much to see, so I didn't stop, except at the Co-op for bottled water.

On the way back, the lightning started again, and a few splashes of rain spotted the windscreen. It looked as though there was heavy rain in other places though.

I called in to Massa M to check on the cathedral. Damn -- they were having mass. All the good frescos are at the back though... And the Roman sarcophagous with "angels" on it. I was going to have dinner at the hotel, but they don't (a great pity, given the lovely smells from their family kitchen), so I had to walk back into town anyway.

I'd noticed that there was a "proper" restaurant on the way in and that it wasn't packed out like the pizzerias. It's the "il balestruzzo" and it's beautifully done up and I had a fine meal. Be prepared to be fishy though. And watch out for the after-dinner grappa -- lethal.

Thur 19th: Saw the two girls at breakfast again. Actually all the women guests here are gorgeous. Or is it the hormones playing up again? Today's objective: Monte Argentario. Somehow, I just don't believe in the "silver-merchant" story.

Orbetello has been there on the central sand-spit since, well, 1200's presumably. I was in the Duomo: started in medieval times and made Cathedral in 1974. Not many antiquities in the town apart from the Cathedral & "Spanish Period" town hall and gates, but it's not bad for the tourist. I found a bar for a beer-and-sandwich lunch.

Porto Santo Stefano now, it's supposed to be a bit posh. Fiat hieress was mayoress etc. Not as posh as Punta Ala (Porto) in my opinion, though I did see one blacked-out Merc 500 swishing through town. And ferries coming in from everywhere, including Punta Ala, I think.

I had slept badly, so I had conceived the idea of buying a picnic dinner at the Co-op -- actually the Superal -- at Follonica and staying in for the night. OK, but how do I explain all the wine bottles?

(Incidentally, on the way back I missed the Follonica Est exit and had to go 9km to the next one, where I was able to see Elba. Able was I etc.)

Evening: having eaten the Superal Salad; looking out at Monte Arsenti and the valley of the Pecona; listening to Hawkwind do Motorhead; drinking S. Cristina: everything is OK. Tomorrow, who knows?

(FX: clouds; contrails; sunset; ½-cut etc.)

Fri 20th: Girl 1 was in the pool in her bikini, but I checked out anyway and headed for the Deep South. A lot of driving. [Need the map to get this in order, and it's in the car, so from memory...] Montemaerano: Madonna delle Gattiole, Our Lady of the Cat Hole. Plus it's a cute village (or maze). Manciano hill town. Saturnia: very modern-looking central square, but with Roman stones here and there. The Via Clodia & Porta -- all very ancient (this road leads to Rome: only a 120km walk).

The Etruscan necropolis at Saturnia -- Tomba de Sirene -- moody; forest; deep canyon paths; weird tombs cut from the cliffs. A really foreign culture. The entrance ticket would have got me into the other half -- Ildebranda - -but I was tombed out.

It appears to say NVLWAFEL FEWM (reversed), but who knows with Etruscan?

On to Pitigliano. As crazy as it looks in the photos -- and more: the mountain is full of burrows; tunnels; holes. I'm surprised the whole thing doesn't collapse in a heap. Jewish Quarter.
Hit the road again, intending to join the A1 Autostrada at Orvieto and get a look at Lake Bolsena. I did: it's a big lake. With Germans swimming in it. Bolsena itself looks interesting, with a big castle above the town. Seems to be a big tourist centre.  Being worried about how long it would take me to get to Chianciano, I didn't stop. So I went by Orvieto -- which looked superb -- defintely worth a visit and hit the A1. To my surprise, it only took half-an-hour or less to reach Chianciano Terme.

I managed to find the Candia with little touble and checked in. Sonia speaks good English, so no problems there. I'd seen the busy streets on the way in so took to my feet to explore the town. Conclusion: hundreds of hotels and few restaurants! After much tramping, I found one that's actually very close and had a very nice meal.

Sat 21st: No matches! Couldn't make coffee in my room so went downstairs for one at the bar with Sonia. Plan not to drive much today. First C. T. "Centro Storico" - drove down to find the town gate barred by one of those pretty Italian policewomen. I did a loop round and parked (illegally, I'm sure) in the bus station. The town was closed to traffic for a bit of the old medieval: drums and flag-juggling. I didn't know that St. John was patron of C. T. as well as Firenze.

Then on to Montepulciano, only 20km away. I must have been in a grumpy mood last time I was here, since I quite liked it this time. I spent quite a lot of the hottest part of the day in the little loggia opposite the Cathedral and also had lunch. The one thing I couldn't find was home-made gelato -- all artificial. Something I've worked out about these hill towns: park as high up as they'll let you! Same in Pienza (I think I was in "residents only") and the first stop was for a home-made ice-cream. I watched the world go by; had dinner; and quickly got home for an early night (as I'm writing this it's 0:36).

Forgot: I was going to mention that I was on the walls at Pienza looking at the famous view (I think I heard a guide say -- in Italian -- that it's Mt Amiata) and discovered that I had a choice of routes back to the piazza: Via dell' Amore or Via della Fortuna. I chose love, but that's what we all say isn't it?

Sun 22nd: I left the car and explored more of Chianciano on foot. Lots of people heading to church in their Sunday best. I don't know if it was special for being the closest Sunday to St. John's. I misread the poster for S. Giovanni and thought the blessing of "cavalli" was "cavallieri" - knights, or more mediaevalism, but no, it was the horses. Cowboy-style. Some even with American-type saddles and two-tone, yoked shirts. Yee-ha. The other common type of saddle had very high front and back "ridges". Maybe traditional for the buttieri?

I watched them trot into the Old Town -- followed by a man with a wheel barrow -- and later, in late afternoon they competed in the "Palio di S. Giovanni". A rather tamer affair than either the Siena Palio or the San Gimignano jousting: more along the lines of the latter, except with a bigger field, small jumps, and the final objective was to pull a scarf from the central dummy, not batter it. (Same winner as at S. Gimignano! Signore Andante (yes, really).)

My conclusion on C. T.? It's a low-margin town. Pile the tourists high and sell them cheap. Everything is a little past its best; or not quite finished; or not really looked after. The old town is covered in decades of bird shit.

Mon 23rd: Un grande giro, as my hostess (manageress? owner?) said when I returned. First, Citta della Pieve. I wondered if it meant "City of Bricks", because that's what it is, but apparently "pieve" is a church. Nothing outstanding, but pretty enough. Then Castiglione del Lago on lake Trasimeno. The historical part is tiny: a planned defensive site with "3 gates, 3 piazzas and 6 towers". I think that's how it goes. I had a coffee at a cafe and then had lunch later in Cortona.

Vicolo Baciadonne - "Kiss-the-Ladies Alley"

Cortona is a nice place to potter about. It's more residential than, say, San Gimignano; and less restored (less over-restored, some might say). It seems to have been fairly prosperous in the 14, 15, 1600s, with many stone-built houses and fine facades. A 1600s townhouse was up for sale...

Then on to Arezzo, which is a much bigger modern city than I realised. The historical bit inside the walls reminded me a little of a smaller Florence. When I got to the famous Piazza Grande, I discovered that they were clearing up after the popular jousting extravaganza. It was on Saturday and I missed it! I don't know why it had never occurred to me to check if it was on. Some other year perhaps.

One complaint about Arezzo is that there doesn't seem to be anywhere to "hang out". The main old street, the Corso Italia, is clearly the place to walk up and down but I didn't see anywhere to sit around. Maybe the Pz Gd when it's in its normal state?

I had dinner in what seemed to be a very posh restaurant: a glass of sparkling wine on arrival; complimetary hors d'oeuvres (possibly involving tripe. Hey, it was free: I ate it. I don't  want to think about it.) Unusually, I could understand almost none of the menu. Very tasty though, and a surprisingly modest €25. When I got out my wallet to pay the bill, I noticed on my parking ticket that the car park closed at 2030. I was glad that I hadn't noticed before, or I'd have panicked about it.

When I got back to the car the barriers were wide open but the car had a bill on it. Pay within 10 days or else etc. Let them try to find me.

Tues 24th: I had to look back in the diary to see what day it was. Perugia today. A nice city. I thought I'd followed my own advice to park as high as possible, but it's a huge hill of a city too. It took me quite a while to find any good parking, and I was verging on the thought "the hell with it -- I'll go somewhere else," since I hadn't seen anything very scenic. But I'm glad I perservered.Car park at Piazzale Europa multistorey. Hundreds of metres below the historic part of the city. But they have escalators! Now that is civilised. Hundreds of metres of "scala mobile" to whisk you up (or down) to where you want to go.

Big square, grand buildings, medieval winding streets: all you could wish for in the historic Umbrian town. But two highlights: the Arco Etrusche - the Etruscan Arch - a huge original Etruscan gate to the city. And it looks unaltered and intact, apart from a little Renaissance loggia stuck on top of it, and some previous defacement by a vandal (and Emperor) called "Augustus" - AVGVSTVS. Fabulous. Oh and it's about 30 metres tall. Number two: the underground medieval passages under Rocca Paolina, linked to the escalator system from the loggia of the Pallazo della Provincia. A real labyrinth, newly lighted and scrubbed clean; but spooky, especially as I wandered around, totally alone.

I left Perugia in the mid afternoon, intending to go on to Orvieto, but I got a bit lost, for the first time on this trip. I have no detailed map of Umbria (yet) and maybe the road signs aren't as good, but I found myself going in the wrong direction and made a giro of Assissi but didn't go in for fear of religious tourists. Then I got lost again and the only way to Orvieto was via routes almost passing my front door. I decided to skip Orvieto until later and came home via the Co-op. Dinner was pasta and bacon in pesto Siciliana. The Candia is more-or-less on the edge of town, and my balcony looks out over a Tuscan hillside, so I could watch the sun set as I ate my meal with gusto. And Chianti.

Two TV events tonight. The "Calcio Storico" - historic football - in Firenze was on live. (I should have remembered the date. Hello, S. Giovanni. How's the finger?) Play was "robust", but not as uncontrolled as I expected, although the players (50 or so) still look like thugs. I couldn't work out the rules, or who won, or why; but one aspect seemed to be that you "marked" an opponent by wrestling him to the ground - anywhere, any time. The pitch was covered with writhing couples...

TV2: the pop music festival in Pistoia. I sat in last year and watched it on TV too! Just caught Evanescence doing their hit --  the girl looks better in her barbarian princess stage gear than in the virginal white nightie of the video -- then Simply Red and then Roots. Plus some Italian stuff. Wine: yes. Food: yes: Women: yes. Cars: well, OK. Pop music? Forget it. (A band called Froufrou just came on. Not sure if they're Italian, but actually not all that bad for a pure pop act.)

Wed 25th: I drove over to nearby Chiusi to see if I could find the Etruscan tombs I'd seen signposted. I did, but they were all locked up, with a notice saying "viewing by arrangement with the museum in Chiusi". And I'd brought my torch and everything. It did give me an additional tour off the beaten track, including the Lago di Chiusi -- as still as a mirror.

I'd decided to go to Orvieto (postponed from yesterday) using the non-motorway route. The wiggles and hills made a lot of difference: over an hour as opposed to twenty minutes, but it made it much more interesting. Orvieto is very tourist-minded (plenty of public toilets, for example!) but there's not all that much to see. I think you could easily do it all in a day. I liked the Etruscan temple and the Etruscan-chiselled rock that the town itself is built on. There's an underground tour, but I gave that a miss. It didn't seem very big.

As I was sitting on the wall, looking out at the view over the countryside and monastery, a woman of the "target" age group came up and looked out and took a couple of photos with an SLR. Apart from a faint nervous smile when she arrived, I was too scared to do or say anything a propos chatting up. After a while, she left and I was shocked to realise that she was crying. I desperately hope that it was nothing to do with me failing to respond to signs or hints. I never saw her again.

I had dinner -- table for one -- in a nice restaurant. They had a resident cat: black with white paws, chest and chops; and big, soulful "feed me" eyes. Then I walked up to a piazza where I'd earlier seen a crew setting up for a concert. I'd seen the posters too, but it wasn't clear exactly what sort of band it was going to be. A Chilean folk-rock group, if I understood correctly. I watched for a while - big crowd - but it wasn't really my sort of thing, so I wandered off early. As I was leaving, they were playing something that reminded me of the main theme from "Riverdance" - Andean style.

Orvieto 2003. Or was it 1933? The classic car club of Umbria were in attendance.	The cathedral was having its face cleaned, but the big fresco was uncovered.

Quick zip up the Autostrada, past the almost continuous heavy truck traffic in the inside lane. The world is mad if that makes economic sense, particularly in Italy, which does have an efficient functioning rail network. Home for a long conversation in bad Italian with Mrs. B. I discovered Sonia has a fiance (who did their Internet site). Bang go any notions I had. I told her about the music and she said that there was alway something like that going on in Orvieto and Perugia, usually Jets. "Big local band?" I thought, but eventually realised it's the the Italian pronunciation of "jazz". Umbria Jazz is a  big festival in July.

Thur 26th: I was determined not to go far today. First, Pienza. And for all its uniqueness, it's still really a one-horse town. After a couple of hours, I made the move to nearby Montepulciano. One question about Pienza: if the architect (Rosellino?) had a clean sheet to build the perfect Renaissance town centre, why isn't it more symmetrical?

In Montepulcianco, I parked in the one empty space, exactly where I'd gone the other day - 5 down from the church. Why was it the only one free again? Why were there any available "on road" spaces in the busy town? OK, so getting there involves either driving all the way through the "Traffico Limitato" old town, or driving the wrong way down a one-way street for a  few metres (my route) but hey, this is Italy! Thanks to S. Maria anyway.

Lunch at an enoteca, so I thought I'd have a glass of wine instead of my usual cold beer. The day was hot though, so I bought some mineral water and loitered in the loggia on the Piazza Grande. I can't understand why more tourists don't cool off there, although there is stone seating only round the central column. If I win the lottery, I will donate €1M to Montepulciano Commune to erect matching marble benches around the sides.

Home quite early to a rather odd meal of fried pancetta and olives (clearing the fridge) and chocolate. Time to pack. Sad. I sat for quite long into the evening with the windows and balcony terrace door wide open to the steep Tuscan hillside opposite, like a steeper and more perfect version of the side of Carr's Glen where I grew up, where the Summers were always warm and the days never ended.

RETURN to index