A day without kids

Jason's parents gave us a day off. They offered to watch the kids for the entire day so that Jason and I could explore the Tuscan countryside. We left a bunch of the little towns for this day since it would be easier to make multiple stops without the kids. We headed off to Pienza. It was a very small town and it was relatively flat which was a big change since most places are hilly. There were a lot of cheese shops in Pienza. It seemed to be the majority of shops in town were devoted to Pecorino cheese which was good for us since we love cheese. After wondering through the town and seeing the fantastic views we stopped in one of the cheese shops. While we were waiting in line for cheese I heard a language I didn't expect to hear...Czech! I had to turn to them and ask them if they spoke English. I asked it in Czech which, of course, quickly left me at a loss so they changed to English. It was fun to see someone from "home" while in Italy. After speaking with them for a couple minutes in line we bought some cheese and headed out to find a town called Montisi. I knew nothing about it but someone had mentioned it so I figured we would check it out. There was nothing in Montisi. It was a tiny village that we were through before we even saw any parking. It wasn't ugly or anything. It was just too small to even stop. We decided to continue on to Asciano. The drive to Asciano was beautiful. This area is so completely different to other areas of Tuscany. The landscape is so barren looking at this time of year. The turned over fields look like they could be the moon. (This pic on the right is a close up of the dirt. It was so hard I could walk on it without crushing it!) It is oddly beautiful. We drove by a farmer tilling his fields although I'm not sure what he was tilling as the soil already looked like it had been turned over.

After driving through the beautiful country side we came to Asciano. I can say that is the least pretty town we have been to in Italy. It just seemed like an old poor working town. After walking through the main street we headed back to our car and off to San Quirico d' Orcia.
San Quirico D' ORcia is beautiful. I knew we would like the town when I saw the entrance to the town. (pictured on the left) As I already mentioned I just love walking through the old wall gates. It is like being transported back in time. We walked though the gates and the world is left behind and we are graced with a quiet little town. We walked along for a little bit looking for a restaurant since it was lunch time and we were hungry. The town was so quiet it was hard to believe that anyone was even there but we came upon Trattoria al Vecchio Forno. They were serving lunch in the garden so we headed in. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch. I decided to try the house wine which was fantastic. I love that wine is so cheap in Italy that I don't mind giving any kind a try. I am fairly picky when it comes to wine so I don't want to spend a lot of money on a glass of wine since I might not like it but since most house wine is cheap in Italy I gave it a shot. The wine we had was very good so after lunch we went in search of the wine but of course the only place that had it was the restaurant! Why is it that whenever I find a wine I like it is no longer available?? (I know, everyone else liked it too) We ended up going back to the restaurant to see of they would just sell us a bottle and they did so I at least got to enjoy it again while in Italy. We explored the town and came upon some wine making. It was interesting to see the left over part of the grapes sitting in a barrel as well as on the floor. We tasted some of the wine that they were selling of previous years. Jason liked one of them but they had already sold out of that year so I'm not sure why they were even letting people taste it. Oh well. We continued to walk around the town since it was so peaceful. I love seeing different doors in Italy. They are often very pretty with flowers all around. This door is just an example of the many beautiful doorways we saw while in Italy. We decided to head back to Montepulciano after leaving San Quirico. I had to shoo a cat out of the road before we could go since he was laying in the middle and didn't seem to care that cars kept having to drive around him. I just didn't want him to meet his end when a car didn't see him. After shooing him I had to pet him since I didn't want him to think I was being mean. He was a friendly cat and liked being pet. Maybe that is his ploy...sit in the road until some sucker pets him! Anyway, we made the drive back to Montepulciano enjoying the scenery. The kids had fun with Grammie and Grandpa. They got to spend a lot of time at the playground in Montepulciano. It was a fun day had by all!