Tuscany: Montepulciano and Montalcino

Oh my gosh, these trip updates have been taking me forever to finish! One more about the Italy trip, and I'm going to try to make this the last post about it!  Brace yourself for a monstrous post.  On two separate days while staying in southern Tuscany, we took road trips to Montepulciano and Montalcino, and then, on our last day, Amanda and I went again to Montalcino to shop and enjoy a leisurely lunch.  Both towns were beautiful and charming and I really enjoyed taking Lola out to see the sights.

First up, Montepulciano.  What a beautiful town!  Of all of them, the steps and stone paths here were probably the steepest, slipperiest and by virtue of that, the most challenging.  We went to a restaurant for lunch first, where Lola was in heaven, getting to eat at the adult table.  First, she got to try to be a sommelier. Red, or white?  Brunello, or Chianti?

 And then she tried on her auntie's sunglasses, figuring out how to put them on her own face.  It's all in the accessories, mon cher.

We had pici with board ragu, grilled veggies, game hen, a salad and dessert.

 

 Lola had buttered carrots, green beans and corn.  Look at her expression of glee!

 And please note that food tastes better when your foot is perched up on your high chair.

This little one is just jam packed with character!

 

She also busied herself with flipping through the dessert menu, and trying to grab my phone.

 
Needless to say, she had an absolute blast.

 

 We walked through the town square, meandered down some small streets, wandered into a church,

and Lola loved trying to flip my hat up like a little cowboy.

 

In Montalcino, we rolled into town just in time for lunch.  First, coffee break!  Coffee breaks in Italy are so great because you can sit leisurely or you can just stand at the bar and chug it.

 Lola was intrigued and paid for my latte and Michael's double espresso.  It took a bit of persuading for her to let the money go...

 When we were seated for lunch, Lola was given a "special" high chair, haha!  She was again thrilled to be seated right up with the adults.  We had some tasty dishes - all fresh and flavorful.  The light red house wine didn't hurt, either.

 

 

 

 Then we went for a walk throughout the charming town.

 

 

 

 We found a beautiful patio in the back of a drugstore with (surprise) a nice view.

 

Huge thanks to my sister for capturing this picture - probably my favorite of the entire trip

We went shopping (I really wanted a bathrobe, but they didn't have any in my size- doh!) and a linen duvet (but it needed to be custom made with measurements - doh again!), so then we headed home.

On our final full day in Tuscany, Amanda and I had lunch with a nice view.

The day started off drizzly, but on our way back from Montalcino, we stopped again in San d'Quirico where we did some (more) shopping and the weather cleared up.  I picked up some nice kitchen handtowels and a bright red dress.

Because we went in the afternoon, the town was absolutely quiet - siesta time.

 

 

 And as if all of that wasn't enough, on our last night, Michael and I went out on a date night by ourselves.  We drove to nearby Montichiello again, and the hilly ascent to the town was the perfect site for the slow sunset, spreading the sky with the most vivid, lustrous streaks of purple, orange, yellow and pink.

 We enjoyed dinner at a little restaurant nestled just within the edge of the city's massive stone walls.

 

All too soon and all too sadly, it was time to depart for the airport.  There, we returned our rental car and then headed our separate ways -Amanda onward to Rome via train for a few days, and us back to Hong Kong.

 It was such a fun trip and I'm so glad we did it.  What an epic two weeks.  Look at how happy Lola is - clearly she concurs!