travelswithalice

May 21, 2018

Two days in Montepulciano with Annette

Saturday

Early start for our weekend in Montepulciano. Taxi to Roma Tiburtina Station, train to Chiusi, bus to Montepulciano, and finally, shuttle bus to Centro.

The shuttle bus driver points out our hotel, the Palazzo Carletti before pulling up at the bus stop a few feet away.

We’re at the source of our current favourite wine.

After dinner at the Gattavecchi Winery, the owner’s son Maurizio Valente takes us to the wine cellar. He tells us his grandfather invented the Montepulciano Nobile wine. Actually, he invented the name that made the wine famous.

We walk back from dinner in pouring rain. Our landmark, Ristorante Rosso Robino must’ve closed early as it’s in total darkness, so we shoot right past it. It takes me a while to realize we’ve also gone past our hotel.

I later wonder if the nice good looking gentleman whose shop we took shelter in, who gallantly helped me into my disposable plastic raincoat before showing us the way home was actually an angel or a figment of Annette’s and my imagination....

Sunday

On our second day, we have to change hotels as Carletti is full. Check in time is not until 4 o’clock, so we leave our bags at Carletti while we go and explore the town.

In the lovely little church nearby, where we watched a wedding party yesterday, we light Mothers Day candles for Mommy and Tita Naty.

We browse at a flea market on the main square while waiting for the 12 o’clock mass in the Duomo.

After mass, we walk all around the tiny hilltop town chock-full of shops, restaurants, wine merchants, and pretty little art galleries. The landscape is incredibly beautiful, the Tuscan vistas reminiscent of Renaissance paintings.

It’s hard work walking the steeply sloping streets though and we’re exhausted by the time we pick up our bags and bid farewell to Carletti for our move to Palazzo Nobile di San Donato.

Palazzo? More like a dungeon, says Annette.

This place is a complete and total let down after Palazzo Carletti! Someone ought to call them out on their patently misleading website!

Never mind, we only have a few hours to spend here anyway as we’re leaving early tomorrow morning.

Monday

It’s 8 degrees outside and a brisk wind makes us shiver. The one good thing about this inhospitable “house of the nobility” is that the shuttle bus stops right outside its front door. We arrive at the bus station in plenty of time to wait for our 10 o’clock bus to Chiusi.

Stuart calls to suggest we go to the Centro instead of Tiburtina because it’s closer to our hotel. The train to Roma Termini leaves a good hour and a half after the one to Tiburtina, which makes us much too early to be waiting at the train station.

This puzzles the man at the Chiusi ticket counter. Am I sure I want tickets for today? He asks again.

With time to spare, we have a leisurely brunch at Bar Italia some distance away from the station. We now firmly believe that Italian station caffès make the best coffee ever.

On the train:

Just adter leaving Orto, the train grinds disconcertingly to a stop in a tunnel. In the dark, with the engine completely quiet, a sudden change of air pressure makes my ears pop and the glass doors in front of me swing sharply open.

Annette is sleeping soundly in her seat.

After a long interval when everyone on the train is starting to look around restively and worriedly touching their ears. an announcement on the PA. But only in Italian. There will be a delay of 20 minutes. I’m yawning continuously.

We’re moving again at 2:30, by which time we should’ve already arrived in Roma Termini.

Annette is still sleeping, blissfully unaware of what happened. Just as well, as it probably would’ve freaked her out.

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # May 21, 2018

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