Chapter – 4
The Tuscan hill towns of central Italy
San Gimignano, Volterra, Montalcino, Pienza, Montepulciano, Cortona, Urbino, Orvieto, Civita Di Bagnoregio, Siena, Assisi
Centuries ago, the hill towns of Tuscany were built on top of large hills. That's why they call them hill towns. It was a defensive position. Early hill town residents worried little from invading barbaric hordes.
It was their neighbors who gave them fits.
The hill towns fought among themselves mostly, each trying to subdue one another, enlarging their city-state sphere of influence.
It's a tradition which lingers today. You may have seen the travel films of the twice a year horse races in the campo (field) of Siena in the center of town. There are no rules. Just win.. Each rider represents his neighborhood. The rivalry is intense and severe. Losing the race brings disgrace and ridicule upon your neighborhood. The winner basks in bragging rights for one year while losers discover the miseries of defeat.
Our hostess at Cretaiole, Isabella told us this personal rivalry story.
Her husband, Carlo, grew up on the family farm in Pienza. One day, she related, a car with two tourists stopped to ask directions to the next town, San Quirico d'Orcia.
Carlo told them, “never heard of it.” Carlo was involved in his youthful years in town-to-town rivalries.
Each year, a contest was held, and the loser got to pour huge amounts of salt on the loser's town square. There were other insensitivities too.
So when the tourists asked directions, pointing to a map which showed the town they were seeking, 10 kilometers away, Carlo said, “no, the map is wrong, it's not there.”
“I couldn't believe he did that,” said Isabella relating the story.
If you are in Tuscany, you will visit the hill towns. Beware. They are hilly. Bigtime.
Before you leave home, get yourself in good physical condition. As you walk the streets, you will either be going up or going down. We did not physically prepare ourselves before leaving home, and we never made it to the town square at the very top of Montepulciano. (mohn-tay-pull-chee-ah-no)
But we did find a good wine shop, noted for its Vino Noblie wine.
In tourist season, which we were in, these little towns like Montepulciano, get really crowded. Parking lots are at the bottom of the hill. Parking meters are pricey. Parking spaces are premium. Then once you find a spot and feed the meter, it's all uphill from there. You are headed for Piazza Grande, on the top of the ill, if you can get there..
Then there's the traffic..
The hill towns have tiny streets, no sidewalks. As you now are heavily breathing, headed for the Piazza, comes from behind another nuisance, a little Italian car, small enough to negotiate the walkway-streets but big enough to be annoying..
Hill towns are clean and tidy. No trash. Parks and plazzas are bright and cheerful, beautifully landscaped and eye-pleasing.
Flowers abound. Lots of flowers. Townspeople are of modest means. But they decorate their windows and entrances with brightly colored flowers, their way of saying to the thousands of tourists who climb their streets each year – Welcome.
Montalcino (mohn-tahl-chee-no) is famous for the brunello grape, growing in vineyards surrounding the town. The grape makes the famous brunello wine.
The young man in the wine shop told us that the bottle of brunello that I was holding, came from the very grapes grown on his family vineyards. How could we refuse.
Anyway, before we vacated the wine shop, and there are oodles of them here, we dropped 70 euro. Some brunello wine, which we brought home, a bottle of vin santo and a bottle of lemoncello.
Vin santo is a sweet wine favored by Italian ladies as an afternoon pick-me-up (or pick-me-down). It is highly alcoholic.
Lemoncello is an after dinner wine. Be sure you have a full stomach before sampling. This stuff has a real kick. compare it to flavored moonshine.
Early in our visit, we sat down for lunch at an out-door table. We had heard of Lemoncello from one of the Italian cooking shows and wanted to taste it. “We'll have lemoncello with lunch,” we told the young lady.. The waitress asked if we ever drank lemoncello. We said “no.”
“ It's an after-dinner drink,” she said. “ Very powerful.”
We changed our choice to fizz water. When our meal came, she gave us a small complimentary sample glass of lemoncello, just enough for a taste for two. She was right. It was powerful.
We gave her a nice tip.
http://www.sangimignano.com/ www.prolocomontalcino.it
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Thanks. Chapter 5 on Tuesday
