April 11-25, 2023


This morning I opened the windows to hear the church bells chime, I always like that. The weather was calling for a chance of rain again, but the blue skies looked promising. Last night after dinner we finally booked our next two legs of the trip, first San Vincenzo then on to Rapallo. Not sure why we had trouble deciding on those 2 stops, but we were happy to have that done, now we could focus on the present.

Today would be a wandering day bouncing from beautiful place to beautiful place. First stops were simply along the winding roads through Val d' Orcia, absolutely amazing!














Next was a quick visit to San Quirico d' Orcia. We really liked the feel of this small town, a few shops and restaurants and a GIN BAR! Their coffee was good too! Highlights...medieval churches and the not to be missed Horti Leonini Renaissance Gardens!



















Next stop would be Montalcino, home of Brunello wine! Did I mention it was my BIRTHDAY?!!

Chose Trattoria I' Angolo for a great lunch, I had lasagna and my wife had a stew of some sort, both were perfect! We ordered the house red and really liked it, then my wife mentioned it was my birthday lunch. I guess the word traveled and a nice gentleman "bartender" came over and said if we liked that wine please try this, and then this and then a few more.....fortunately he was only bringing out tasting portions! Dessert and coffee followed this great lunch without asking, waitress simply said happy birthday from us! Our favorite wine was a 2014 Tassi Brunello Montalcino. After a beautiful lunch and many "free" tastings I asked the bartender for a bottle of our favorite for our travels and he smiles and says "allow me to introduce you to Mr. Tassi!" he just happened to be standing there! I introduced him to my wife and we told him how much we loved his wine and we would patiently wait to enjoy it on Lake Orta! That was a great birthday lunch!














Montalcino is a small town, we spent about 2 hours walking all over the place including the impressive fortress and Madonna del Soccorso from the early 14th century.















Soon we were heading to Bagni Vignoni, famous for another thermal hot spring. This town was lovely, but much smaller than I thought it would be. There are a couple of restaurants and shops. We walked the picturesque town in less than an hour and returned to find a parking ticket on the car, ugh. We thought we were in a one hour parking lot, but after asking around we needed to display a "paper parking pass" that has a dial on it to set your time, we didn't have a "paper dial" and didn't know to do that, how/where does a tourist get one of those? Several rental cars had the same ticket. We were told we would have to go BACK to San Quirico d' Orcia to pay the fine ugh ugh! That scam payment will have to wait until tomorrow.













Oh well, back towards Pienza. Chris at IL Rossellino Ristorante told us if we wanted the best Pecorino cheese, IN THE WORLD, we should go to Cugusi's on the backside of town towards Montepulciano, so we did. They actually have won many recent World Cheese awards, including a couple Super Gold Victories! What a cool and beautiful off the beaten path location. We bought a small wheel for friends and a large wedge of the coveted Gran Reserve for ourselves as well as a second wheel just because!








Back in Pienza to fare la passeggiata! The peaceful walkways around the cities walls offer a great vantage point for colorful sunsets. I swear there's no better views in the world. We ended this memorable birthday with dinner at Trattoria da Fiorella. Rabbit was recommended and it was delicious with a bottle of Brunello! There was another birthday celebration and we talked with the nice couple from Canada, the woman asked how old and I said 60, she said "you're just a baby!" she made my already perfect day that much better! To be continued....