Tuesday 9th - Montepulciano & Pienza

We visited this church on the way to Montepulciano, but I'm afraid I didn't take a note of the name.
This is the Piazza Grande right at the top of the hill in Montepulciano, it was quite a climb to the top and although there were some beautiful shops on the way up, sadly I didn't have time to do any shopping.

We stopped at the cafe on the left of the well for a cup of coffee.

This was the amazing view from the top of Montepulciano, I had to take this picture 'blind' by holding my camera over an opaque screen.
On the way back down the hill we saw this clock tower and the little man at the top conveniently struck the bell for us!

More gorgeous flowers.

It was quite a long way down and when you thought you had reached the bottom you turned a corner and there was another street to go down.

After we left Montepulciano we headed to another vineyard for a wine tasting. This was a much more modern place and the administrative centre for several vineyards. They provided us with a delicious spagetti dish with fresh tomato sauce, plates of bread, salami, cheese and cured wild boar and were very generous with their wine! You will note that there are no photos :)

We then moved on to Pienza, which is famous for it's Pecorino ewes milk cheese. It was the birthplace of Pope Pius II and a rare example of renaissance town building (or so it says in the guide)
I think I had got 'pretty little Tuscan town' overload by this time so not so many photos.
The coach stopped on the way back to let us take pictures from this view point.

Monday 8th - Siena

It was about an hour on the coach to Siena where we were met by a local guide who took us first to St Catherine's Cathedral (see above). In the Cathedral we were invited to view St Catherine's head - eek and also her finger!!! The Italian's certainly like their relics and these seemed to be particularly gruesome, later in the Duomo we shown the place where they keep one of John the Baptist's arms - a gift from Pope Pius III, if I remember correctly.
We walked through Siena hearing about the history of the city, there were many attractive side streets like this one.
We then reached the Duomo which was very ornate both externally and internally.
It was difficult to photograph the frescos and paintings in the light, but this slightly out of focus picture of the ceiling gives you an idea.
There were also some amazing illustrated manuscripts on display, the colours were so vibrant.
Here is Brian having a seat outside the Duomo, it was beginning to get very hot.
Our guides left us at these steps leading to the Piazza del Campo. This is the place where they hold the 'Palio di Siena' a remarkable horse race which was featured in the James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

The Piazza del Campo

We had lunch at one of the cafes at the side of the Piazza

Brian's lunch

Janice's lunch

We then had free time to wander around, I loved the display of fruit they had in this little store.
There were many little details in the architecture that just begged to be photographed.
We returned to our hotel, but were then eating out at a restaurant with a stunning view of the valley. The meal was delicious, we had bruchetta, tomato and bread soup, pork fillet with sage served with insalata mista and a creme brulee with lavendar sugar, it was all delicious. Oh and we might have had some wine!!!

Sunday 7th - Montalcino and Brunello di Montalcino wine tasting

Okay, okay here are some more pictures, bear with me though because I have to convert them all to web size before posting, so can't go too quickly. So here we are in Montalcino, a medieval hill town with more great views of the Tuscan countryside.

I did say 'hill town' didn't I?

There were some beautiful flowers, more than usual because they were preparing for a saints day festival.
You can see that the weather was still a bit dodgy here there was a brief thunder shower after we returned to the hotel, but it soon cleared up and the weather started to improve, no idea what the church is, we didn't visit.
This display was part of the harvest festival, big baskets of cherries, loaves of bread, bales of straw and sheaves of wheat.
Every house had a beautiful display, Brian particularly like these cacti.
There was glorious scented jasmine growing up the walls in all the towns we visited and also at our hotel.

A little shop selling pasta and snacks, the pasta looked so colourful.

This sign shows the area where Brunello di Montalcino can be grown. No more vines can be planted and claim this name, by limiting the supply they also control the price!
Fattoria dei Barbi - Fattoria means farm, and this farm made wine, cheese from their sheep's milk, salami from their pigs and grew crops to feed the animals. We had a tour of the cellars and heard about the Croatian oak barrles which give Brunello di Montalcino it's distinctive 'leathery' aroma - enticing huh! We tasted three different wines, they were very good, but not so good that we wanted to buy them.
This is the outside of the Cantina where we were waiting for those who were buying wine.

A Taste of Tuscany - Arrival at Hotel Casanova

Hello everyone! I have returned from my holiday in Tuscany, Italy and over the next week or so I will post up the photographs I took around the Tuscan countryside. The map above shows all of Tuscany and the one below is more specific to the Val d'Orcia where our hotel, Hotel Casanova was located, just outside the small town of San Quirico d'Orcia.


We had a pretty good trip, although the flight from London to Rome was slightly delayed, we then had a 2 1/2 hour coach trip to the hotel. The room was very nice and opened out onto this little terrace with a table and chairs. So here are a couple of pictures of Brian and I on the terrace!

The views from the hotel were pretty stunning, it was quite cloudy on the first couple of days with a threat of some rain. However, the rain didn't come to anything and it was still warm, quite good fro sightseeing really.
There will be another post later today :)

Bubbly Scrumptious - Birthday Card

Here is the card I have made for my MIL's birthday. It is based on a card design by Kathy Black for Bubbly Scrumptious and features the K&Co papers from the May Bubbly Funk Kit.
The card insert is made from a digital download from Heartwarming Vintage which I altered digitally.

The Next Level

There is a new challenge blog called 'The Next Level' and they are offering all this candy, why not visit and see what it is all about.

The Simple Woman's Day Book

For Today...Monday 25th May

Outside my window...hurrah, the sun has been shining all day!

I am thinking... about my holiday in Italy, not long now!

I am thankful for... being in Dumfries today because at lunchtime I was able to walk in the beautiful gardens that surround my work.

From the kitchen... pork tenderloin rolled with herbs and garlic.

I am wearing...cotton sweater, cotton boarding pants, no socks!

I am reading... Still reading 'The Other Queen' this is not a good sign because if it had been good I would have finished it by now.

I am hoping... that the weather stays dry, but it doesn't seem likely.

I am creating... no time to create tonight, did a lot of creating at the Non-Retreaters Crop on Bubbly Funk Forum over the weekend. It was fun.

Around the house... everything is quite clean after my clean up weekend.

One of my favorite things... coffee and cake - oh that's two, lol

A few plans for the rest of the week... not quite as hectic this week, hoping to get caught up on some work stuff tomorrow.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you..
The summer weather made me think of holidays, this is me and my Mum at Mullion Cove in Cornwall.