A Tuscan Walk

Last year when I was in Montepulciano, I only visited the other local towns that were serviced by a bus (Siena and Pienza), since I did not have a car.  And since the same is true this year, I decided to do a bit of wandering by foot for a different perspective and a new experience.

I had heard of a couple cute towns that were nearby-ish, and so I asked one of my teachers if you could walk to them.  Monticchiello, which was on the top of my list, was one of the towns that she suggested was no problem walking to.

So I asked for a map (since I am actually quite horrible with directions) and she said that there was no map (not surprising, but this also made me a bit nervous).  She told me to just leave Montepulciano and walk towards the San Bagio Hotel, take a left onto a strada bianca (unpaved road), and then whenever there is a fork in the road, to always take the right.  Follow these directions, and I should be able to get there in about 1 1/2 hours.

When I arrived at the San Bagio Hotel, on my left was a paved road, and on the right was an unpaved road.  Since I had been directed to take a left onto a unpaved road (which was clearly paved), I decided to go into the hotel and ask for some help.  The concierge told me to take the left, the paved road, and assured me that there were many signs along the way, and that it would be very clear to me where to go.

So finally I was on my way.  Paved or unpaved, the start of my walk was promising for the beauty that was in store ahead.  When I reached the first fork in the road, there was no sign for Monticchiello, and the right looked like a driveway to someone’s home, so I felt a bit confused again.  Luckily a car was pulling up, and the couple inside was able to assist and assure me, that yes, take the right.  Always take the right.

From that moment forward I took every right at a fork.  Surrounded by nothing but the Tuscan countryside, I felt like Maria in Sound of Music, singing to myself, “climb every mountain…”

strada bianca

Even looking through these pictures, I am a little like, “is this place real?”  Yes it is, I promise you.

ciao montepulciano!

About an hour and a half in, I started to wonder, where am I going?  I couldn’t see any town anywhere nearby.  And then the winds picked up, the clouds started rolling in, and the sky started to look quite threatening.

Luckily a cyclist that was heading in my direction, assured me that I was heading in the right direction.  He also happened to mention that I would need to go up and down many more hills before I got close.  And then he repeated maybe 5 times in a row, “you’re going on foot?  On foot?  On foot?…”  And then he pointed at the sky, in case I hadn’t noticed.

Hearing that I had many more hills to climb, and with the skies looking very threatening, I really tried to pick up my pace (a.k.a. I started running down some of the hills – gotta love that Tuscan cardio).  Even rushing a bit to make it to my destination before the rain, I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around how constantly beautiful and changing the landscape was.  It is moments like these, on the quietness of a Tuscan road, slightly running, that you feel an inner peace and gratitude simply for living.

the first and only sign of my entire walk

Within about 30 minutes, I saw what looked like an abandoned castle of sorts, and I almost started to lose hope that I might ever reach Monticchiello.  But once I made it up that last hill, there was a tiny sign in front of the castle wall which thankfully read, Monticchiello.

I think that I literally exclaimed out loud something to the effect of “Yes!  I made it!”  The fact that I didn’t get lost, get rained on, or give up was a huge success.

Montechiello is very cute and very small – it maybe took me about 7 minutes in total to walk the entire town.

But 7 minutes was perfect with me, because my legs were feeling kind of sluggish, and so I decided to stop and have a spot of lunch.  And lucky for me the main restaurant in Monticchiello, Osteria La Porta, has quite the reputation in Tuscany.

I walked in, very excited to sit (and eat), and asked in Italian if I could have some lunch or if they hadn’t started service yet.  The woman (who I believe to be the owner), responded in English that they had no availability.  I said, kind of jokingly, too bad because I just walked all the way from Montepulciano (sad truth).  She looked a little annoyed at me, and offered that I could sit and have one hour, and if the reservation for the table showed up early, I would have to leave immediately.

I was a bit surprised by her response, as Italians are well known for letting people linger and relax for as long as they want, but I figured that I would go with it and not let her personality disrupt my experience.

I sat down (in an empty restaurant) and ordered right away.  Regardless of my first moments, I felt so excited…but unfortunately my excitement soon turned to disappointment.

Although all of the food looks delicious…my fonduta was cold, my pasta nowhere near as good as others I have eaten (especially Fiorella’s), and my artichoke sformato…no seasoning whatsoever.  A total bummer.  Oh well, I still enjoyed my glass of wine and a chance to sit for a bit.  And interestingly enough, the restaurant never filled up.

My lunch experience reminded me of a valuable piece of advice my Mom gave me many years ago.  Always, always, always treat everyone with the same kindness and respect that you desire, regardless of how they treat you.  Because you never know if some one else is struggling with something or might remember how you treated them poorly.

views from Monticchiello

With my lunch done (in an hour mind you), I headed back out to make one last pass around town.  But since the clouds had really rolled in, I decided that I should just catch a taxi back to Montepulciano, and call it a day.

On my ride home, I talked to the driver about my walk over.  He was shocked, and asked, “you walked???  Did you run into any wild boars????  They can be very dangerous.”  Thankfully no, but probably better that I knew that after rather than before, or I might not have boar the idea to walk there in the first place.

views from atop Montepulciano, finally back home