Montepulciano and Val d’Orcia

Thursday today and fresher after a thunderstorm I slept through!

Mostly it was about 26*c with very stormy skies at times. We managed to avoid the downpours somehow and only caught a few drops of rain now and then .

As we got to the city we were very lucky to find a car park space. On the other hand yesterday there were none to be found and we gave up. So pleased we returned today as it is a very interesting place. 

We went to the tourist info and bought a map of the city, asking if there were any steps to climb. The girl said no just a long set of streets for 2.5 km. Well she was correct but the long roads were all on a slow uphill incline. I managed this ok and it wasn’t until we turned round we realised how high we had walked along and up. 

First stop was a coffee and cake. This is starting to be a habit now 😉

The cafe had a grand piano in the room and frescos painted on the ceilings very smart. 

Here are a few of the shops and ancient buildings we saw.

The art gallery featured a Salvador Dali exhibition all free to go in.

Mostly there were wine merchants,leather goods, designer clothes and shoes, artists shops, and many restaurants.

The views from up there were phenomenal. We sadly didn’t get right to the top to the grand piazza. …. Too tiring to go any further. 

I’ve included some sights we saw yesterday of the curves leading up to a wine shop. It looks so different with stormy skies. 

We also saw different views of the hills as we explored. There is so much to see and do here.