Pienza & Montepulciano

I paid for a trip to Tuscany during orientation, and I have been looking forward to my day in the Tuscan countryside ever since. It was really nice to have a lot of friends going on the trip, and to have everything organized for us.

We had to be at the bus at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning, and were nearly late because the tram didn’t come. After some serious hustling (and a pit stop for croissants) we got on the bus for the two and a half hour ride past sunflower fields and farms to Pienza.

Pienza is a tiny Renaissance town, located high up on a hill. It was a run down hometown of a famous pope, who decided to transform it into the “ideal” town. Basically, the town is nearly circular and walled, the town square is in the exact center, with a main road running straight through. All other streets veer off in other directions, but lead to the main road, making it impossible to get lost. The entire town, matching architecture and all, was built in four years (which is a big deal). A walk around the walls surrounding the town give a 360 degree view of the Tuscan countryside. Pienza was absolutely adorable, and there are no cars around so it was peaceful despite droves of curious tourists. There were a ton of cute little shops full of cheeses, meats, pasta and spices. We had an hour and a half to wander there, so we took a bunch of pictures then set off in search of some food, since our lunch wasn’t until late afternoon. We stumbled upon a little place with a sign for Nutella crepes (one of the things I’ve been hoping to try here, but I never seem to make it out of my apartment for breakfast). They were small, but delicious, and we out them outside in between all of these pretty stone buildings. We wandered around town for awhile, went into the church that’s falling apart because the pope went crazy with the tower, and relaxed in the shade until departing for the medieval town of Montepulciano.

I didn’t make the connection until that morning, but Montepulciano is where they filmed the Italy scenes of New Moon, the second Twilight movie. It was quite a surprise to find that out. A bunch of us took a “Twilight Tour” with one of the trip organizers, who went to the town for a casting, as well as before and after shooting.

If you don’t know/hate Twlight, ignore this paragraph. Our “Twilight expert” walked us up a huge winding road through the town, which is where they filmed the scene with the Porsche racing through the streets. Then we walked through an archway and up a huge brick ramp, leading to narrow, crumbling stairs, where they filmed scenes of Bella running to save Edward. After a long uphill walk we made it to the piazza, which during filming was filled with thousands of people in red robes, as well as a fountain constructed just for the shoot (you can see the outline of where it stood on the ground). There’s a huge church, where all of the people file in, and a big stone building with a clock tower, with giant doors where Edward is about to show himself in the sunlight. I had seen some pictures from filming the scene, and they looked really great. It was way cooler to see it in person, exactly how I imagined it while reading the book. (I’m a geek. I know it. Move on.) I took some pictures standing in the same doorway where Robert Pattinson stood shirtless…that pretty much means we’re dating, right?

After taking lots of pictures, our Twilight group headed back to take a tour of a wine cellar (a former underground prison) and see all of the enormous barrels of wine. Then we went upstairs for the tasting. I thought I would learn much more about wine than I did, we were basically just handed small cups of whatever wine we asked to try, denoted by year. There were only 7 or 8 kinds, and I don’t know anything about them. I also tried some cheeses, olive oil and salami made by the family-run company. Everything was delicious, but I had no idea what I was drinking or eating, so that was sort of disappointing.

After the tasting, we got back on the bus to head to a farmhouse restaurant on the outskirts of Montepulciano, run by the same family who runs the wine cellar. We had our own courtyard and were served a delicious five course meal: wine, bread, unlimited water (rare in Italy), various salamis and hams, cheese, a strange artichoke, salad, amazing pasta, chicken, potatoes, biscotti and a sherry/dessert wine. It was all good, but I didn’t get as much food as I was expecting for a five course meal. However, I had a five course meal at a Tuscan farmhouse. So there.

We headed back to Rome after lunch, and all tried to fall asleep immediately because a lot of us were feeling carsick on the way up the windy streets (pretty much cliffside, without a guardrail). The trip organizers brought bags for any possible throw-up and passed them out on the bus, it was pretty funny. Apparently every time they do this trip someone has thrown up on the way home. Thankfully, our group could hold their wine, and proved to be the exception.