The day dawns bright, clear, and less cool than previous mornings. By 9:00AM, we are approaching ready to head out for our day’s explorations. Already, the drive in and out of here is getting a little old. It is 17KM to Camucia and relatively flat ground. We would not want to have to make this drive every day. Today’s plan includes exploring some of the small Tuscan hilltop villages and if time allows a drive down to Orvieto. With that plan, we are on the road by 9:30AM with another picnic lunch.
Our host had given us a list of some the villages they liked so we start with Montepulciano, a hilltop town famous for red wine about 45 KM west of Cantalena. It is Sunday so everyone is out riding their bikes or motorcycles on the narrow winding roads. The countryside is stunning with the vineyards, bright green fields and wildflowers of every color and description blooming along the roads.






The next stop is Pienza about 7KM away. We find a place that was once a picnic ground on the way and decide to have our lunch. We are finding there are very few places to pull off the road in Italy. Pienza is famous for its cheeses and is supposed to have many shops that have free tastings and are fun to visit. It is about noon when we get there and everyone must be doing the tasting thing for lunch! Again no cars inside the walls and this time there is no parking left outside the walls. After several tries, we give up. Fortunately, we can drive around the wall of this village so we get peeks of the village through the several gates along with wonderful views of the countryside from the hilltop.
OK, so it is on to the next stop…..Bagno Vignoni another 7 or so KM, south this time. It is not our day; the three parking lots are full so we decide we really do not want to see the Roman baths after all! As we are driving away on a different road, we can see a little of the site. I do not think we missed much.
We are only about an hour’s drive to Orvieto and the road is marked as scenic so we head south. It is a very nice drive. There is very little traffic now and one little walled village on a hilltop after another. We decide they are much prettier viewed from a distance than trying to walk through them. Italy’s medieval history is really brought home to us on this drive as many of these walled villages have an impressive castle or fortress on the top side of the wall and are placed so they overlook and guard the valleys for miles around.


Our first view of Orvieto is wonderful.





After this visit, Carolyn decides she want to see the Cathedral in Orvieto again. Last time we were there, you could drive right to the main plaza, so Dick sets the GPS for the Piazza Doumo and off we go. We enter one of the gates in Orvieto’s wall and wind around the narrow alleyways until blocked by a “do not enter” symbol! The Piazza is now a pedestrian zone! Fortunately, there is a blue arrow to public parking, so we follow the signs to a small plaza that has spaces. We cannot read the parking rules except to know that there is a two-hour limit. There is no parking ticket dispenser either. Hoping for the best, we display the German parking timer, get out, lock the car and head to the Cathedral. We find the main plaza in short order and visit the Cathedral…the church in prison stripes.





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