Montalcino

 


We got to sleep in, again! I love the slowed down pace of this tour!  It’s another sunny day, a bit cooler but still beautiful!


We drove towards Montalcino, one of my favourite areas of Tuscany!  The bus dropped us off and we completed a 6 km hike in about 2 hours. I can’t even put it into words, it was so spectacular!  The best part is that the hike was predominantly on a slight downhill slope, with just a short section at the end that was steep and precarious!


We ended our hike at the Abbey of St Antimo. This beautiful Abbey was in a gorgeous Tuscan setting!


From there we drove about 20 minutes to the town of Montalcino, another beautiful hilltop town. This area is famous for the Brunello de Montalcino wine, some of the best wine in the world. 


We had 1.5 hours to explore the town. There is a fortress at the top of the hill where you can go up on the top of the walls to get a spectacular view of the town and surrounding countryside. I did this, then stopped downstairs at the fortress to enjoy a glass of Brunello de Montalcino with bruschetta! It was wonderful!


We regrouped on the bus at 2:30 and we’re anticipating where our surprise destination was going to be. Laura said she had a surprise stop for us. We went to a place called Bagno Vignoni, which has natural thermal springs. We sat on the rocks and soaked our tired feet in the thermal water in hopes of reviving them. It felt good but I don’t think any miracles happened!


We returned to the hotel at 4:00 and had a couple of hours to relax. There was a market going on just down from our hotel so some people checked it out while others got in some last minute shopping in the stores and others soaked up the sun on the patio. 


We left again at 5:45 to drive out to a winery in the countryside for a wine tasting and dinner.  What was supposed to take us 30 minutes ended up taking an hour as we got “temporarily displaced”.  It was a beautiful evening in Tuscany, a wonderful place to get lost! 


When we did eventually arrive we were given a quick tour  and explanation of the winery.  Then we went in to the dining  room where we were served wine and a fabulous meal.  We were served beef that had been cooked in wine and it was to die for!  Well, the more wine that got consumed , the louder it got in that room!  I would have to say that everyone had a great time.


We took a faster route home but likely not fast enough for some people as Denise had the microphone and was “entertaining “ all of the way home! 😉🤦‍♀️


















































































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