29 July 2010

Yet Another Stunning Hilltop Village

I DON'T WANT to suggest that all the incredible villages we have visited over the past few years begin to blend together and become, in some ways, indistinguishable, but...

No, that's not fair; I won't even go there. Instead I'll just put it this way: the number of medieval villages that sit high atop the hills in France and Italy is mind-boggling. Today we visited Montepulciano -- a gorgeous village in the hills of Tuscany, just south of Siena and about 40 minutes west of where are are living this summer. Montepulician is, of course, most widely known for it's wine and olive oil and those products were prominently on display in the village -- most local producers have a shop in town and most of those shops have vast underground cellars where the wine is being stored in various sized oak barrels. Just walking through these cellars is an incredible experience that seems to transport you into the 13th and 14th centuries.

The cheese in the cellars didn't smell particularly good.
In the cave with the aging wine.
One clever way to show off bottles of wine.

A little pizza for lunch.

Kids with grandparents.

Two kids with mom.

Three kids with me.

A great old little Fiat. Too bad those two guys wouldn't get out of the way.

3 comments :

jim said...

Nice picture of the Fiat. Dana still rolls her eyes at how many pics I took of all the old cars when we visited!

becky said...

I love the pictures--
the picture of Patrick in with the aging cheese is really neat--i've never seen how they do that in a cellar.
Keri with the kids
the sepia tone with Jonathan with kids
Les & Joni with the kids.
Other than the fat guys with the Fiat, you are all very photogenic--especially the kids. Cannot believe how they are all growing!!!!!

Unknown said...

Holy shit,,,Patrick is turning out HOTTTTT!!!!I have to show Inaya his picture regularly from now on....

I miss you guys....where are you and when can we see you?