Monday, july 18

We spent most of the day lounging around the B&B's beautiful and quite chilly pool, reading, blogging, and napping.  Our fellow guests, a family who spoke some hybrid of German and French, dove right in.  We appreciate that German tenacity.  They even brought their own air pump to inflate their pool toys.  Anyway, this pretty much sums up how the Americans spent their day at the pool...

We headed into downtown Montepulciano for dinner, and by headed downtown, I mean made our way up a very steep hill.  It's supposed to be a ten or fifteen minute walk from our B&B, but it would have taken us much much longer if we hadn't found two elevators hidden in the hillside and a bus that takes you all the way from the lower gates of town to the top of the hill for a whopping 1.10 euros.  That's the best 2.20 euros we will probably spend on this entire trip.

Once we started descending the hill, we knew we were not going back up, so we had to be smart.  We wandered down through the town, Rick Steves Italy book in hand, until we found a suitable restaurant.  La Pentolaccia was listed in the guidebook, and we were lucky to snag a table without a reservation.  The sweet waitress, Christiana, was a true delight and we showed her where she was specifically mentioned in the book.  "Ah, Rick Steves!," she said, "I'm famous."  She was just adorable and the nicest person you could ever hope to meet.

Our meals were outstanding, with Hirsh opting for pici pasta with wild boar sauce and Sarah discovering a new love for pasta with truffles.