Ok, here we go! I'm getting behind a bit in my posting. Plus the wifi is kind of spotty here, something to do with the 1000 year old rock walls I imagine.

So, let's see. On Monday, the 25th of September it was Beth's birthday, so she got to pick what we're going to do for that day. It was a pleasant day, so Beth, Gaye and I went for a walk through the forest here. Keith hung back for some quiet time and to catch up on some writing. We got some quick directions from Sonia, the French woman who owns this place (she married an Italian guy and they bought the villa in 1992). We headed down the gravel road aways and then veered left. She said to go between another stone house and the shepherd's house. Yup, they have shepherds here, we've seen the sheep (and ate lot's of pecorino cheese too). We followed a gravel road (pathway really) that had a chain across to keep cars out. As we walked along I realized it was probably a very old road that we were traversing on. There were old stone walls lining the route and it just had that feeling of being ancient. We wound our way through these woods and then suddenly came across an old cluster of buildings, including a church, house, and a very old overgrown graveyard. Luckily there was a plaque on the stone wall that gave some information about the church. It appears the church was "mentioned" in some old texts from 1078, which means it's at least that old. We carried on a little further and came across another old house similar to the one where we're staying, but this one was empty and pretty derelict. Anyone looking for a Tuscany fixer upper? I know where to find one!. Soon we were headed down our familiar white road and walking up the long laneway.

The next thing that was on Beth's list for the day was to go to a hot spring. Apparently there's a number of them around. After some quick Googling I found one just south of Siena called Petriolo. We loaded up (except Keith, who was still writing on the outside terrace) into the Renault and zipped off. After about 40 minutes or so we were off the autostrada and going down a little road parallel to a river. Soon we could smell the sulfur (kind of a rotten egg smell) and knew we were close. We came across a spa-like building where you could pay and use their pools (they piped the hot water in). We wanted more of a natural experience so just a little further down the road we found a number of small natural pools right adjacent to the river. You could lounge in them and then to cool off, jump into the cold river (which I did, Beth and Gaye opted to stay hot-tubbing). It seems most of the other men there had speedos, I felt out of place with my board shorts style of swimsuit. I offered to go get a speedo from the spa but Beth rather strenously said no. Hmmmm .... what's that about!

To cap off our day we went to a ristorante in Sovicille, a small town nearby. We had gone there on our first night and had pretty good success. I had heard about the big steaks they serve in Tuscany called "bistecca". It was so big, about 1 1/2 lbs that Beth and I split it. Biggest T-bone steak I've ever seen, ridiculously expensive though

The next day, Tuesday, was another road trip day. After my usual breakfast of local peach, yogurt and granola (thanks Gaye!) off we went. Keith was behind the wheel for most of the day, OK OK....... pretty well ALL the day. I might have had a bit of wine at lunch. You can't help it! It's so cheap, the house wine (which is really good) is about 5 euro for a half litre. We picked Montepulciano as our destination . For any of you wine buffs, I'm sure you've heard about Montepulciano wine. Well, this is the area where it's from. Located in an absolutely beautiful part of Tuscany, rolling hills of vineyards and olive trees, old villas and wineries. And of course Montepulciano itself, a lovely old hill-town. We poked around the shops, leather goods, all items like shoes, purses and jackets made here in this region. Beautiful stuff actually. Went into their main church and strolled through the alleyways. There was one particular spot we discovered that had an incredible view of the Tuscany hills. It literally looked like an huge expansive painting. I'm not sure what it was, the light, the scenery, the view, but definitely a WOW moment. I'm pretty sure we squeezed in some gelato as well. Keith had been eyeing up leather bags for quite some time and he finally hit pay dirt. All in all a good day.