Day 7 - Puttering in Montalcino

Coffees: 3, Gelati:1, Wine: 2 glasses

Today was my rest day.  Among other things to do is the option of walking all around the town centre, following the path of the medieval walls.  It is all of 4km around and it predicted to take 3(!) hours.  I was going to do it and show the tourist office how fast a real walker can cover ground but then I checked out the distances I have to cover over the next few days.  They are 27km, 24km, 23km and then 31km!  Instead, I settled for climbing to the top of the walls of the fortress at the northern end of town and walking around them.

The rest of the morning was spent at the museum (fascinating, there have been people in this area since prehistoric times) and diocesan art gallery (dull, how many paintings of the madonna and child are really necessary?).  There was also a very odd little display in what had once been a beautiful church.  The walls of the church had elaborate frescos, many now faded and peeling, and there were large stained glass windows.  All the pews and other moveable objects had been shoved up onto the apse and the nave was full of balsa wood relief maps of the area.  There was one of the entire town of Montalcino while about 20 others were of the area around the Fortress.  However, each showed different buildings around the Fortress.  I'm not sure if these were reconstructions of the town at different times in history or different proposed plans by different architects.  What little documentation there was was all in Italian.  The real explanation was probably quite dull so I'm glad I didn't understand what it was all about.

Lunch was bread, cheese and 4 different sorts of salami (in keeping with my lunches all this trip) all washed down with a glass of Brunello.  This time it was little older (2005) from the San Giocomo winery.  Even though it was a little older, it wasn't quite as good as last night's wine.  Perhaps 2006 was the better year or perhaps Poggione has better vintners.

I spent the afternoon having a siesta and then reading a book by the pool.  My legs are going to need all the rest they can get.

Dinner tonight was a much more restrained affair (in terms of food) since I didn't do all the crazy amounts of walking I've been doing over the past few days.  I can see coming home and get back into the habit of eating sensible amounts is going to be a struggle.  Mind you, restrained is a relative term.  I had a tomato and mozzarella salad to begin with.  The tomato was ordinary but the mozzarella was superb - very fresh - so I forgive them for the tomatoes.  Main was pizza with hot salami.  This was all washed down with yet another glass of Brunello - a 2004 this time from yet another winery whose name I forget.  Much better than the 2005 but not as good as the 2006 I had last night.  I'm going to have to swear off the Brunello after here.  It is breaking my budget.

There was an English couple at the table next to me in the restaurant who had done the same ATG trip as I had to get here, but a day behind me.  We both had our booklets with us and were sneaking peaks at each other trying to work out if they were the same.  The wife of the couple finally did the obvious and just asked me.  They were pleasant people but I had to blink when the husband as what a "can-nap" was (aka canape).

A day without pasta.  What is the world coming to?