We’re off to Fiaschetteria for breakfast this morning, two cappucini and two cornetti con creama as we sit in the sunny piazza watching the town wake around us. After breakfast, we return to the apartment and change into shorts as we decided to try to find the walking path around Montalcino. Isabella Dusi mentions this path in Vanilla Beans and Brodo and it’s also marked on the map of Montalcino we bought at the Visitor Center yesterday.
First we try to pick it up by the free parking lot below viale Roma and Piazza Cavour but the way appears blocked by a chain. Next we hike through Porta Burelli, hoping to pick it up there but we actually can’t tell if which side of Porta Burelli we’re supposed to get it, inside the walls or outside. We end up hiking down a white road where we spy a red and white trail marker (later realizing this is part of the hiking trail connecting Siena to Castel Nuovo Del’Abate). We also find the abandoned church Isabella mentions and see some beautiful vistas but no viable path. Finally, we try to pick it up as it moves along Viale Roma and we succeed.
We move along Viale Rome and then behind Madonna del Soccorso, going off road outside and below the wall that runs along Viale Piero and Viale Strozzi. Along the way, I take my sunglasses off to wipe some sweat from my face. Just then, a car passes us along the dirt road and the driver waves as he passes and we hear a crunch. Chris asks, “Were those your glasses?” To which I reply, “No, I have my glasses here.” And I hold them up to show him. Only problem though, all I’m holding is the earpiece to my glasses, the rest remain crushed on the white road. Bummer, the screw fell out leaving me with one dog-chewed ear-piece and no sunglasses. Oh well, luckily I spied an eyeglass store in town yesterday.
We come back into town by Porto Al Cassero and the fort and continue down and around the outskirts going through Porta Cerbaia and onto Via Landi down to Vicolo Gattoli where we off-road again outside the walls. You see some of the most beautiful views from this stroll as well as tackle some big hills, both up and down. We return within the walls around Via Del Mistero, hang a right and another right and two lefts making a big loop to end up on Via Castellana, another big hill up to the Opsedale, down via dell ospedadelle and rather than staying upon the course back towards Porta Burelli, where we couldn’t find the route continuation, we turn up Via Lapini to Piazza Cavour and complete the circuit that Chris dubs Giro di Montalcino.
By the end, where we conquer two big hills in a row, to the Opsedale and up Via Lapini, my face resembles a red balloon. Several Montalcinese comment along the way, especially as my face gets redder about the hills of their city and I just smile and nod. So 90 minutes later, with two false starts, we complete over three miles.
Photos from Our Walk Around Montalcino
Chris returns to the Giro to do some running now that he knows the route, and I return to the apartment to shower. Along the way, Mario stops me and tells me of a concert that evening at the Madonna. I thank him and while I would love to attend I tell him Chris has his heart set on seeing Calcio as Montalcino is playing another town later that afternoon for I believe a championship and a chance to move up a division. He laughs.
After removing my sweaty clothes, showering and re-dressing, I return to Piazza Cavour to read, write and wait for Chris. We only have one key to our apartment so when we go out separately, we must make a meeting place. He arrives not long after, after completing two laps of the Giro. I’m impressed and continue to wait in the Piazza with the Italian Men’s Sitting Club and some young families, while he returns to the apartment to shower and change.
When he returns, we hike up to the parking lot, retrieve Claudio and head to our lunch reservation at Boccon Di Vino. We’re seated at the same table, where we order the same wine as yesterday but by the glass this time. They start us with the same wonderful tomato bread soup drizzled with oil. Today, for my primi I have handmade spaghetti with goat cheese and tomatoes. Chris chooses gnochetti with a black truffle sauce; both are delicious. For our secondi, Chris switches to a glass of Brunello but I stick with the rosso. He enjoys the venison again but I have sliced steak with lentils and fresh spinach, which I like better than yesterday’s secondi but not as much as the venison. For dessert, they do not have fresh fruit; instead our server suggests a fresh fruit tart made with kiwi and banana and served in a crust similar to shortbread, yummy. Chris has crème brulee. Two cafè later, we pay a bill about 100€ and wobble back to the car.
We return to Montalcino, park Claudio in the same lot at the top of the town, across and down the road a bit from the Madonna, and head to a café not far from the fortezza (I actually think it’s called Café Fortezza) for another espresso and some water while we wait for calico to start at 4:30.
As we sit in the café, with a good view of the route to the stadium, I expect to see swarms of people in team colors heading to the match but really, see nothing more than tourists and Italian day-trippers to the town. Finally, about 4:20 we head over and discover the stadium to be small, smaller than our high school football field with only one stand. We pay our 10€ per person entry fee and climb into the stands to get seats. Here we make our first mistake sitting on the opposing team’s side but don’t realize our error until the Montalcino side has filled. Oh well.
Size of the stadium is about where the comparison to high school football ends as I notice people leaving the “snack shack” with glasses of red wine. Trust me, we never had that at our high school games. I think, to start, the opposing team has more spirit (including one supporter that looks remarkably like Vin Diesel) but some Montalcinese youths sitting next to us atop the snack shack soon give them a run for their money in the chant department.
Chris used to play soccer in high school so he’s able to follow the action. Me, I’m at a bit of a loss only having watched soccer sporadically during the 2002 World Cup and occasionally with Chris on Sunday morning when PBS broadcasts Italian Calcio. The whole off-sides rule has me baffled and more than once I find myself cheering for a goal that never happened because the Montalcinese player was called off-sides. Chris does his best to explain things to me but in the end even he’s baffled when the score of 2-1 in favor of the opposing team sends the Montalcinese fans into cheers of joy. Later on, we run into Alessandro and he explains this is the second of a two-game series with the opposing team, and overall, Montalcino still won the match and moves on.
After the game, we head over to Bar Alle Loge for drinks. I enjoy a Rossini, strawberry puree with prosecco while Chris gets a vertical tasting of a brunello followed by a Negroni, which we both pronounce way to bitter to drink. While we’re there, some of the soccer players arrive, with their groupees/girlfriends in tow. Everybody seems to be in good spirits after the win, and the opposing team’s fans, don’t seem too bad either as they walk through town, led by Vin, chugging some wine from a bottle and continue their chants. Now whether their chants are in honor of the victor, or degrading the victor I cannot say.
Since we’re still pretty full from lunch, for dinner, we opt to buy some supplies at the local salumeria and alimentari. We purchase some bread, cinghiali sausage, aged pecorino, pecorino calico, artichoke puree, dessert wine, honey and a some plain and chocolate covered cantucci from the pasticerria on Via Mazzini (this stuff is fabu)!
Back at home, we watch more soccer, this time Spanish championships, read, write, nibble on our provisions and about 11:00 call home to find out how the kids’ weekend went (Becky had done her first trip away from home, ever). Near the end of the conversation, we get disconnected due to lack of time left on the phone and resolve to get another TIM card tomorrow.
