Lost In Montepulciano

Claudio met us at our hotel to take us to Florence by way of Montepulciano, a favorite town of Tom & Barbara's.  The town is situated up on a hill like so many older towns and large buses are prohibited, so we were dropped off at the bus station to catch a shuttle up to the main plaza.  

While we were visiting the cathedral Tom headed straight into the municipal building to find the Mayor whom he and Barbara had met on a previous visit (a story for another time).  Anyway, by the time we finished up Tom had arranged a photo with the Mayor and since he was busy with other things a second

official took us to the winery for a special tour of the

cellars below the town, built on the volcanic rock (tufo) which kept the wine at the perfect natural temperature.  Definitely one of the most elaborate wine cellars with large oak, oval fermentation casks.  We had a little wine tasting toward the end of course.

From there things turned for the worst (maybe the wine was to blame, maybe it was the Mayor's fault, who knows).  We got ourselves turned around and lost on the way down the hill.  We finally split up, some went to find the bus terminal, others went to find the shops we missed and others waited.....it was hot, hot, hot.  It all finally worked out and we were reunited with Claudio who took us on our way.  

We weren't in the clear however.... about an hour outside of Rome the AC in the van quit working and of course these things have only one window next to driver that opens and we were essentially in a sauna driving down the interstate.  

We couldn't get to Rome soon enough where we piled out of the van in front of the hotel Diana on Via Principe Amedeo, just blocks away from the train station we entered just 8 days ago on our way to Venice.  In fact, we walked through the station on our way to dinner that night and again to get gelato.