Montepulciano & Rome

Travel day to Rome involved a stop in Montepulciano.  Kennesaw State, where Dad is on the board and going to be teaching in the Fall, has built a relationship with this town and they made a deal with the government to refinish the Fortezza for the town and it would revert to town ownership in 25 years.  In the meantime, the town gets a building repaired for use and the University gets a place to send students for study abroad.

Our van driver, Claudio, had advised Mom that what we wanted to do was take the local bus up the center of town and get off at the main square, Piazza Grande.  So, he took us to the bus stop at the bottom of the hill and we waited to catch the bus for 30 mins (because the bus pulled in and took off before we could get outside). 

When we got to the top, we first stopped in the old church.   This was interesting for 2 reasons. 1: The church was filled with wifi and QR codes to be scanned and tell you about the art and alters within the church.  2: There was a tomb for a woman.  Mom even said it was one of the first times she had ever seen such a thing.

We walked across the plaza to the government building because we wanted to climb their tower.  Turns out the tower costs 5Euros and is only shown on a tour.  The rooftop, on the other hand, was only 2.50.  We decided to do the roof.  As we walked in, we met Dad walking about.  He had been to see the mayor and wanted all of us to come and sit in his office so we could meet the mayor.  Or, more importantly, we could let Dad be Dad.

We waited about 10 minutes for the mayor and had our picture taken with him.  Then he sent his assistant, a pleasant older man who spoke only Italian, to take us on a tour.  First stop was the town winery.  The wine for the

vendors in town were all stored in the casks in their basement (which exited on the lower street). We left Mom in the courtyard and went down for the tour.   The whole thing is carved out of volcanic rock. There was an Etruscan cave in the back space of the underground building.  VERY COOL!

The rest of the story pans out poorly.  We say goodbye to the mayor's assistant, we walk to the Fortezza which is closed and we make a wrong turn and walk down the car road on the outside as opposed to the town road on the inside.  We finally end up at a bus shelter and Mike and Connor and the girls walk back to the bus station to get Claudio, pick up Mom, find Dad still walking and meet Lisa, Tracy, Sam & I back at the bus station.

On the way to Rome the A/C unit froze up and by the time we arrived at Hotel Diana, it was probably close to 90 degrees inside.  We were all grateful to arrive at the hotel.

After a quiet dinner out, we walked for gelato and then back to the hotel. Lisa got a chocolate gelato that tasted like melted chocolate (except, obviously, it was frozen). A long day with a sweet ending.