Montalcino

This is our last day in the Cortina area before we drive to Cinque Terre tomorrow. We started the day quite leisurely before hitting the road again. We drove about an hour from here to a place called Montalcino. This is the heart of wine country. It is a valley that is prime wine country, obviously because of the terrain and climate. In the last 50 years this region has had only 3 bad years for wine production. You can really see the difference in the landscape here, from the Cortona area. In this area you could almost be in the Okanagan Valley, except for the language and the crazy drivers! Once again, Montalcino is a lot like the other small towns we have seen, with the narrow cobblestone streets and the old, stone buildings. The big difference here is that there are even more wine stores and bars, with lots of sampling available. The Italians are very proud of their wines from their own regions. I don't think we can buy any more, we will never be able to drink it all! It is like being in a candy store..... Then we went onto Asciano. Just before we reached the actual town we came across the Abby di M Oliveto Maggiore which is a huge monastery nestled in the hillside. We couldn't get into the actual monastery because we had shorts on. The town of Asciano, was not as touristy, and appeared " newer". In that we mean by a few hundred years. The streets were quite a bit wider and the buildings not quite as old. A lot of these old towns date back to the 1400's. Then we went back to Cortona to enjoy a glass of wine on the patio before venturing out for dinner. Tomorrow we will have about a four hour drive before we arrive at the Italian Riveria.