Italy – Orvieto & Tuscany | Personal
After spending some time on the coast we drove inland to Tuscany. We stayed our first night in the coolest place – Orvieto. The town is built on a volcanic tuft and feels completely medieval. Around 5000 people live there and most have their own private underground cave left from centuries ago. We took a funicular up the hill to reach the town and spent the day exploring the ramparts, the duomo and did an underground cave tour. After a day in Orvieto we hired Gianni from Tours around Tuscany. Gianni was absolutely fantastic taking us all over Tuscany to places we would never find on our own. He walked around with us and explained history, politics, local customs, lifestyle, driving habits and even explained the ways of the bidet to us!
Taking the funicular.
The ramparts of Orvieto.
Found a gelato shop pretty quickly. Needed our daily fix.
The Orvieto Duomo was impressive!
Looking down from the town to a villa in the valley.
The next day our first stop was Montepulciano. Another hilltop town.
I am a fan of the Twilight movies (yes I’m really 16 at heart). This is the square where they filmed Bella running to Edward and kissing him under this arch. So of course I made my husband kiss me here!
We went through a winery and Gianni told us how everything worked.
This was the sweet old winemaster who had me taste his wine. Then he kissed me on the cheek and said “Ciao Bella!”
This was the road they filmed the Mercedes commercial on.
We had a wonderful lunch at a traditional Tuscan farmhouse. Everything they served us they grew on the farm.
We went through several more beautiful little villages and vineyards. I loved the windows, the church bells and the big doors.
