two backpacks and a diaper bag

Sunday, May 6th. Montalcino and Pienza. Once again, Arthur had a pretty crappy night. We got up and got ready anyway. We started our day with a drive to the Abbey of San Galgano. It was only an hour drive. Before we left, we put Arthur to sleep. He slept throughout our drive there and even as we took out the car seat and connect it to the stroller.

The drive there was, once again, pretty. Everything looked so green!

And when we got to the Abbey, there were not very many people. It was quite peaceful and quiet. I loved everything about it: birds chirping, fresh air, beautiful hills.

At first we walked around the Abbey. Then we went in to see it from the inside. Even without a roof, it still looked grand.

There was a restaurant nearby that had a picture-perfect courtyard. The well-manicured lawn and well-maintained building made the property to be a perfect backdrop for a Tuscan countryside picture.

I made Sean and Arthur stand there patiently while I adjusted the camera. They were so good about it.

Then we got back in the car and drove to Montalcino. It took another 1.5 hours to get there.

I looked for a good restaurant for us to have lunch. With limited internet connection and a match with heremaps, I found Ristorante Boccon DiVino.

When we got to the restaurant, we requested for a table for two. All I knew about this place was that it had a good review on TripAdvisor. I didn’t know that if was actually on the Michelin Guide as well.

The server said they were fully booked. Since we didn’t make a reservation, they didn’t have a table.

We were disappointed but we accepted our fate.

As we walked away, she said that she would check the list again just in case somebody canceled.

Sure enough, somebody had canceled last minute, which meant that she had a table for us. We were so lucky. Later on, there were other guests who walked through the door with no reservation and they were turned away.

The food was so good! It was even better with the Brunello, which was why we wanted to visit Montalcino.

After the meal, we took a picture of the view from the patio.

We then got in the car with the intention of driving to some wineries for wine tasting. As it turned out, you need to make a booking in order to do wine tasting or tour of the winery of your choice. I thought it was going to be more like Napa Valley or Temecula or Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand where you could just show up and do wine tasting at a winery right next to the main road. We passed by three different wineries with signs that said “wine tasting” but they were all closed. Even the one that had an “open” sign was also closed.

So, no wine tasting at a winery for us.

We ended up at an enoteca, but even then, to do wine tasting, the cost was approximately 3 Euro per glass. We tried two glasses of the Brunello, but we ended up purchasing one that was similar to what we had for lunch. It was nice, though, that the enoteca gave the wine tasting to us for free since we purchased a bottle from them.

Before we head out to our next destination, Sean rocked Arthur to sleep using the car seat.

The drive to Pienza was more beautiful than all the others. The valley Val d’Orcia was so picturesque. If it wasn’t so cloudy, I bet it would make for a beautiful postcard picture.

Once we arrived in Pienza, we parked the car and walked around town. It was so nice and quaint. It reminded me of the Cotswolds area.

And the view of the valley was incredible as well.

Sometimes I wish I had invested in a real camera. Taking all these pictures only with my iPhone doesn’t do the actual view justice.

Even though there were a lot of people, it didn’t feel claustrophobic at all. We stopped by some shops, got some gelato, looked at various types of Pinocchio puppets. Then we stumbled upon a small market in a small square. We tasted some truffle oil and smelled the truffle bulk. Sooo good.

Then it was time to head home. We had some packing to do for our departure tomorrow.

Today turned out to be a more relaxing day than what I originally thought. We thought of visiting Montepulciano as well after Pienza but we decided not to. The three places we went to was already wonderful. We were happy about it.