Montalcino

The first outing we took was to the town of Montalcino. This was about a 15km drive from the house, along a long windy road to the top of a large hill. It seems like a lot of towns in Tuscany are best described as an old walled city on top of a big hill.
It was of course, scorchingly hot, but there was a mercifully nice breeze blowing. As long as you kept out of the direct sun for too long, it was quite a comfortable day.

This was pretty good weather to walk around the town and enjoy the sites. The big attractions of Montalcino are the Fortress, the Abbey, and a well known local wine.
From all the places we visited, this town was easily my favorite. Despite being at the height of tourist season, it was pretty easy to get around and relatively tourist-free.

Have a look at one of the main streets in the centre of town. This is at around noon, so you would think it would be a little more packed.
While walking around, we wondered if there could be something else to see. If only there was a tourist office we could locate... somehow...
In the centre of town, we found this shop that I thought was also rather amusing.
This was also the place where Liam began to learn that Italy was the country where he was allowed to eat ice cream pretty much every day.
I dont really blame him, I have to say the Italian ice cream really was very very good.