Montepulciano

Today our goal was to see Montepulciano and a few hot springs..... well . Montepulciano is a pretty town at the top of a hill. Most recently famous for being where they filmed New Moon. Didn't they have fun with that. The story was about Volterra but they didnt film it there. Now neither town had a town square with a clock tower and a fountain. So they built one in montepulciano ...sadly its not there now and you are hard press to recognise anything... why couldnt they just use what was there... it is a pretty town im sure they could have worked something in!!We also found a strange statue here he seemed so out of place.. a cute little alien. Anyways I will post the photos seperate of the 2 places we went today. Just for interest.. i was talking to one of our neighbours while doing some washing tonight and she said that it was too far for them to visit that town! It took about 1 1/2 maybe alittle more? Distances are judged way differently here. Italy would fit into Qld but all the roads are hilly some of them real goat tracks. The autostrada's the highways are great though good condition and 130 speed limits.

Does it look like we have tans or what???  We are getting some colour for sure :)

We left town to try and find some of the hot springs that where close by. well we found the towns no problem but finding the 'natural' springs is the where things get difficult. There is lots of hotels you can go to as a 'day visitor' but they are swimming pool type things with mineral water pumped in... We want the waterfalls with the different tiers plus the white rocks. Apparently they are not well signed and we gave up and went to the castle by the lake. Castiglione Del Lago. It is a very cool castle up a little hill overlooking a lake.  Here we found some exciting stuff...TRUFFLES!!!  they had them out the front of most of the deli shops here.  I didn't buy any but i did buy a jar of truffle salsa. We also got some more Pecorino (sheeps cheese, seems to be what we are liking atm) some salami and if we had been staying here for a few more nights i would have gotten a truffle! But alas dinner is out tomorrow and then its 3 days in Sorrento before we get to our Rome apartment where we may beable to cook?? Not sure what the kitchen is like. Is that a good enough excuse Jen????  We toured the castle and the palace here, well whats left of the castle walls and the palace. They seem to have only left a few pieces of furniture and most of them are the same chair.. The paintings on all the ceilings are fabulous and we where allowed to take pictures here!! It was a great time of day to visit too there was bugger all ppl around..I think it was around 4pm. Its 10pm at the moment the sun has just gone down and we just finished dinner... weird huh!!  Kids you may have to remind me to cook at the usual time when we get home. Oh and we would also like a roast pork, roast lamb and all the roast vegies for our welcome home dinner....  ;) Thanks Granma    ok some piccies I will seperate them with the sign for the next town :)