Day 7: Boxing Day at Montepulciano

12/26: Today was pretty laid back, but we did manage to check out Montepulciano, the #4 hilltop town in Italy as rated by our guidebook. It was a nice day when we left the villa. It only took about an hour to get to the fortified hilltop town, and that's only because we got slightly lost by following signs to the motorway. We ended up going in a circle, but followed the signs correctly. Italian roads are screwy.
We stopped for lunch a few minutes away from the town at what turned out to be a fantastic restaurant. Dad ordered 2 bisteckas, steaks that were over 1kg each for the family. We ordered pasta and I had some sausage as well. We ordered medium rare for the steaks, but either that means something different over here or she only understood the rare part because they were very bloody. We topped everything off with vino rosso, just like with every other meal. We also had Vino Santo, a dessert wine, for the first time. I love sweet, dessert wines. I bought a bottle on the way out for home.
By this time the weather had turned sour and we drove up the rest of the hill to get a little touring done before the weather got really nasty. We ended up only staying an hour or so, but we did manage to see 2 churches and a fantastic view before the fog rolled in. We drove home in the rain, but the fog disappeared before we climbed the hill/mountain to our villa.
The rest of the evening was uneventful. Dad had a small tumble getting firewood, but it wasn't serious, and we spent the rest of the evening watching Muppet Show clips next to a roaring fire.