Milano, Around Northern Italy and Tuscany, and Back to Milano: Ride Day 11: Montelpuciano to Siena

Here's the ride for today. Not much flat but lots of up and down.

Under the Tuscan Sun. That could be a good name for today’s ride from Montepulciano to Siena. A borrowed name, but a good one I think.

We had a nice dinner at a restaurant in Montepulciano last night but skipped the breakfast at our hotel. For dinner we had a great mixed salad, then pasta, the roasted meat (pork for me, lamb for Lorie). We totally forgot to take photos except for the wine.

Good wine -- the only dinner photo though

A nice spot to dine

We had a long day and wanted to get started early – the weather report called for a hot afternoon so we wanted to get moving. It was nice and cool in the morning and we hit the road at a bit before 0700 – there was some fog in the valleys.

A cool doorway

The view from Montepulciano toward the northwest, where we are headed

Fog in the valleys, cool on the road

The plan was to get coffee in a village about 20 km away called Pienza. It is an ancient village where Pope Pius II was born – that was in the 1400s and since he was the Pope he had his village completely rebuilt. OK, that was 600 years ago but it is still very nice. In fact, if I were coming back to this area I would stay in Pienza and skip Montepulciano.

Pope Pius II's home boy churck

Inside

View from Pienza

Town piazza

Just starting on the strade bianca

This little guy came out to greet us

Riding the strade bianca

Lots of rolls

Tuscany is crisscrossed with the famous white gravel / dirt roads called “Strade Bianca.” There are many very famous rides of these roads and we diverted to ride about 35 km over them. The views are absolutely beautiful and there are huge villas all over the place – not farmhouses, just super old but super fixed up estates. What fun!

Tuscan countyside

A fixer upper

An already fixed up

This one, too

Under the Tuscan Sun

This villa is actually a village

The ride was lumpy the whole way and we climbed over 1500 m. Most of the climbs were manageable but some had ramps up to 18% (the signs actually said 20% but our GPSs said 18); that made me feel much better. Getting into Siena was a bit of a trick but we managed it OK and were really hot when we got to the AirBnB.

Riding into Siena through the porta

Siena

Sardines with pesto

Food after a long day on the bike

Walking the bike around town

Unique lights

Piazza Campo -- where they have the very famous horse races

Siena

But we could not make contact with the host and we waited for about 2 hours. Food helped -- sardines with pesto and bread with mozzarella, tomato and anchovies.

Finally we connected and they said that there was a problem: the plumbing had burst a leak. The owner has another apartment about ½ km away so we went there. It is a very odd place in a building that is about 700 years old. Uphill to the kitchen, downhill to the bedroom. But it works fine. But it is very loud so we will see how we feel about the place in the morning.

We strolled over to the Duomo, which is the centerpiece of Siena. I’ll post photos – most of you will recognize the church for its unique combination of marbles from the local countryside.