Day 96...Under the Tuscan Sun - 30th September

Woke up, packed up, and drove a circuit around the outside of the town taking pictures. We sat on the side of the hill, with the wall of the town behind us, and the clay hills and vineyards rolling out before us. We had our breakfast on a park bench with this view, (croissant and yoghurt). The walls of the town had turrets which we had seen on our drive around, and now Nathan wanted to talk up to them.

We huffed up the hill in the hot sunlight, gettng a bit hot and disgruntled. Only to discover we were way off where we thought! Exaccerbated by the fact that I had stepped in the most liquid form of dog poo available, we climbed dejectedly down. On the walk to uor car, out of the car park shot two Ferrari F430's, gleaming red. Two gents in caps were taking their new cars and trophy wives for a spin in the Tuscan countryside. Nate looked longingly at them. "That's what life's about" he said (the cars, not the wives). The high pedigree sports cars gliding along the longest, smoothest, most windy tarmac in Tuscany. Long blats past wineries and tuscan houses, to be finished off with a tasty meal and quality wine. Nate just fell in love with Tuscany. He said there are no negatives to Tuscany. Its just a pocket of 'the good stuff'. He loved the scenery, the tiny hamlet towns, the excellent food and wine.

Volterra seems to be a tourist attraction during the day. We missed out on that yesterday thank god, and had the town to ourselves. So now we left as the buses were all turning up. We hopped back into the car and drove east to Sierra, which ended up being too large for us. So we declined having lunch there (we didn't want our stuff stolen from our car) so we drove north east up into the CHianti region. It was windy roads up and down hills, past churches and lon stretches of vineyards with Tuscan villas dotted here and there. We stopped at a little restaurant by the road where we could watch our car, and shared an ok pasta and bad service.

After driving around all day, we stopped mid afternoon at a little town called Castellina in Chianti. Nate ducked to th TIC and found out everywhere was full! They checked neighbouring towns and found the same thing. We were in the height of the Italian tourist season (same with everywhere we've been in Europe, but haven't had this problem yet). Nate fenagled a place just outside of town, the cheapest option as they had a king single rather than a double. It was a fantastic little 2-storey place, Tuscan style and perched on the side of a hill. It (and our room) overlooked a sweeping valley and a hill, dotted with vineyards, trees and two tuscan villas. Cute and well kept, we were very pleased. THere was only one building next door, where the owner had heaps and heaps of cats.

We sat outside and watched the sky turn the hills to amber, then showered and drove into Castellina in Chianti. It wasn't as cute or busy as Volterra but it was still very charming. We sat outside in a small, untrafficked street and ate one of the best pizza's each - ever. Nathan took a risk and went with the 'chefs pick' which was whatever the chef felt like cooking up. He heaped lots of good stuff on it, and we drank more Chianti and had a lovely time. The night was a bit cool, and the town quiet. So we headed home to bed (which was larger than we expected) and went to sleep. (as you do).