Day 8: Montalcino

The two day stay in Siena was just enough time to tour the local sites and take a bit of a break to recharge for our next cycling ride to Montalcino. 

Looking over our off-line digital map and planning the cycling route with its elevation profile in advance of the trip made us a little nervous; we would be setting new personal records with our climbs.  Again being mentally prepared for the trip helped.  The ride turned out to be not as difficult as we had anticipated -  even though we ultimately climbed to an altitude of 610 meters by the time we arrived in the town of Montalcino itself, we managed to avoid steep inclines for the most part.

We had a very steady climb on the way out of Siena for about an hour and a half.  We then took a break at the crest of the climb to nourish ourselves with a nice lunch that we had purchased and packed from an alimenteria before leaving Siena - fresh pane ronde con sale, local Italian pomodoros, soft formaggio and some proscuitto.  For desert we had lots of fruit - pechi novi and apricots.

After lunch and a couple more hours of riding, we arrived at the base of Montalcino.  When we saw the road that we had originally selected for our ride up into town, we quickly decided to remap our route.  The road was gravel with an incline of between 15 and 20%; too difficult and treacherous to try to climb with loaded bikes. We weren't really up to walking our loaded bikes a kilometre up a steep hill, especially not after having had a taste of doing that up a similar grade for 200 meters at Monteriggioni.  We decided instead to ride the extra 5 kilometres up the main road which gradually wound its way around the hill up and into town.  Slow and steady gets the job done.

We were still hot, sweaty and dirty by the time we arrived in the town proper, and so we followed our ritual of quickly checking-in to our hotel, rejuvenating ourselves with hot showers and changing into some clean clothes before doing a quick tour of the town and seeking out a place to enjoy dinner. 

The hotel room

Since it wasn't quite dinner and the restaurants weren't serving yet, we enjoyed some aperativi in a patio on town square. The "Tuscan Rewind" car race was under-way as we enjoyed our drinks, and the cars were revving and preparing to start their race in the square. An hour later, we began walking the town in search of a restaurant, and got to see a little more of the beautiful town and the race cars as we searched.After passing down a few side streets, we settled upon the relatively innocuous-looking Albergo Il Giglio restaurant for dinner. 

Tuscan Rewind racer, rolling into the town square

Another Racer

What a treat that was! By all measures the Albergo was a fantastic dining experience, with a really nice atmosphere and run by a wonderful family. We had veal served with vegetables in brunello wine sauce, with a decanter of brunello on the side - the bread plate that came with the meal was so fresh that it almost outshone then entrée itself. The best meal of the trip -- if you ever visit Montalcino, we wholly recommend you have a meal at Albergo Il Giglio.

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The following day, we woke up early and prepared to finish sight-seeing, and do some wine-tasting; this *was* the location of the famous Brunello di Montalcino, after all. 

A very large number of wines ready to taste, in Montalcino!

The town's fort/castle of Montalcino stands out prominently on the edge of the town, overlooking the fields below the hilltop. We visited the fort, and deciding that we couldn't pass up the tower-top view, paid the 5 euro fee and walked up the keep's staircase to the top of the walls, where we were able to see the entire valley and a few distant towns.

Inside the fort

On the fort walls

Valley View

Road into town, view from fort walls

Part of the town, from fort walls

Located inside the keep was a wine shop, which we visited on the way back down. Steve and I (Ryan) had a few samples of the varieties of Nobile and Brunello, and bargaining for a good price, ordered a few to be sent home. 

Not too tipsy to ride, we returned to the hotel and packed up for our ride out. Against our better judgement, we decided to try the gravel hill out of town, only to find it washed out near the bottom, and being so steep that Steve had a wipe-out - ouch (he was OK, though)! We begrudgingly walked the bikes back to the city gate, and began to follow the road out of town and onward to Montepulciano.

Just outside town gate, ready to roll down gravel road

Onwards!