Cinque Terre - Monterosso

After travelling all day by train from Chiusi to Monterosso via Florence & La Spezia we finally arrived at the Cinque Terre town of Monterosso only to find out that the coastal tracks, between the 5 towns, were closed following an incident of rocks falling on a group of Australians. As the coastal tracks were closed the next day we decided to do an inland track via a church ( San Savierio) to Vernazza. It took us two hours of uphill walking to get to the church then a further 2.5 h down a goat track to get to Vernazza - a tough days walking. Only 2 of the 5 towns ticked of the bucket list. Oh well we have a reason to come back another time.
After a quick swim in the Ligurian sea we are now preparing for a relaxing evening before we travel to Lucca tomorrow.

Montepulciano- day's 4

Since I last wrote we have visited the gardens of La Foca, the small town of Bagni Vignoni (whose town square is a thermal pool - see photo), Pienza which is very pretty and Monticchiello.

When we entered the main piazza of Monticchiello I recognised it as the place the TV show Master Chef filmed a segment where the contestants had to make Pichi and then cook for the whole town.

I have found a water filling station where the locals can fill their water bottles (either straight or carbonated) for 5 cents/litre.

Montepulciano-day 3

We have settled into a bit of a routine in Montepulciano. We walk to a bar near language school for our breakfast cappuccino where I leave Mirella for the morning. I then do the 5 minutes of housework before exploring the town. In the afternoon we explore further afield. Today we went to Cortona (the setting for the book/ movie "Under The Tuscan Sun". Whilst there we visited a museum on the Etruscan (pre Roman) civilisation.
The attached photo shows one of the many shops selling leather goods in this area.

Montepulciano - day 2

Mirella started language school today so I have had time to relax. I walked to the school with Mirella, about 100 m away. We stopped at a bar where we had cappuccinos. Two cappuccinos cost us 2:20 €, so cheap. Icecream's have been costing 2:50 € for two flavours, great value.
This afternoon we drove to Bagni san Filoppo where we found some hot springs amongst the trees.
Time now for some Prosecco before dinner.

Montepulciano - day 1

After a late arrival the previous day we checked into our apartment, which is great and very comfortable.
I have just found a map that details the Locations used in Montepulciano for the movie New Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Saga:_New_Moon) most exciting if you have read the twilight series or watched the movie.
Today we drove to Siena, about an hours drive. We walked to Piazza del Campo, ate lunch, climbed the tower (400 steps), did some shopping (Mirella scored a new leather bag) and returned back home.

Naples

We only spent one day in Naples however we are glad that we did. Mirella booked a B&B in the old part of the city. The attached photo shows the view from our window. It was a bit noisy with kids playing soccer in the street until late and this time we only had 60 stairs to climb to our room but the location was still worth all of this.
We took a tour of the Naples underground. See http://www.napolisotterranea.org/naples-underground/?lang=en. This tour was fascinating and gave us an insite into the history of the city.

Naples to Montepulciano

We caught the very fast train (Fretcharossa travels at 300 km/h) to Rome then had 13 minutes to transfer to a Regional train which we found well away from all of the other platforms, about 10 minutes walk. Happy to have made it on to this train just in tme we found a seat an settled down for the two hour ride to Chuisi. It was then that I realised I had left my camera bag, with camera and GPS, on the Frecciarossa. What a disaster! Mirella spoke with the conductor who made some phone calls and an hour later we were informed that the bag had been found, where I left it, and was being held for us in Florence. As we had to pick up our hire car by midday we got off the train in Chuisi, collected the car, parked the car at the station and then caught the next train to Florence. After a further 4 hours of train rides we had the bag and were back in Chuisi. After a short 26 km drive we arrived in Montepulciano. Not a day that I hope to repeat although all ended well.