Need I say more? Well, I guess if you’ve never had Brunello I should elaborate. And there’s a pretty good chance you haven’t because Italy doesn’t export a lot of it to the US. The winery was in Montalcino, Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona. Our hostess was another very interesting woman (like the one in Montespertoli). She had lived all sorts of places around the world and spoke about seven languages, making us all feel inferior. On the other hand she also made us feel quite at home, like honored guests. The wine was fabulous. She poured four wines at once so we could compare the taste. Its really smart, because the Brunello stands out like a gem. We weren’t planning on bringing anything home – until we tasted that. Here’s some more info on their Brunello. (pictures from the tour)

Around the corner was an abbey with some monks who chant every day at certain times, The Abbey of Sant’Antimo Montalcino. We stopped by to hear them. I think its safe to say the four of us agreed – it wasn’t that impressive. I think we just caught them on an bad day, or bad prayer – a bad prayer day. (pictures)

Then we stopped at another winery, I don’t remember the name. The wine was ok, but the people weren’t as friendly. After that we were pretty hungry so we headed into Montalcino, which is a small, hilltop medieval town. We ate the picnic lunch that we brought then walked around a bit. Most things were closed (because it was between 1:00 and 3:00) and it was very empty. The layout of the town was neat though, the long roads weaved back and forth down the hill with shops on either side. (pictures)

Instead of killing another hour in order to head to another winery (because they wouldn’t open again until 3:00) we decided to head back to Le Torri. We hung out and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner.