You Rented a Manual? Why?

 Yes, after not having driven one in 6 years, I rented a 5 speed Fiat Panda. The reason being, I’m a cheap bastard and automatics were clocking in at $1100 for a week vs $700 for a stick.
 While Susanna was muttering “We’re all gonna die” not quite under her breath, I plugged in the GPS and slowly.nudged out into traffic with just the occasional teeth rattling “damn that’s fourth, I wanted second”
 Leaving Siena, I selected what my B&B owner suggested was the most scenic route. “Scenic” meaning the road has so many S bends that if you dare take your eyes off the road for a single second you’ll launch into space or crash into a barn or a row of Cyprus trees.
An hour into the trip we stopped to change our underwear and visit the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore. A monastic retreat, originally founded around 1300 AD and based on the doctrine of St Benedict, it covered several acres and featured a cloister, the walls of which depicted the life of St Benedict in various frescoes. We spent a couple of hours there walking the grounds in “quiet contemplation” as the many signs suggested, before grabbing a quick lunch and continuing on. 
We arrived at our “Agritourismo” ( rural hotel) around 4pm.
Located some 5km east of Montepulciano it is a farmhouse/hotel/winery surrounded by massive fields of productive grapevines, heavily laden with clusters of  small black grapes. The view from our bedroom window extends for 5 or 6 miles with rolling hills stretching as far as the eye can see. The grounds are covered with olive trees bearing fruit ranging in colour from pale green to black. There is even a large outdoor pool that would not look out of place in a Mexican 5 star resort.





 Our room is equivalent in area to an average one bedroom apartment with a sloping roof with exposed trusses supported by massive hand hewn beams ranging in size from 10-15 inches in diameter, with two of them resembling a giant horizontal crucifix. Intimidating, to say the least.

Tomorrow, the plan is to drive to Cortona, the town featured in a novel/movie titled “Under the Tuscan Sun”. Not having read it, I have no idea what it is about, but I’m guessing it isn’t a murder mystery.



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