After a long summer of planning, saving and packing we are finally here in Montepulciano, Italy. It will be our home for the next ten weeks. It was a long journey getting here: a car, a tram at the airport, 2 planes, one bus, and a van… But the time spent traveling was totally worth it. As we explored the town we were amazed at each new view we came upon. The streets wind in and around all the buildings and houses, up and down… mostly UP!!! We had dinner the first night at the restaurant in town that will be our dinner spot each week Sunday through Thursday. It is called Trattoria di Cagnano. Trattoria in Italian just means a family run restaurant with home cooking. Our table shared a bottle of wine from our town!
This morning Joe (our art professor from KSU) gave us a tour of the city. It was a great informative walk… learning where to use the internet, buy groceries, pharmacy, good places to eat, phones, etc. This afternoon we ate at the local Pizzeria… it was an experience ordering and paying for our lunch but it was absolutely delicious. Proscutto and mozzarella!!! We went grocery shopping this afternoon… another experience.
-Plastic gloves and weigh your own fruit and print the price sticker
-Buying bathroom and cleaning products-nothing in English
-Beer is sold individual and in 2 and 3 packs
Now we are back at our apartment organizing all our stuff and getting ready for dinner and then the barrel racing activities tonight. The barrel races take place once and year and each contrada (community) within the city has there own competitors. The flags that you see in some of the photos tell you which commune you are walking through. We are in Contrada di Collazzi and have a green and yellow flag.
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