Bob and Ann in Italy 2011

This morning we had a decent breakfast buffet at the hotel shared with a large group of middle-age British tourists decked out in their hiking kits. There was a smattering of other nationalities who were guests at the hotel. One of our waitresses looked Peruvian while the other one was Italian. They were very efficient fetching us coffee and replenishing the buffet table.

After breakfast we got into our car and drove over to Bagno Vignoni,, an ancient thermal bath. The village itself is tiny – just a few houses, a hotel and a large building that enclosed a spa and probably thermal baths. It was very quiet with only a few tourists in the area. The only hotel in the village was next to the large "Square of sources", namely a rectangular tank, of 16th-century origin, which contains the original source of water that comes from the underground aquifer of volcanic origins (according to Wikipedia). The hotel has a patio cafe next to the tank where some tourists were sipping coffee and eating breakfast.

View of Radicofani from the Tower

Back into the car, we drove to Radicofani. This is another small village that is located below an old tower that was part of the fortification of this area. We parked the car and took a long walk up to the tower. When we got there, we were in a forested area, a contrast to the fields and vineyards that we are used to. We also saw that we could have driven to the top of the hill and parked there. We paid our entrance fee and climbed up the inside of the tower. The view was spectacular. Unfortunately, it was hazy and not conducive for taking photos. It was very quiet here, also. We saw only two or three other small groups visiting the tower.

Walking back down the road toward our car, we started to get hungry. We stopped at a small grocery store and had pinini made for us. Ann’s had pecorino cheese, mine had pecorino cheese and Tuscan salami. We ate in a park next to where we parked the car. The picnic table was a bit messy with bird droppings and foraging ants, but we ingnored that.

We decided to drive past Multepulciano on our way back to San Quirico. It looked crowded, so we didn’t attempt to find a parking place and go into the town.

We got back to the hotel just before a spectacular thunderstorm broke out with very heavy rain. It also turned cool. The storm was done by 4:00 when we walked over to the COOP grocery store for some supplies. We watched the British hikers arrive washing mud from their boots using the hotel's garden hose.

At 6:30 we decided to head to town for a 7:00 dinner. Because of the threat of more rain, we took the car. We couldn’t find a parking spot so we drove it back toward the hotel and parked it about two blocks away and hoped it didn’t rain again.

San Quirico Sunset

We got lucky with the weather and with the food. We ate at Al Vecchio Forno. We had flower of zucchini stuffed with ricotta cheese as an appetizer. We thought that we were going to split one appetizer but the waiter misunderstood us a brought us one each. For a main course, Ann had taglietelle with asparagus and tomatoes while I had rabbit.

Bedtime was before 10:00 again.