Our last day in Montepulciano!

Ciao!

Wow, I know we had a really easy day yesterday, but today we have been SOOOO busy!

First of all, up at the usual time and showered and dressed.  Then, as our first museum didn’t open until 10 am and was an hour away, I wanted to get a last load of laundry done.  Fortunately, this time, I pressed the right button – the one for a “quickie” wash – meaning an hour rather than an hour and a half!  (No joke!) So, washer stopped a few minutes before 9 am and I was able to get everything laid out on the drying rack.  We are supposed to have a washer in Pisa for next week, but it’s always nice to start with really clean clothes.  

Sunset last night from our balcony!

Winery out in the country!

Murlo from a distance

Main (and only!) piazza in Murlo

Terracotta roof decoration

Our "Cowboy!"

More roof decorations

Cowboy from the side!

Looking out museum window to arch site

More Murlo

It's just so lovely!

San Biagio interior

San Biagio main altar

Etruscan door!

Me with Etruscan door

Our first Etruscan bucket!

Beautiful Della Robbia's

More Della Robbia

Rediscovered (and cleaned!) Caravaggio!

Barrels in Contucci cellar

Lovely gal pouring the wine!

De Ricci wine cellars

Etruscan part of De Ricci cellars

Best guy to travel with!

R's salad!

At 9 am we headed out toward the town of Murlo, about an hour away.  Murlo was much featured in our Great Courses on the Mysterious Etruscans, but neither of us could remember exactly why. Lovely day for a drive – not as warm as Sunday, but beautiful scenery and lots of fresh air.  As we were winding toward what Robert thought was Murlo, he noticed a very attractive hilltop, which he thought was a house – turns out, that was Murlo!  We have done it!!!  We have found the Italian hilltop village (fewer than 100 inhabitants) truly unspoilt (like what Monteriggioni used to be when we first started going there!)  It is SO uncommercial and just beautiful.  I did manage to find one small restaurant tucked away under some stairs, but other than that and the museum, that as all there was!  SOOOO neat!  Wish we had time to do their walk to Poggio Civitate, which was the original Etruscan site, but too much to do today. 

After several days of disappointing museums, Murlo’s was fabulous.  And, they also have an Etruscan roof decoration of a man in a “cowboy” hat! It’s wonderful!  Turns out that the first site discovered was actually an Etruscan noble’s house, along with accommodations for workman of metal and ivory. Somehow, the entire complex managed to catch fire circa 700 BC and was destroyed.  A year later, a new house was built, as well as new facilities for workmen and weavers.  This lasted for about 25 years until the noble family decided to relocate elsewhere – it is presumed to Chiusi. At this point, they actually took all the wonderful terracotta tiles off the roofs of all the buildings, carefully broke and buried them on the site, and then left!  This is how we got our guy in the cowboy hat!  (Not sure what they called him in Etruscan.)  

Different schools from the U.S. such as Bryn Mawr and Amherst, have worked on the archaeological site for the past 50 years, and have built a wonderful relationship with the people of Murlo.  In addition, an Italian university (Pisa, I think!) recently did genetic testing on the long-time residents of the town.  They found that their DNA contains a great many Etruscan traits, including space between the eyes and shape of their feet. So, it appears the Etruscans didn’t die out after all!  That is so incredible!

A year or so ago, during the summer digging season, a necropolis was finally discovered, but Murlo has mostly been all about the housing for both the noble family and the artisans.  It has provided some of the most accurate information as to how Etruscans lived and worked and managed their lives.  A great museum, and hopefully on a later trip, a great archaeological site!  

(Take time out to move the drying rack indoors.  The Weather Channel app said it would rain at 4 pm and it’s now 4:12 pm – I think that’s pretty good!  Not a hard rain, just straight down and very gentle.)

From Murlo, we decided to head back to Montepulciano, as I wanted to see the Civic Museum here, as well as do some wine tasting.  We did stop at San Biagio church on the way back up the hill.  It is most unusual in that it is laid out like a Greek Orthodox temple, as a cruciform cross.  Very interesting interior, with some lovely paintings and stained glass. We got headphones to listen to the tour, and one of the things that was mentioned was that one needed to stand in the circle directly below the dome and clap your hands once loudly.  The sound would then reverberate back 20 times, but the person in the center would be the only one to hear it!  That then explained why the few people who were there would suddenly clap loudly!  Very un-church like!  But it works! Amazing!  

From San Biagio, we headed back to the apartment to drop the car and get ready to go out again. This time, we headed up (always up, according to Robert) two blocks to the Civic Museum.  When we took the bus tour yesterday through town, I noticed a big poster of an Etruscan door – and I wanted to see it!  Very interesting museum!  The Etruscan doorway is wonderful, but the only problem is that there is no record from whence it came.  We have (as I’m sure you know!) seen many tombs by this time, but usually they are either open entirely, or fitted with a modern glass or plastic or iron barred door. In this case, the door is entirely made out of stone – door (on hinges!), door frame, the whole thing.  Really interesting!  Their Etruscan collection was good – and I’m just glad we saw the poster yesterday, so we had the chance to see it.  It’s not listed anywhere else that I’m aware of!  They also had a wonderful display of Andrea Della Robbia reliefs – stunningly beautiful!  I do like his work!  They also had what they describe as a “hidden and rediscovered” Caravaggio!  Turns out that the painting’s background had been completely painted over in the middle ages, and it took a lot of work to get it back to the way it had been painted.  Thus, after restoration, it has been identified as being painted by Caravaggio thereby upping its value quite considerably, I’m sure.

From the Civic Museum, we were ready for some wine tasting.  We had recommendations for two places in town – Contucci, which is part of the Piazza Grande, and De Ricci, which was several blocks further down the road (closer to our apartment.)  We started with Contucci.  Their cellars are absolutely amazing, and believe it or not, they do all their wine processing in the middle of town!  They have a lower level where they will back up the trucks containing the grapes, and start the process.  It’s wild!  Everything done in house, as it were.  Additionally, members of the family still live there, as they have since the 1100’s! Can you imagine?  Wow!  We tried four different wines there – three Vino Nobile and one Rosso.  All were excellent, and we came back with a bottle each of the Vino Nobile.  

Then, up (of course) the hill to De Ricci.  Their wine cellars actually start with the Etruscan level!  You can see the actual pick marks of the men digging out the first cave – incredible!  My understanding is that this facility is used for storing and aging the wine – the barrels are truly immense!  Here we ran into much more of a crowd, but things eventually settled down.  We tasted a Vino Roso, two Vino Nobiles, a SuperTuscan and a Vin Santo.  Ended up having a case shipped home – 6 bottles of the 2015 Vino Nobile (100% Sangiovese grapes) and 6 bottles of the SuperTuscan (65% merlot and 35% cabernet) and took a bottle of the Vin Santo with us … just in case Robert gets thirsty! Great fun!

From there, it was time for our late lunch, so we (of course) headed up the hill to E Lucevan le Stelle.  Robert did a repeat on his leek and lentil soup of yesterday (and if anybody has a great recipe, we would love to have it!) and followed that up by a salad with greens, radicchio, mushrooms, corn, cheese and tomatoes.  I had their special salad of yesterday – greens, radicchio, cheese, tomatoes and warm bacon…YUM!  And even though Robert did not order his “usual” Vin Santo, they gave him a glass any way, just to say goodbye!  Truly, we will miss this place for sure! 

Then, a quick stop for gelato and back to the apartment for our last evening here!  We will miss Montepulciano – especially now that we actually know how to get to and from the apartment without breaking (many) laws!  Luca will be coming at 9 am, and we hope to be on the road about 9:30 – 10 am, as we need to be in Pisa by 1 pm.  So! More later!

m

xxx