Day 4-6 Just couldn't get myself to leave...
Thought about leaving this day to Florence for the public market. However everyday when I drove past the church that was just around the corner of Relais San Bruno, it was so hard ;) to convince myself to stay one more day for the Sunday mass. It was a gorgeous day. And the mass that I attended, must be a mass that after sunday school. There was a full section of kids. It reminded me when I was a kid. Went to mass and then played with all the friends afterwards at the playground.
However much I would love to just stay in Montepulciano, this would be my last day. So I had taken it very easily. Just strolled around town, okay...did some damages in shopping at Maledetti Toscani, which was a fine Italian leather products shop and of course to buy that wheel of pecorino cheese and all sort of cured meat! Lounged at my front porch one last time to pretty much just smelled the air, then went back in town again to watch the sunset before dinner. I fell in love with Montepulciano. Too bad a Furenzu wouldn't work over in Tuscany, while everyone would be just like me to go there for the rustic Tuscan cooking; I would definitely try to think of a way...to move there?
For my last dinner in Montepulciano, Alberto had arranged for me to go a good friend of his, Pier's restaurant-Borgobuio Ristorante. Not only I met Pier, I also got a grand tour of the kitchen and the tomb under the restaurant by chef Alejandro Martinez. After dinner Pier had invited me to join him and his staff for a drink at his bar around the corner of the restaurant. There I met a friend of Pier, who's an artist and displaying his work in a gallery in Cinque Terra, where I was going the next day. It just turned out to be another wonderful evening and making unbelievable connections.
*More pictures on Flickr.