Wed 20th Sept
Our next destination was Citta della Pieve in Umbria and we were staying for 2 nights at the 4* Hotel Vannucci. Our check in wasn’t until 2 pm so we called in at the village of Castiglione del Lago, that was a visit suggestion made by the concierge of the hotel, on our way. This proved to be a great suggestion as it was a delightful little Old Town and there weren’t too many tourists; just some small groups and couples like us wandering around but without the large tour groups following someone holding a flag. There were a surprising number of lovely cafes and restaurants, given the size of the place, and we stopped off at one of these for lunch where we both had a delicious soup. We left the area hoping that Citta della Pieve, our next stop, was going to be a bit like this place. BTW: ‘Pieve’ is Italian for Parish Church.
We found and parked at Hotel Vannucci with ease and found it to be a lovely converted private mansion that had been functioning as a Hotel since 1903. Our room was large and very comfortable with plush and luxurious furnishings, linen and towels and the hotel definitely deserved its 4* rating! The only one minor issue was the lack of tea and coffee making in the room but there was a well stocked minibar so maybe my morning beverage would have to be a G&T!
Our hotel was right next to the historic Etruscan-Roman-Medieval center of the town and we spent an hour or so exploring this in the afternoon. Following a long period of political and military instability, Città della Pieve in 1600 became an important administrative and religious centre for the Papacy and attracted significant funds from Florence and Rome and which explains why there are so many grand and historic structures in such a relatively small town. The Cathedral standing today dates back to 16th Century but foundations of an earlier church, dating back to the 7th Century, can be seen in the Crypt. There are also numerous medieval towers and Palazzos as well as a street that many consider to be the narrowest in all of Italy, Vicolo Baciadonne. For a little town this place sure packs in a whole lot of history.
It was 6 pm before we headed back out again and we stopped off for Mark to have a drink at Antica Caffetteria Matucci. This turned out to be a great experience as we received the best ‘snakes’ that we’d ever had.
We went on to dinner at Trattoria Bruno Coppetta and this was a most lovely setting as the restaurant was housed within a converted Palazzo that was once owned by the Vannucci family, the namesake of our hotel. Our dinner ended up being the best meal we’d had in a long time. So much so, that we booked to return the next night. It was a night of ‘bests’ for sure as we had the best cacio e pepe pasta ever and it was presented with great ceremony as the waiter wheeled in a trolley supporting a massive wheel of cheese that had been hollowed sufficiently to hold our pasta; the outer rim of cheese continuing to melt into the dish adding more flavour. This was a head turning event and all the other patrons in the restaurant were watching on with the same level of amazement that we had. Our waiter had suggested that we share this entree and said he would split it into two for us. He then proceeded to ladle enough pasta on my plate to feed an entire family and then ladled that, and a little bit more, on to Mark’s plate! It was the most delicious pasta that both of us have ever had, but unfortunately much of it remained on my plate. This would’ve been enough for me for my entire meal, but I had ordered a main and was quite horrified that the bit of grilled chicken I ordered ended up being a whole butterfly chicken! I think I ate a bit of the breast and Mark had a bit of a wing, but 3/4 of it sadly went back to the kitchen. It was a lovely night with lovely food and wine and staff and is a restaurant I would highly recommend if you’re ever in the area.
Thurs 21st Sept: Montepulciano day
It was a cool morning but the bit of rain that fell overnight had passed so we set out for a morning walk as we were still trying to work off our dinner from the night before. Citta della Pieve is very, very pretty and it seems to be most of the places are owner occupied, rather than being used for short term rentals, because there is a lot of love and care taken in nurturing the external facades of most of the buildings. We called in again at Antica Caffetteria Matucci for Mark to have a coffee and we noted the restaurant owner from the night before sitting near us and he gave us a hearty hello. This was a lovely cafe / bar in both the morning and the night so make sure you call in if you’re ever in the area.
Our plan for the day was to visit the medieval hilltop town of Montepulciano, on the southern edge of Tuscany, which was about a 40 minute drive north from where we were in Umbria. It was a fairly pleasant drive, better than many we’ve had over recent weeks, and the surrounding countryside was a beautiful lush green color and dotted with vineyards. We thought we would walk the Old Town, to inspect the main historical sites, and then we hoped to do some wine tasting as we are great fans of the red wines from this region. I had found a useful online article that reviewed the best cellars to visit and we thought we’d use that as our guide. Many of the wineries age their wines in the basement / caves located in the Old Town and so offer their tastings there, rather than out at the vineyard and there were many to choose from so having this guide was a good way to draw up a short-list. We didn’t get very far along with that plan though as one of the suggested wineries, Ercolani, was having free tastings and tours of their caves today so we took up the offer of an English version of the tour for 12 noon. This was only meant to go for 40 minutes but ended up lasting 90 minutes and so this ate into much of our allocated time as we only had 4 hours worth of parking. It was well worthwhile though as we learnt a bit more about the wines of Montepulciano and they generously offered 8 wines for tasting. Needless to say, that a dozen of some of these are now on their way to Australia courtesy of the free shipping deal the cellar offered. We just have to hope we won’t be fleeced by Australian customs! Our guide, Erica, explained that 2023 is not going to be good vintage due to the bad weather they had back in May and that 2015-2022 were the best best years with 2015 being the best year in recent history for Tuscany wines so keep that I’m mind if ever ordering wine from this region.
There was another great wine tasting setup located in the the 13th Century Medici Fortress where wines from all across Montepulciano were available for tasting but, unfortunately, we ran out of time and stamina for this experience. We both consider this to be a town that wine lovers should come to and stay for the night so as to make the most out of all the different cellars and tasting experiences, as well as the many lovely restaurants. We didn’t end up trying any of them though as we had some salami and cheeses with our tasting that filled us both. So, Montepulciano has made it onto the the list of places, based on those we have been to on this trip, that we would come back to and this is quite an achievement for the city as the list is very short!
It was almost 4 pm by the time we got back to Citta della Pieve and, whereas it had been 31 degrees on leaving Montepulciano, it was cool and overcast back here. This put an end to my thought of going to the pool and so I spent the next while relaxing, reading and blogging whilst Mark went for the a bike ride.
As creatures of habit we went back to Antica Caffetteria Matucci for aperitivo and Trattoria Bruno Coppetta for dinner and had a lovely evening. We have loved our short stay in this part of Umbria as it was quite different to Tuscany and the coast area where we’d recently been. We found the places we visited to be very charming and with just the right amount of tourists to give the places vitality but free of the bus loads of them that had dogged us earlier. This is definitely a region we would like to come back to one day. Tomorrow we head to Orvieto for two nights and then we start to make our way home.
