Vita Italiano: Montepulciano

Saturday, Chloe, Kanishka, Carissa and I left the study center to see Montepulciano. This is the town where New Moon of the Twilight Saga was filmed. The trip began with us going to three tabacchi's (establishments with random things inside, sort of like a convenience store but very tiny) to try to buy train tickets. We eventually found the one that sells train tickets. We boarded the train for Chiusi where we would switch trains and buy a ticket for Montepulciano. When we got to what we thought was Montepulciano we walked around and only saw a market going on and some less than lively streets. We then found out by trying to talk to locals that we needed to take a taxi or bus up the hill to the actual Montepulciano that we intended to go to...We waited at what we assumed was a bus stop for a bus. Once on the bus, we realized there was no way we could have walked there. It was 13 km away up a substantially large hill. After going to the visitor's center we found out we would have to take a bus back to Chiusi instead of our original plan of taking the train home. Montepulciano is a hill town similar to Cast. Fiorentino, we definitely got our workout in trekking our way through the town. We stopped for a free wine tasting that was recommended by our travel book. After that we headed towards the bus stop to catch our bus..the bus passed us up at the bus stop and we attempted to run after it. We weren't lucky enough to catch it haha. We went to the bus station and were able to catch the next bus about an hour later. After getting off the train we ran up the hill to the study center to make it back before dinner was over. It was a fun day despite all the transportation chaos, I am glad we went there. Montepulciano has a very 'magical' feel to it and was definitely worth it.