Saturday hike with monks

After we had determined that we weren't going to find a place near Montalcino to stay, we gave up for a while (this was before Fiorella told us about the apartment) and decided to take a hike near Sant'Antimo. We brought along a picnic and headed up hill for about three miles. This hike was one of our favorite experiences, as we ended up in a tiny village at the top of the hills.

Tucany has what are called "white roads" that weave through the hills and fields. They are gravel and chalky and we walked up one of the white roads on our hike.


On the way up, we saw men working in the vineyards, "cleaning" the vines. They were pulling the lower leaves off of the bottom of the vines. We also almost stepped on a huge snake and that set us a little on edge for the rest of the walk.

Along the way, some Italian Jehovah's Witnesses stopped by to try to talk to us about their mission and later we sat under a tree and had our picnic.

A little further up the hill we came to Villa a Tolla, a tiny village with beautiful flowers and a kind of creepy old graveyard with wrought iron grave markers and a black coffin carriage marked with a skull and cross bone (somehow, we didn't get a picture of that, but it was bizarre).



As we were finishing our walk, we crossed paths with six monks, who were out for a stroll. At first, because one of them had his hood up, Jim thought they were the Italian Ku Klux Klan....HAH! Fortunately, they were just peaceful monks. We thought it would be rude to whip out our camera and take a picture of them to their faces, so we waited until they passed and took a picture of their backs.

After our walk, we headed back to the apartment for some more Italian MTV and a shower before going back to Sant'Antima for a free concert. We got to the church early and got great, if incredibly uncomfortable seats (talk about torture...those pews were HARD and straight up). The church was beautiful in the evening and the chorus who sang--and all male chorus from another town--were really incredible. One song gave us goosebumps. Sitting in front of us, was a thin little man. Suddenly, a family of Italians who definitely looked like the wife, sons, and daughter of the Mafia pushed in to the pew and almost crowded the little man off the seat. But, justice prevailed and the little man was relocated by an usher to the very front row. I, on the other hand, had my view blocked by one of the son's really big hair. A lot of Italians have hair like mine--kind of poofy! It was great! I felt right at home!