Tuscany - Montepulciano

After spending the morning in Cortona, our next stop was Montepulciano. It was about another 45-50 minute drive from Cortona, and we arrived at about 4.30 p.m.

I'm really glad we decided to go in the late afternoon, some of these small towns get overrun with tourists around lunch-time, and then they all get back on the tour buses around 5.00 p.m. and the towns completely empty out. It's fantastic.

Montepulciano was hands down my favourite place in Italy. I loved it from the moment we arrived. We parked in the parking lot outside and walked in. You walk through this big archway and a winding street takes you up into the Piazza Grande.

Montepulciano is actually where they filmed the sequel to the Twilight movie, New Moon. I knew this before we arrived, but I wasn't really prepared for the level of excited fan-girling that overcame me as soon as we approached the Piazza. It looks exactly like the movie. It was awesome. I was all 'And that's where Alice drives in and Bella jumps out of the car!', 'And that's where they built the fountain that Bella runs through!!', 'And that's where Edward stands when he's about to reveal himself!!!!'. It was insane.

There was Twilight themed stuff everywhere, posters in all the stores, some of the cafes had special Twilight menus... though I'm not really sure what made them Twilight menus, they looked the same as any other menu, not even a Rosalie Risotto or Bella Biscotti.

There were lots of wine stores. Montepulciano is famous for it's red Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano. We ended up buying two bottles, two different years. Both were amazing, but I'd have to say the 2004 was the best year. That's right! We're wine snobs now! Haha.

We also brought a huge bag of chocolate and nut biscotti, it was SO yummy I wish we had brought more. We grabbed some cheese, bread and olives and made our own dinner back at the B&B.

All the hill towns in Tuscany are amazing in their own way, but the friendliness of the people, the yummy wine and the New Moon connection was enough to put Montepulciano in the lead.

Just like Edward!

It was very windy up there!