Montalcino

First of all I have to say – I am incredibly tired and I hope this blog makes sense.

Second, I must observe that ever since I arrived in Siena, I seem to be cosmically linked to the Swiss! Just as I was mourning the loss of my regular (and coincidentally Swiss) friends at school, I have inherited a fresh contingent of Svizzeri (as they are called in Italian) to hang with.

Leading up to the Palio, the contrada where I live holds a festival – of sorts – for ten days during which there is a party every night! Until this weekend I had heard the ruckus but never attended. Then, on Saturday morning I went to the museum at Palazzo Pubblico with a group from my language school. While there, I got chatting with these Swiss girls, who were quickly becoming my new friends, and they invited me go with them to the “festa” that night.

I thought, since it keeps me up anyway, I might as well see what all the noise is about. The party is held primarily for the local community but entrance is free and anyone can attend. I’ve walked past this particular doorway may times but never realised what was inside. From the street, one enters a foyer and descends several flights of stairs only to arrive in a massive garden! Not an indoor one, a proper outdoor garden. It’s so strange! You would never know from the street that such a thing could exist beyond the entrance.

When we arrived, the music was loud loud loud and the dance floor was packed to overflowing. There were stalls for food and bars for drinks, copious large tables where the community had eaten dinner together a couple of hours earlier and people infesting every nook and cranny of the place. The sense of community is beautiful but other than that, it wasn’t really my scene.

We lost one of the girls who had found an interesting boy to talk to and we waited two hours for her to arrive at the designated meeting spot. We were far from impressed, but found a way to laugh about it while we waited. Actually, laughing comes pretty easy with Shadi around. What a great girl! It also helped that there was a beautiful view for us to examine and comment on. I guess you could call it a wonder of nature; evidence of God’s creative genius… It was the best looking boy I have seen in this country to date! Mamma mia. (No Leo, I didn’t take a photo for you).

When the prodigal girl hath returneth, we left and all got home around 3am. This would have been bearable had we not planned to meet the next morning to visit Montalcino.

Montalcino is a little town in the Tuscan countryside, which is famous for its Brunello wine. It was such a hilarious day! The town was quiet and all of us were incredibly tired. We trekked out to see a certain fountain that was promised by the signage, but when we got there, it was just an empty brick structure with not a drop of flowing water!! We promptly commenced a laughing fit that lasted much of the succeeding hour.

After this trek and consequent hysteria, we were even more exhausted but, nevertheless, headed for the museum.

When we arrived, I spotted some benches and proposed a break before entering. This break turned into an hour long nap for me; an intermittent snooze session for Daniela; and a comical hotchpotch of conversation for Shadi, Madlaina and Adriana, who, when I awoke, were doing their best impersonations of camp men strutting down a catwalk.

We never made it the last three metres to the museum.

Instead, we purchased our second round of gelato and killed time with conversation and people watching until our bus arrived. We were the most ineffective tourists ever to have set foot in Montalcino.

If you want to know what Montalcino really has to offer – don’t ask us.