Montipulciano - Siena

We got up and left Montipulciano early to try and miss some of the heat. Our first stop of the day was a small town called Pienza, perched as usual on the top of a hill.

Pienza is still surrounded by it's original wall.

We had coffee and pastries overlooking a church. After coffee we headed to the tourist information centre to book our accommodation in Montalcino. Once everything was arranged we got back on the bikes and headed for the town of Bagno Vignoni and the Roman Baths about 15kms away.

The trip out of Pienza was a long fast desent followed by tradional tuscan countryside - rolling hills. We arrived at the Roman Baths, built in the 5th century on top of a natural thermal spring.

We found a nice shady spot to have lunch and chilled out. After about 2 hours we hit the road again.

The next 5kms were pretty hard going, it was still really hot and we were climbing to the small town of Castigliano d'Orcia. Once at the top we enjoyed a very fast 10km desent. From the botton we again started climibing - this time to our final destination of Montalcino. The climb took us about on hour but due to the heat it felt more like 2.

Once in town we found our hotel and checked in.

After freshening up we went for a walk around town. We visited the 14th century fortress - surprisingly the building is still all standing (apart from the centre area).

We purchased a small bottle of Brunello (famed wine of the region) while looking for a place for dinner. This turned out to be a lenghtly process as Jay was reading the map upside down - to cut a long story short we went to the bottom of town when we should have gone to the top of town - actually only abut 10 metres from where we actually started (who gives a map to a chic anyways!?)

Montalcino to Siena

I am not sure what to say here as we both have very different opinions on this ride.

The day started nicely with a long desent out of town. From there our enjoyment levels started to vary.

Cam loved the terrain and the views from the many HIGH ridges we climbed. One of the main highlights was the visit to Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore - a 14th century Monastry still in use today.

After a short break to phone home we were back in the saddle.

The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful - hard hot climbs, short desents, repeated all afternoon.

I really suffered today - the heat and the continuos climibing took their toll. I did not enjoy the day at all (apart from the Abbey).

After finally finding our campground in Siena, no thanks to the Lonely Planet, we set up camp and headed to the pool for a swim.

However, before entering the pool one had to shower, remove shoes, walk through a pond and then pay €1.55 each - only then were you allowed in the pool, which I lasted a total of 7 mins as the water was icy. I mean seriously icy.

Note to self: Don't play chicken with Italian Bugs!! Cam found this out the hard way. Check out Bite day 1 picture.....

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