[Idyllchat] Re: Seeking info on Tuscany South

[Ed Comer]

This past fall my wife and I stayed near Torreneri which is a village 
about ten minutes South of Buenconvento, and about 20 minutes East of 
Montalcino. Over the two week period, we went to Montalcino several 
times, mostly because the view is beautiful, we liked the Blue Grotto 
restaurant (recommended by Rick Steves) and the town is picturesque. 
Buenconvento is the largest town near Montalcino, has the largest 
grocery and several very good restaurants, so you'll probably also go 
there a good bit. You can catch the train there for Rome or Florence, 
which some of our fellow untourists did.

We did not go to Rome. However, we did add a night on  in Venice. If 
I had it to do over I would have made it two nights - one night, with 
us packing to leave in the morning, didn't make for much sightseeing. 
We dropped our car off at the Venice Avis office, which was no 
problem. There was thick traffic only in the last couple of blocks. 
We drove to Siena, which is the largest nearby city and also where 
you pick up your Avis car on the first day. One day we drove to the 
antique market in Arrezo. That was a fun drive at 140kph 
(approximately 90mph). We also drove to the beach on the West coast. 
Driving bothered me at first because I wasn't familiar yet. However, 
each day I relaxed more and soon realized that the Tuscan drivers 
were better drivers than in the USA. They may seem fast or careless, 
but actually they are very, very careful drivers. I never saw an 
accident and the one and only horn that I heard honked, was honked at 
me when I failed to yield properly upon entering a traffic circle.

There is an Internet cafe in Montalcino but (1) its hours are 
strange; (2) every time that we tried they said that their Internet 
connection was down. There is wine bar just outside of Montalcino, 
towards Torreneri, that has a public Internet terminal and one of the 
other Untorists at our apartment successfully used it. You'll find 
Internet cafes few and far between in Tuscany. The Tuscans haven't 
really adopted the modern ways, but isn't that the very reason that 
we went there?

Untour's Harriet will give you great support in Italy - not to worry. 
She is as available or absent, as you may desire.

We have signed up for a stay at SUL TETTO, MONTALCINO in October and 
would love any thoughts- on Montalcino in general- and SUL TETTO in 
particular.

Read my post in the archives that I made around October of this past fall.