Italy - Montepulciano (11 Jul 2011)

Woke up slightly later this morning at 9+am and headed for breakfast at 9:50am - in our typical style of rushing for breakfast before it ends at 10am.  

We had lovely soft toast and 3/4 cooked eggs (all DIY style) which was interesting to me because I have never boiled my own eggs in a restaurant before.  There was an apparatus with egg holders and boiling water, so one just has to place the egg in a metal egg holder, dip it in boiling water, and wait.  When one thinks the egg is done, one has to deftly transfer the egg onto a ceramic egg cup, wait for the egg to cool abit, and then either:
(i) (as A demonstrated) crack the top of the egg shell with the back of a metal spoon, peel away the top portion of the egg, sprinkle some pepper/salt on the egg, and then use a small spoon to dip into the egg the same way you'll eat a kiwi, or 
(ii) (as how the couple beside us ate their egg) use a butter knife to slice the top portion of the egg, and then use the half-cooked egg as a bread dip.  
I made a mental note to purchase an egg cup for J when I am back home.  It seemed so much easier to feed him eggs using an egg cup instead of peeling the entire egg and then mincing it up.

After breakfast we went back to our cottage and found that the staff were cleaning the cottage.  I initially wanted to just sit in the living area while they were cleaning up, but the strong stench of bleach literally chased me out.  I was a little unhappy that they used one of our empty plastic bags (which I hung at the edge of a chair) to fill up rubbish.  It was obviously our plastic bag because it was an NTUC plastic bag, and plastic bags are a precious commodity during travels.  Anyway, what's done cannot be undone so I'll just let it be.

We later headed towards the nearby town of Montepulciano.  I think this town is built along a hill, because the streets had never-ending upslopes.  It was definitely some exercise for our calf muscles as we slowly made our way up the streets, and it would be unwise to lose your way (as we did while looking for a particular restaurant) because you'll have to scale the sloping streets more times than you really need to.  

The city centre (Piazza Grande) was a lot quieter than I expected, with the Townhall  (Palazzo Communale) and Cattedrale located next to each other.  I later saw a poster that indicated the Townhall at the city centre was a filming site for the movie Twilight - New Moon.  I'll try to rewatch the movie in future to see if I can identify the place.  

We had lunch at Caffe Poliziano, a cafe established in 1868.  We had a balcony table which overlooked the stunning Tuscany landscape.  I was feeling pretty lethargic by then, and didn't enjoy the scenery as much I would like to.  I was just glad that my spaghetti carbonara wasn't salty and the texture of the spaghetti was just right. A's arrabiatta penne turned out harder than we are used to - tasted a little undercooked.  By now, I am used to expecting Italian food cooked in styles very different from what I am used to back home.  I love Singaporean-styled pizzas (think Hawaiian) and pasta, but here in Italy, they seem to like it all plain (e.g. magherita pizzas and spaghetti pesto, sans meat). 

After lunch, we drove towards Tempio di San Biagio, which was a short driving distance from the town.  I was awed by the sheer size of the temple - I felt so small relative to the temple, and wondered how did men in the past ever manage to build such a huge building.  It must have been a massive job back then.  Having seen quite a number of cathedrals, it made me realize that the Italians of the past must have been a pretty devout group to have spent so much time, labour and finances to not only construct these massive buildings of worship, but to also adorn them with various paintings, statues and carvings.  

This is our final night in the villa, and we again had a great dinner - stuffed vegetables, fusilli with pesto, beef steak and alcoholic parfait for dessert.  However, instead of the usual service staff whom A thinks is very good, a lady waitress replaced him tonight and she was much slower in her service.  Dinner was supposed to start at 8pm but she had yet to finish setting up by 8pm.  We also had to wait about 20min after we were seated before we could order our drinks.  We had our appetizer at about 9pm and dinner only ended at about 10:20pm.  Nevertheless, food was good and the garden ambience was the perfect setting for the dinner.  A very nice way to wrap up our stay at the villa, and also the end of our tour of the Italian countryside.